FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Can’t check in due to incorrect first name

Apr 8, 2022 | 3:56 pm

#11

JAXBA

Join Date: Mar 2009

Location: JAX

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Posts: 3,755

Quote:

Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave

Is Louise actually a middle name? If so then in future travel just leave it out, it would hardly stand out as much. But I still think that this is perfectly fine for check in purposes. Is there no way she can do some sort of online check-in? It's just bonkers because almost certainly the travel agent can insert the spaces but by the time it gets through GDS they will get removed.

JAXBA any comments?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anonba

Dont even think this is an error it just happens sometimes with long names unless they actually entered miss as part of the first name instead of title.

To space or not to space, that is the question. And yes, some GDS flavours or airlines automatically remove any spaces anyway- for example UA: I could enter LAST NAME III/FIRST MIDDLE MISS in Amadeus and see that in the Amadeus PNR - but the UA PNR, and Amadeus issued ticket, will show LASTNAMEIII/FIRSTMIDDLEMISS. No spaces for UA. Ever.

The PNR in the OP should have been perfectly fine, with any variation of:
LASTNAME/CLAIRELOUISEMISS
LASTNAME/CLAIRELOUISE MISS
LASTNAME/CLAIRE LOUISE MISS
LASTNAME/CLAIRE MISS
LASTNAME/CLAIREMISS
LASTNAME/CLAIRE

Hopefully it wasn't literally LASTNAME/MISSCLAIRELOUISE as that really would have been wrong.

It all comes down to airlines having limited fields to store name information:

$LASTNAME
$FIRSTNAME

…which are always paired and stored as LASTNAME/FIRSTNAME

The bare minimum data needed for these fields are those values from the passport/ID. The simpler the better.

If someone really wants to enter LASTNAMEJUNIOR/FIRSTMIDDLETHIRD TITLE they can, but it really isn't needed and can cause problems. The extra stuff can go in $SSRDOCS which is where Advance Passenger Information goes (immigration, US secure flight, etc.) and looks like:

SRDOCSBAHK1-----01AUG82-M--LASTNAME-FIRST-MIDDLES

or, with passport:

SRDOCSBAHK1-P-GBR-123459789-GBR-01AUG82-M-01JAN30-LASTNAME-FIRST-MIDDLES

…and ALL of this is sent to the airlines and immigration authorities as:

$SSRDOCS/$LASTNAME/$FIRSTNAME

Quote:

Originally Posted by thatmikereed

The salutation should be dropped, but FirstMiddle is otherwise common. ANA, in fact, requires it if using a middle name.

CX is another airline that require the middle name, and they want it in the $FIRSTNAME field. Awkward, as BA doesn't usually collect it…Even if it is stored within $SSRDOCS in a profile, Amadeus doesn't use that data to populate $FIRSTNAME.

Salutations are fine, and really don't affect anything (as long as not entered before the names).

I actually prefer seeing titles; it's more courteous, and staff know whether to address you as Mr. Reed, Mx. Reed, Dr. Reed or Sir Mike... (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...d-mr-evil.html)

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