Although my eight-letter last name gets misspelled all the damn time, I don't remember it ever happening until the travel agent for a conference did just that for an international itinerary in early February. I advised them of the mistake within hours of the booking, but then the TA didn't cancel for free and rebook and instead added remarks to the reservation about the typo. A super-helpful 1K rep confirmed the remarks and said that I would be fine as long as I checked in at the airport and was also able to get me E+ seating, but then I'll have to do another airport check in with the other airline (BT). And, of course, I can't apply PlusPoints with 1K status behind them. And I'd have to request MP credit afterwards.

The travel agent said she couldn't cancel and rebook the flight anymore--but when I look at the booking in United's app and select the cancel option, it says I'd get credit for what appears to be the full value of the flight. If I remember correctly, flight credits on TA bookings have to be handled by the original TA (I had one such credit from early 2020 expire), but then would the credit still be attached to the incorrect version of my last name? Or could somebody at United fix that, since it wouldn't be entangled with the OAL segments?