Dear Ladies and Gentlemen of EK Board,

A status-less EK flier comes to you today in a search of advice. I am taking the parental units (The Big Two) in February for a week to MLE, flying RT VIE-DXB-MLE in C. This will be only my second journey on Bling Air. We did fly EK two years ago for a NYE party in Burj, and here we are encountering the same problem as back then.

My father and I share the same first and last names, differing only in suffixes (and maybe a DOB ). We are traveling on the same PNR. Two years ago, during the NYE trip to DXB, I tried to OLCI. It did not work, because the EK system could not save our passport numbers. When I entered mine, the system deleted father's, and vice versa. A vicious circle. I remember quite vividly waiting at the check-in counters both in VIE and DXB for 90+ minutes while the agents reworked our booking, so that they could issue the boarding passes.

This time, surprise surprise, EK's manage-my-booking feature is not letting me save the passport numbers, once again. The same vicious circle.

Many years ago, OS used to have the same problem. However, even then, there was a workaround. We were told to enter MR (Mister) and MAST (Master). And it worked. Now, I tried this with the EK. And failed.

So, dear EK experts, any advice? As a status-less flier, I tried calling the general UK contact centre number multiple times, but I have received no useful aid (and what I did receive were responses in a very "specific" English by someone located deep in the bowels of India).

I would very much like to avoid those prolonged waits at the check-in counters while the agents keep congregating around one screen, having no clue what to do. All your advices will be highly appreciated!

Thank you !