Ticketed name incorrect?
Jun 29, 2015, 1:55 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2014
Location: London
Programs: Now BAEC Brown, fallen from 10 yrs BAEC Gold; Oyster 60+ Travelcard
Posts: 89
Ticketed name incorrect?
I booked for four of us to spend the Christmas weekend in Zagreb. One of our guests has a double barrelled (foreign) name. When booking on line I left a space between his two surnames but in the subsequent confirmation the space had disappeared, merging his surnames and also removing the capital first letter of the second surname. Not wanting to see him denied boarding on Christmas Eve, I telephoned the EC Blue line for clarification (getting through in under 5 mins which was a miracle in itself). The helpful lady assured me it would not be a problem and that the merging of names seemed to be a system issue, which she explained sometimes happens with longer names.
I am not sure I am entirely convinced and wonder whether the collective expertise available on the forum can put my mind at ease.
I am not sure I am entirely convinced and wonder whether the collective expertise available on the forum can put my mind at ease.
Jun 29, 2015, 2:00 am
#3
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: LHR/LGW
Programs: DL Gold, CO Silver
Posts: 1,036
Be at ease - not an issue. Spaces tend to disappear in the name field. Some people have surnames so long that the end of the surname won't fit in the name field and that doesn't cause problems either.
(I do have to wonder what the point of calling BA was though if you weren't going to believe them anyway )
(I do have to wonder what the point of calling BA was though if you weren't going to believe them anyway )
Jun 29, 2015, 2:18 am
#7
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: E14, LON
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Just to confirm - I have a double barreled surname with a hyphen, normally the hyphen disappears and it becomes one word (and without a capital letter on the second part) - never had a problem with it
Jun 29, 2015, 2:28 am
#8
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Ipswich
Posts: 7,543
Presumably they called BA to get the name corrected. Instead they were told it wasn't a problem. Seems fair enough to me to double check that as it sounds a bit unlikely unless you've come across it before.
Jun 29, 2015, 2:59 am
#10
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Feb 2010
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Another "don't worry about it" from me.
It's something of an urban myth that bookings need to exactly line up with passports, they don't - not even Ryanair is that bothered about it these days. So long as the ticket name broadly identifies the passenger, that's good enough. The point I always make is that only a minority of the planet uses the Western alphabet / Latin script, so most people have to transliterate their spellings, and there is no common system for doing this. Consequently there can be no consistency.
It's helpful if the Advance Passenger Information is correct - and this can be slightly different from the booking name (Jon / Jonathan for example), but most countries allow some variations there too. Croatia isn't fully part of APIS data exchange anyway, they just gets the headline data and I can't imagine they do much with it. Returning to the UK there is full APIS but minor differences there won't stop you flying, it's not exactly hi tech. It's more important to get the passport number and expiry date correct.
It's something of an urban myth that bookings need to exactly line up with passports, they don't - not even Ryanair is that bothered about it these days. So long as the ticket name broadly identifies the passenger, that's good enough. The point I always make is that only a minority of the planet uses the Western alphabet / Latin script, so most people have to transliterate their spellings, and there is no common system for doing this. Consequently there can be no consistency.
It's helpful if the Advance Passenger Information is correct - and this can be slightly different from the booking name (Jon / Jonathan for example), but most countries allow some variations there too. Croatia isn't fully part of APIS data exchange anyway, they just gets the headline data and I can't imagine they do much with it. Returning to the UK there is full APIS but minor differences there won't stop you flying, it's not exactly hi tech. It's more important to get the passport number and expiry date correct.
Jun 29, 2015, 4:02 am
#12
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Thames Valley
Programs: BAEC, LHM&M, and even a dusty KLFB!
Posts: 894
Indeed - I have colleagues with Dutch names (van xxxx) and Spanish ones (xxxx yyyy) who all end up losing their spaces or hyphens in bookings. And even African colleagues where different names seem to quite cheerfully permute around their bookings in a variety of orders.
The biggest challenge is working out what will be accepted by a website's Manage My Booking function to be able to access the booking (space/hyphen or no space...). Different airlines seem to do that differently. But actually travelling on the bookings is no problem...
The biggest challenge is working out what will be accepted by a website's Manage My Booking function to be able to access the booking (space/hyphen or no space...). Different airlines seem to do that differently. But actually travelling on the bookings is no problem...
Jun 29, 2015, 4:07 am
#13
Join Date: Aug 2014
Posts: 2,659
Yeah its to do with the way names are formatted in the reservation system. I believe its actually done as a space saving measure as there are only limited number of characters available for a name.
Jun 29, 2015, 5:33 am
#14
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2014
Location: London
Programs: Now BAEC Brown, fallen from 10 yrs BAEC Gold; Oyster 60+ Travelcard
Posts: 89
I would like to thank all contributors for educating me and setting my mind at rest that our Christmas visit will be for 4 rather than 3 in Zagreb and 1 at Heathrow!
Jun 29, 2015, 12:14 pm
#15
Join Date: Feb 2013
Programs: BAEC Silver
Posts: 190
Not to disagree with the above and I am sure the OP can have their mind at rest in this case, but the only related comment I would make is that I had to queue through check-in and security twice at Chicago the other day, because the abbreviation on the boarding card did not exactly match my passport - basically the printed card only had room for surname and first initial (long surname), and the TSA agent sent me back to the BA desk to get a (paper) printed itinerary showing my full name, and would not accept evidence of emailed confirmation on my phone or anything else.
I guess just a cautionary note that for US (even if not Europe), it is worth taking something with correctly spelt name on paper for the local authorities, even if the ticketed name format is not an issue for the airline.
I guess just a cautionary note that for US (even if not Europe), it is worth taking something with correctly spelt name on paper for the local authorities, even if the ticketed name format is not an issue for the airline.