Originally Posted by
N615HL
ok...what your saying is I can put one thing Such as Bob Smith at the top (which will be used for boarding pass) as long as I put Robert John Smith at the bottom (which will be used for secure flight) ?
You could, but my recommendation (and what I do), is to put "Robert Smith" on top and "Robert John Smith" at the bottom. There's no point in going out of your way to use a nickname.
Originally Posted by
yts_8181
So it looks like Continental allows me to update the info that is sent to TSA for SecureFlight verification, but not the one for the reservation.
Exactly.
Why is Continental is so hardline about changing the name on the reservation? Obviously they don't want people transferring tickets to others, but this is more of a 'correction'...surely they would correct minor misspellings on the ticket. I brought this up to them but they just said "It's policy".
It depends on the airline. Some, like Delta, have specific policies for how much of a change is considered a "misspelling". For the most part, the reason they don't allow the change is that it's
not needed: as a practical matter, most people don't have problems with it, so the airline doesn't want to spend the time making the change (and it's not the just the reservation that has to be changed: the electronic ticket has to be reissued, so it's a lot of work).
So I think what we will do is to get to the airport extra early that day and try to check in and get a boarding pass from the ticket agent.
I'd strongly recommend
not doing the latter! Check in normally (online if possible, otherwise at the kiosk). There's no point in dealing with more people than you have to. Do arrive at the airport early, just in case, but then proceed as normal. Most likely, TDC will process it as normal (perhaps with a "warning"). Second most likely is a selectee designation. It's very
unlikely you'll be asked to get a new boarding pass. If that happens, only
then go talk to a person at an airline check-in counter and get a new boarding pass. The agent will likely be thinking "idiotic TSA" and make the change.