sdsearch

I presume, then, that the only case where an exact match may be required is with certain optional "faster through security" protocols, such as USA's TSA's preCheck? I've heard of lots of cases where people weren't getting preCheck on their boarding passes when they did stuff like drop or abbreviate middle names (that they had included on other documents), and then they started getting preCheck on their boarding passes much more regularly once they got their names to match exactly. (This was in the era when preCheck was issued to elites of certain airlines by invitation, before it became possible to explicitly apply for preCheck or get preCheck through another related sign-up service like Global Entry or NEXUS, and when there were active threads in those airline forums about preCheck obtained through that particular airline.)

Kagehitokiri

always funny when they claim it has to match passport if it does not have to match

similar to not needing appointment at US passport agency, when it claims you do

wallyi

An aside: I fly ANA regularly and like it. However, their website profile program will not accept my (foreign) name, an annoyance. My passport names are one letter too many (just one middle name). Hence, I have to book a flight on the ANA website as a non-member (or be charged more to call ANA) and then call them to plug my ANA number into my reservation so it will show up on my website account. I wonder if this is a problem unique to ANA. More than once I've registered my complaint because it simply doesn't take into account the realities of non-Japanese names. Maybe by the 2020 Olympics.

sdsearch

If you have to book United, make sure to have a few spare letters for your first name. In my experience, they awkardly add a salutation, as in LASTNAME/MRFIRSTNAME (yes, no space between MR and FIRSTNAME! ). Yet I didn't have heard of any airline / airport (on the receiving end of such a name mash-up) having a problem with that.

LondonElite

I get this all the time with many airlines.