Livyer

A federal agency will be paying my flight from SLC-YOW in a few weeks. Said agency insisted I book through the travel agency they booked with. After a few emails back and forth with the agent, they booked me on UA from SLC to YOW and AC back home to YYT after.

When the agent sent me the itinerary, I checked only that the flight numbers were the ones we agreed on. Two days later, I noticed the name on the ticket did not match my Passport and AP account (my first name is missing, and my given name is misspelled (e.g., Liyver instead of Livyer).

I emailed the agent, who responded

"I just talked to Max at United Airlines and he documented your file with the correct name. They can’t reissue the ticket, because of the Air Canada flights. He said it will not be a problem."

Two questions:

1. Should I trust this? It bugs me as I will be crossing the border back into Canada.
2. Will this affect crediting to my AP account (which was added to the file later, according to the agent)?

This has never happened to me before - I almost always book my own travel. I hope I don't have to ask the agency to book another ticket, but I am doing about 100 hours of volunteer work for them.

Thanks in advance for any advice. I searched old threads, but didn't find anything dealing with this issue (quite a bit on AP accounts not matching passports, though).

Phoenixtinct

If they did indeed note your PNR, you should be OK to travel. It's obvious that the yv and vy was a typo. In terms of crediting to Aeroplan, that is another matter. Since United appeared to be willing to re-issue the ticket but couldn't because of the AC flights, you may want to get in touch with them as well to see what can be done in this case and if crediting will be a problem.

bizorbetter

when you say your first name is missing do you mean there is only a single name?

Or that you travel with a middle name as well and that is there? If that is the case prolly not a big deal just say you go by that name. If it's a single last misspelled name only then you will have a problem

As far as AP credit just make sure the AP# on the ticket is correct

Livyer

Let's say my name is "Prefix Livyer Suffix" (on my passport and Aeroplan account). Most people call me Livyer (not Prefix).

The ticket says "Liyver Suffix".

djjaguar64

Its ok, slight mismatch, I mean as long as it was not:

Mr. Liyver became Mr. Liver
or
Mr. Livyer became Mr. Liver

you are fine with that note on file. Call UA just to make sure there is a note.

bizorbetter

It shouldn't be an issue .......BTW the note on your UA file will help with check in but will have nothing to do with C and I.......if they ask just say that's the name you go by

CanadianConnection33

I have had something similar happen in the past.

You should be able to travel without any problem.

Keep all your boarding passess if you want your aeroplan / status segmeants as these will not likely post. You will probably have to manually submit to aeroplan.

FlyerJF

It is interesting to note that my son recently encountered a minor inconvenience when he was stopped at the YYZ US imigration for a bit, after about 10 min. of document examination and questioning, he was allowed through. His full first name as noted on all travel documents is Jonathan. He was travelling to the U.S. with his school team where he is known as Jon. The team booked all of the tickets as a group, his ticket was issued to Jon with a properly spelled last name. He is a Nexus holder. Eventually after the questioning, he was given a warning that all airlines tickets must be booked using the exact name as per the passport or the next border agent may not be so "nice".

No questions or issues at all coming back into Canada.

I kind of went: "REALLY?" when I heard the story so I told him, next time, regardless of what your school mates do, use the Nexus machine to eliminate the human factor.

In other words, it is probably not a big deal but be prepared to answer questions.

Stranger

TA made a mistake. Any way he/she can claim it's your fault?

Obviously canceling the ticket and issuing a new one with proper name will entail losing some money, which the TA wants to avoid.

Given that it's not your TA but one forced on you, i see no reason to go out of my way to be nice with someone who makes that type of mistake. What will happen if you just refuse that ticket? Basically "you don't want to take a chance with US immigration blah..."

Talk to the agency that pays and see what they have to say.

If they keep getting away with being sloppy, they will never be under pressure to become more careful.

flyquiet

mr. flyquiet had to manually submit BPs for flights because Aeroplan card was in his casual name (e.g., Billy) and his passport and tickets match legal name (e.g., William). Credits were delayed and had to be done manually but not a problem otherwise. He requested revised Aeroplan name to avoid in future. Thanks to FT, he discovered that he had to manually submit flights during a fairly extended transition period as well. It wasn't fixed by simply fixing the name.
I really find the Jon/Jonathan nitpick to be over the top. It's not like he was going through as "Nathan" from the other half of the full name or even the diminutive "Jack". The name was not different, just truncated. Potential over-literal interpretation is what makes me nervous about whether my middle initial is on it or not, whether it was left off by me or by the boarding pass system. Border agents: scary.

EdwardLee

To be honest with you, Max at United has correctly done the right thing. The problem is AC. They are a strange airline.

If there are 10 AC employees...........
1 will cheerily tell you they'll leave a note so you won't have any further issues
6 will notice but simply won't care and let you fly
2 will be so bored that they won't notice at all
1 will be a real dragon and announce you can't fly and to call your travel agent.

The Canadian Border Services will be nice and the TSA will be nice. Just watch out for the dragon.

Whenever I deal with these AC dragons I always demand to see a supervisor and then take the dragons picture with my phone. That will usually go right up and get them more angry than normal.

AC has a large number of these employees, they hate the company, hate the bosses, hate the travellers, hate the job, hate me, hate you and really hate when I take their picture with a promise of a follow up letter to HQ.

Livyer

As the ticket involved AC flights as well as UA, and not trusting the TA, I called the AC SE line today. There was nothing in their files for the AC flights (including AP# and it took a while, but they (told me they) sorted it out, and I'm okay for the AC flights. The guy said to call UA. I think I will double check what the TA told me, to be safe.

Thanks all for the useful suggestions.

bizorbetter

This is an excellent point ..... i assume however that OP would rather not stir the pot with the TA unless really needed....... as i'm sure the TA will go to the ticket payer with the "what a PITA' attitude

Having said that if that is not an issue with OP then i would do what the above poster suggests as i'm sure you will travel more relaxed

GUWonder

Checking in online while providing the correct passport details has ordinarily been helpful in such situations to minimize the likelihood of an airline rep making a fuss for no good reason under such circumstances. I almost always have someone in my travel parties that has some kind of "name" "issue", and it is almost never an insurmountable issue for us making our flights on time.

This is a routine kind of ordinary situation for CBSA and CBP.

winnipegrev

Taking note of their name is one thing (they do wear tags), taking a picture of them is crossing the line IMHO.