rinconmike

I booked some award tickets on partner airline SAS. I had one where I had two seats reserved and on hold. I called back later in the day to purchase it with the miles. It turned out that the first rep did not put my middle name on the ticket just the middle initial. My passport and United profile has my middle name so the second rep said should could not finalize it.

We wound up canceling it and they were able to get the same award saver luckily.

So I looked at another award booking and another one has just my middle initial. This is a return from CPH to EWR (booked as one way). The rep said I might have an issue getting on the plane in CPH since my passport has my full middle name and the ticket is only the middle initial.

I am concerned if we cancel and try to rebook, I will not get it.

Does anyone know if I will have an issue?

thanks,

Mike

WineCountryUA

IME, no
Prior to the recent PreCheck activities, my tickets and passport regularly had this difference and never had an issue (although have never been to CPH). It might be an issue for PreCheck (others have said it isn't) of GlobalEntry, so i corrected the situation in the past year. So, if you don't have PreCheck or GE, I would not worry at all.

rinconmike

thanks. Funny thing is I fly weekly round trip from EWR to SJU and I use Pre-check and do have Global Entry but do not need it for that. The boarding pass always says Last/First Middle Initial. But I book online and my profile does have my middle name in it (not just initial).

However, on this award travel, I booked by calling. I have several bookings as I am trying to get better routes for four of us by doing two and two.

On several of them, it does have me as FIRSTMIDDLE and then Last. Middle is spelled out and not initial. However, on this one itinerary, they put just my middle initial. I am just concerned about getting on the plane in Denmark if their security or anyone will have an issue. I figure customs in Newark will not care what is on the boarding pass once I return.

UA says they cannot change it since it is a partner airline. I will try and call SAS tomorrow and see what they say.

thanks.

Mike

bocastephen

I wouldn't worry about it - my passport and DL has my middle name and my tickets have never included my middle name, domestic or international.

FriendlySkies

Don't worry about it. I've flown tickets with several variations of my name (First and Last, First Middle Initial Last, or First Full Middle Last) and have never had a problem.

Starman

You should have no problem at all. My wife has a far worse problem -- she goes by her middle name, so her tickets, even international, often have LastName/MiddleName whereas her passport says FirstMiddle Last, and yet we've never had a problem even with that, which is far more extreme: her legal first name doesn't even appear on the ticket, but does appear on all her ID.

Recall that the only person who actually gets to compare is the airline CSR who looks at your passport. By the time you get to immigration on the far end, for example, they don't know or care what's on your ticket, as they only see your passport. And the checkin CSR is usually far too busy to wonder if there is a middle initial/middle name mismatch.

cranky1K

I have had immigration agents in some countries ask for my boarding pass on arrival. Even so, never had an issue because of it.

Max Tod

Want to see if any one ever have this happen to them?

United attaches the title to the first name on the ticket. So the ticket for Mr. John Doe, would appear as DOE/JOHNMR.

Any one had issues because of that on international travel?

WineCountryUA

no -- this is a common issue

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...al-ticket.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...-question.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...-e-ticket.html

tods27

For starters, I would ask them to edit the secure flight information to have your correct first name. Secondly, I thought that with the whole name alignment thing, they were allowing changes to tickets. You may want to call back and try again with a different agent.

Darlox

No - this has happened to a ton of people, including myself, since UA's badly-executed change.

Be aware however - you will be unable to check-in online. And you will most likely be unable to check-in at a kiosk, unassisted. When the scanned passport name doesn't match the ticket, it now kicks up a "Your itinerary requires assistance from a United representative" message.

Overseas, expect the agents to have a similar problem. Checking in for my return in SIN, they had to call a supervisor over, and ended up writing "Name Should be: ..." in blue ink on my boarding pass!

Nonetheless, I had no problems boarding any of my flights, nor clearing customs/immigration. But UA really screwed the pooch on this one!

Max Tod

Saw this on the website: "Your title or your middle initial will be attached to your first name on your boarding pass. This is normal and does not need to be changed unless your title or middle initial is incorrect.". I guess its OK.

Very stupid if you ask me. On the same page it says that it MUST MATCH your identification.

Max Tod

Tried three times..... they are willing to change it on their ticket. But my itinerary has LOT Airlines and Turkish Airlines. They can't change those......

WIRunner

Except that I have this problem on Delta and US...

njcommodore

The general OLCI issue isn't related to the name/spelling issues, it has to do with the frequency of the passport being scanned. And on the rare times I have to use a kiosk (or my wife) it hasn't ever been an issue. YMMV.