Hi there,

I bought a ticket for a friend with egyptair to New York. I have spend all my money on it, but after booking it on expedia i found out that i had used the first and middle name of my friend instead of firstname + lastname. This means that there is no spelling error, though i am worried about the missing lastname. All names are mentioned on his passport and he DOES have a visa to enter the USA (no ESTA visawaiverprogram).

Expedia just tells me to cancel the ticket and re-issue a new one, which means i basically lose the whole ticket fare price!!!! Egyptair is not really consistent with their answers since they first said it isnt any problem at all as long as his firstname and middle name are at least spelled correctly. A second person from Egyptair told me that he would not be allowed to travel if his ticket does not exactly match his passport...

By the way, is it true that for security purpose (including TSA) that the airline actually stores his personal information in another database than the information that is actually reflected on the eticket/boardingpass??

Could anyone help me and advise me what I should do? I dont want my friend to be stuck at the airport, but i cant really afford to pay for a whole new ticket! Please help me and thank you so very much for your response!!!