This week's question comes from Sherri and her husband Andrew:

We recently booked airline reservations. We didn't realize that the names on our driver's licenses do not match the names exactly as they appear on the tickets (ie. Andy instead of Andrew, middle initials missing). Will this be a problem at airport check-in/boarding? If so, what do we need to do ahead of time?

This week's question comes from Sherri:

As of yesterday, the traveling public is now allowed to bring loaded handguns into most of our national parks as long as they follow the local state laws (for permits and whatnot). Hunting, however, still is illegal within national parkland, as is discharging your weapon, as is bringing a loaded gun into a visitor’s center, so I’m a little unsure of what this new law is supposed to achieve.

Flying from Canada? Be prepared to spend a ridiculous amount of time going through security. After the underwear bomber on Christmas Day, travelers are paying the price for upgraded security...with their precious time. No doubt that safety is paramount, but are we being fooled into a greater sense of security by a Potemkin village of pat downs, ID checks and inane questions?

My most recent Toronto airport security experience, which culminated with a line of questioning about the book I was carrying on board, leads me to believe that this so-called security is just all for show. Hoping to get some clarification on the new procedures, I went directly to the source, (kindly) asking the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority what the point is behind the theatrics.

When the news broke last week that a flight was diverted due to a suspicious passenger engaged in a prayer ritual, I couldn’t help but remember a trans-continental flight I was on, many years earlier, to Jerusalem. At the time I was a very nervous flyer, the kind who has to stay awake all flight long to make sure “nothing happens.”

It is with heavy hearts that we at the Window Seat have been watching the coverage of the disaster in Haiti. Political instability, economic poverty, and a series of natural disasters have kept many would-be tourists from experiencing the rich culture and beautiful shores of this small country--but this has not kept the travel industry from responding with donations and acts of charity. Here’s how a few travel companies have stepped up to help.

Travelocity: As of Tuesday, 1/19, Travelocity/Sabre Holdings and its employees have already committed $30,000 to relief efforts.

With body scanners certain to become standard security fare in airports following last week’s failed bomb plot, the controversy over their use is heating up, again: are they a necessary step to protect passengers or an intrusive tool stripping passengers’ privacy?

Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, one of the places where the most recent terror suspect cleared security, will have scanners in place in about three weeks, and I, for one, think it’s a good plan. Scanners certainly seem less intrusive than body searches—which is what Amsterdam passengers who skip the scanner will endure—and only scans that are flagged by a computer will advance to human eyes.

Having grown up in Georgia, I was bummed yesterday when I read that Southern states bring up the rear on the list of the happiest places in the U.S. There’s no question in my mind that the South, and particularly my hometown of Atlanta, often get a bum rap when it comes to tourism--and now they’re downers, too?!

I would like to apologize to the friends, family, and strangers about whom I’ve said negative things when you were pickpocketed. I thought that if you'd known everything I know about how to secure wallets, you never would have lost yours. I was wrong.

A pickpocket targeted me in Dubrovnik last month inside a gelato shop (talk about being punished for gluttony!). I was overwhelmed by a desire to get out of the jam-packed store, and when I abandoned all my pocketbook principles in favor of a quick exit, a woman saw her opportunity and grabbed it.

Recently, while I was lying on the beach in front of the Hilton Hawaiian Village, resting up from the Aloha Festivals’ Floral Parade and sucked 100% into a paperback mystery, a man approached me, wallet in hand. “Are you going to be here for awhile,” he inquired.

Startled, I looked at the time. “A little while,” I answered warily.

“Then, would you mind looking after this for a few minutes,” he asked. And with that, he took his wallet and placed it down in the sand right next to my towel.

I looked at it like it was a crawly bug or something else undesirable, and then looked back at him. He had a huge grin on his face as he continued on to say, “I know you won’t take it, darling,” and before I could even open my mouth to reply, he walked away and into the ocean, going in with a show-off dive.