I purchased an itinerary PDX-YVR-FRA from Lufthansa with the PDX-YVR leg on Air Canada (Jazz) and the YVR-FRA on LH. (Return was on AC all the way.) On the LH web site, when you purchase a ticket, you can choose multiple titles (Herr Doktor Professor etc.). I let my vanity get the better of me and chose both "Mr" and "Dr". When I showed up at PDX to board my first flight, the agent could not generate a boarding pass for me. It seems that what happens behind the scenes is that two tickets are created, one by LH and one by AC. The two tickets are then merged, which I assume is what allows the money to flow from LH to AC. In my case, the tickets wouldn't merge, because the AC computer system interpreted the title "MrDr" as a middle name. This did not match my middle name. And no one at either AC or LH could change the names on the ticket. I was denied boarding!

Do you think AC should offer me some compensation for this? Has anyone else had this experience? In my opinion, this is a failure of the AC software engineers to properly handle the complexity of the Lufthansa ticketing system. It certainly reveals a weakness in the coordination within the Star Alliance. Their lack of accommodation is especially surprising as this was a business class ticket.

After many hours on the phone with LH, I was eventually booked on UA PDX-IAD (red-eye) with a 7 hour layover and then IAD-FRA. I arrived at my destination one day late. I talked to AC while I was in Europe because I was concerned about the return flights. They blamed the agent at PDX who, they said, was not an AC employee. In FRA, they assured me, the AC agent is an employee and will be able to handle the problem. Nonetheless, on the return leg, it took 40 minutes to get my boarding pass.

Thus far, AC has refused to offer me any compensation. Until they do, I will be taking my business elsewhere. It's a shame, because I used to quite enjoy flying to Asia from YVR in AC business class.

Moral of the story: Just use "Mr" as your title!