Originally Posted by
kered
Just to throw a spanner in the works here, after all the “up to 3 errors are allowed” reassurances.
Some years ago, my wife, before she was my wife, spelled her surname with one “T” whereas the more common spelling of the name was with two “T’s”. She was travelling DL from SNN to ATL, but her ticket was issued spelling her surname with two “T’s”
The hassle she got at the pre check-in security check was fairly serious & it looked for a while like she wasn’t going to be let fly. However after the officer consulted with his supervisor, she was let fly. They also put a note in her booking, to try to avoid similar issues on the return.
But again, at check-in at ATL, the issue reared it’s ugly head again, despite the note in the booking. In the end she did get to fly home, but not without hassle.
So I don’t know, in my one & only experience of a spelling mistake, it sure caused trouble & that was only with one little let
ter
I wonder if at check-in at ATL they tried to pull up your wife's ticketed itinerary with a passport swipe first. Besides that and getting the FFP number in for mileage credit/benefits without having to do a workaround (e.g., claim missing mileage credit after flight), I've not seen a situation where a passenger was denied travel for merely this kind of reason.
Sounds like what you experienced was an issue with airline-retained security/contractor who is just pushing to validate that identity-related games are not being played and that this won't bite them on the backside.
End result (as usual): allowed to fly.