Originally Posted by
merkel_squirkel
Apology for reviving a zombie thread, but looking for recent experience with international flight, partner airlines, and our new COVID world.
Booked UA multi-city reward flight: IAD>AMS on United; AMS>LIS on TAP; LIS>IAD on United.
The issue is that my wife has a professional suffix appended to her last name through United's system, e.g. "Jane Doephd" Of course, this is a United system issue and not a typo or traditional "mistake" on the user end.
She's unable to upload her passport etc. to United because of name mismatch. That seems pretty bad but isn't necessarily a dealbreaker, because passport and COVID documentation could be confirmed at the airport.
UA and TAP phone reps have been pretty unhelpful. Unwilling/unable to correct the name. UA reps put a note in the reservation, so maybe service/gate agents will understand. TAP isn't going to see that, and TAP phone rep is saying this absolutely is going to be a problem, but isn't able to make changes to the booking.
What would you do in my shoes?
a. Roll the dice at the airport? That entails three rolls of the dice on international flights, including one in which TAP thinks boarding will be blocked.
b. Three-way call?
c. Book backup AMS>LIS leg at my loss? That stinks, but then I also wonder if my LIS>IAD leg will be in jeopardy if the intermediate leg of the trip is not boarded.
Would really appreciate anyone's perspective.
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In response to the above, wow. After HUCA with about 7 UA agents and 2 TAP agents passing the buck, the 8th UA agent changed the name to remove the suffix (actually through chat). I believe he had to cancel and re-book the ticket because our seat selections were gone, but that is a very small price to pay for knowing we'll be able to take the flight. I considered deleting my previous message, but I think it is better to keep it and this reply, given that I would expect others to encounter suffix problems and unhlepful agents. I guess my recommendation is to HUCA until you find someone who will change the name.
My friend just had the same exact problem and had it resolved via chat but then had their seat selection removed. The agent also initially asked for additional $ per customer but didn't know why the system did that. Likely because the ticket was reissued to correct the name. They didn't have to pay luckily and actually was able to choose better seats through the chat agent.