I got an award ticket for my wife that is likely to have a mistake in the Surname (family name). She is Russian and needs to have a new passport issued. How the Russian ministry responsible for issuing the passport transliterates the name from Russian to English is unpredictable. So there are likely to be possible discrepancies from the way the name is spelled in the reservation for the award ticket.

We are flying Air France from Moscow to the US via CDG. AF claim they cannot change the name on the ticket. The only way would be to re-issue the ticket, and there is no guarantee the seat would be available. (and we would not know the exact spelling to use until we get the new passport in any case).

I read that IATA has a rule that a discrepancy of up to 3 letters in the name is acceptable. But the agent at AF said that does not apply to tickets to the US because of TSA and/or Homeland Security require them to transmit the names of passengers ahead of time. So we would be denied boarding if my wife's name in the passport did not match the name they transmitted (from the reservation). (in any case my wife will have a visa in the new passport issued by the US embassy showing the name on the passport).

Perhaps someone here can help me answer a few questions:

1. Can anybody confirm if what AF says is true (that they are bound by US rules to deny boarding to anybody if there is even 1 letter discrepany in the name).

2. If not, can anybody point me to the exact IATA rules on this, preferably and exact quote or a link to an official site? In case at the airport we have a problem, it would be good to have a real copy of the rules.

3. And again, assuming point #1 above is not true, are the airlines obligated to follow IATA rules, or can they openly say "we dont follow that IATA rule"?

Thanks for your help...
Ron