ericw

Since about 3-4 months ago, I noticed that I am not longer able to add my TK FFP to AC reservations by AC phone/social media agents. Each time, I was told by AC agents that they received error msg "name mismatch". This is regardless AC 014, UA 016 or tickets issued by other airlines. The workaround for AP tickets (adding to OAL FF info section) no longer works either - same error msg.

At the airport, although the AC agents can add TK #, it won't show up on the BP - neither the # nor *G status and I get Zone 5 each time. The funny thing is that when I check in with AC for an AC/UA interline ticket, AC legs will show Zone 5 and no FFP, and UA leg will show TK# and status on AC-issued BP.

Is it possible that AC is blocking my TK FFP? Anyone else used TK FFP on AC flights recently?

This is extremely frustrating because my name already gets mistakenly flagged for DHP and I have to check in at the AC counter each time whenever an AC segment is involved (UA/NZ cannot even check me in on AC leg).

Stranger

Odds are there is a mismatch somewhere.

ericw

Tifosi

I haven't flown AC in about seven weeks but it was fine for me on five different AC flights in November.

canadiancow

I feel like this was discussed already, but sometime in the last year or so, AC added name matching.

Previously, anyone could throw any *G number on the PNR and receive full *G benefits.

Now, it does a name match.

So if it stopped working 3-4 months ago, it's likely because whatever's in TK's system doesn't match your ticket.

UA does not do name matching, which is why you have no issues with them.

24left

OP's post 39 in his thread

AC secrect “travel ban” for middle eastern frequent flyers?

ericw

Yes, this *G benefit issue first appeared last October - at that time I thought it was some "side effect" of the DHP flag. Now after multiple AC segments on multiple tickets issued by different airlines, it appears the rejection of my TK# is somewhat unrelated to DHP.
Thanks guys for confirming that TK still works with AC and the name matching thing is new.
I guess I will submit a ticket to AC.
Thanks a lot!

Adam Smith

I guess UA doesn't have the same problems with people using their fathers' SE numbers...

ericw

OK, after many back and forth with AC and TK and troubleshooting with a bunch of FFP #s , it seemed the problem was on the TK side (sorry AC) - albeit a weird one:

I registered my TK# years ago in Title Case "Eric Wxxxxxx". For some weird reason, the letter i is stored as unicode u0130 (LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I WITH DOT ABOVE), instead of u0069 in TK's back end system that is linked to *A. TK.com shows Eric or ERIC fine. Only when I copied & pasted my name from TK's support email to a unicode translator did I notice the discrepancy.
That's why AC was saying "name mismatch"...

The lesson is - always CAPITALIZE your name when registering.

24left

Thanks for the update. Also interesting.

State of Trance

Were you able to find a solution with TK? I also have a couple of "i" present in my name, and am wondering if I will run into the same issue. AC app shows my FFP number fine as XXXXXXXXXG, presuming the G at the end is for *G, however AC.com does not show any FFP and will not allow me to add it either.

EDIT: Did some more reading, and it seems like dotted versus dotless "i" is probably due to the way the Turkish language handles these letters as distinct (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dotted_and_dotless_I). E.g. İ is the capital version of i, and I is the capital version of ı. Will report back with my experience in a few weeks.

ericw

You will be probably fine if your name has always been capitalized in TK FFP.

AC systems have always been hit and miss and inconsistent in showing FFP among AC.com Manage my booking, Seat Selection Tool and AC app.


EDIT: thanks for the wikipedia page - I suspected that and now I am confident that's the root cause.

State of Trance

I saw your other topic as well, and decided to change my TK FFP to ALL CAPS, so hopefully that eliminates any ambiguity. I was curious so I searched around some more and it seems like the Turkish I problem is a real issue for programmers that breaks many applications (Internationalizing Turkish: Dotted and Dotless Turkish Letter "I"). Really interesting case.

Do you also have "i" present in your surname as well? My TK correspondence always seems to address me as First Middle LAST. I wonder if that also affects how TK reports names to *A.

ericw

Luckily no - but i guess it would have been problematic too.
Even before TK changing my name to capitalized, I only saw regular i and I on TK.com in my profile. I never knew what AC saw would be different.

State of Trance

Interesting. How did you find out exactly that TK was sending a different letter set to *A?

Did you have any issues with receiving priority boarding and baggage or lounge access from AC by presenting your physical *G card even if the BP didn't reflect it?