Kill the trusted traveler?

Kill it. Kill it now. That’s the consensus of readers when asked what the government should do with its nascent registered traveler program.

Travel pundits had given the plan up for dead last week after authorities revealed it would cost $200 per person to be a “trusted traveler.” But the feds backed off and now it looks as if the program may yet survive.

Or will it? Not if air travelers have something to say about it.

“Even though there may be conveniences associated with the registered traveler program, any move toward handing over too much information about yourself is a slippery slope,” warned reader William Mannino of West Palm Beach, Fla. “I can only imagine what will happen if we make it easy for our beloved government to know anything else about us.”

Another passenger pointed out that the government already has a “registered traveler” program, and it doesn’t work. It’s called the “no-fly” list.

“I am on the list,” said James Moore of Raleigh, NC. “A Southwest Airlines agent gave me forms to fill out to file with the TSA to clear me off the no-fly list. I had to send it a copy of my birth certificate, driver’s license, voter registration card, etc. But I was just just informed by a ticket agent that my name still has to be looked up and I will never be able to get off the list. Big brother has all my info — which did me no good.”

But others suspect that the registered traveler program will become a reality, and will also be mandatory. One reader from Baton Rouge, LA, who asked to remain anonymous, envisioned such a world in the not-too-distant future.

“Instant unemployment for about, oh, half the TSA screeners,” he said. “Diminished status for their managers, because if you’re supervising 10 people instead of 23 at a medium-sized airport, you don’t need to be as highly paid. Probing questions from Congress as to why this couldn’t have been started in, say, 2003 instead of 2007 or 2008.”

I still think the federal government, like any government, has a DNA-level desire to track every citizen. It can say what it wants, posture in front of the cameras and send confusing signals to the press and the public. But at the end of the day, I think it needs the “track every traveler” prog … uh, I mean, “trusted traveler” program.

I sure do hope I’m wrong.

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

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