I have a flight operated by Korean Air from Boston to Seoul that I booked through Virgin Atlantic. I didn't include our middle names in the booking because Virgin specifically says on their site that middle names are not required and last time I added a middle name when booking on a non-US carrier it joined that first and middle name so it looked like FIRSTMIDDLE so I thought it would lead to less confusion if I omit it since Virgin doesn't require it.

Originally I was not concerned, however, although there are many reports of it not being an issue, I did come across one report from 2014 on a travel forum about it being an issue when someone was flying Korean to Seoul from Vietnam. However, I also did look at Korean Reviews on TripAdvisor and could not find one review saying they had an issue with a missing middle name.

I did do a text chat with Virgin Atlantic who confirmed it's no issue, and Korean's site is not clear on if it's an issue or not, I guess if they give me an issue I can show them what it says on Virgin's site and the chat with Virgin's agent and remind them that Virgin is also part of SkyTeam.

Also, we do have Western Names, apparently I am reading there is a difference if you have a Western Name vs an Asian Name?

I would appreciate your thoughts on this and if anyone has more success stories about boarding Korean Air without a middle name, that would be appreciated as well.