ashill

It's presumably the missing DOB as much as the missing middle names. (Never mind parent/child: I would be dollars to donuts that there have been multiple, unrelated people named John Smith or Kim Seo-jun on one fight many times, given the number of flights out there.) If the DOBs were in the ticket Alaska saw, the system would presumably be able to tell that they're different passengers. Totally inexcusable on so many levels here: that AA's system and AS's system talk to each other poorly enough that the DOB didn't get transferred, that AS had no way to get in touch with AA, and that the AS gate agent isn't empowered to fix it (even if it involves issuing a new AS ticket and making it right with AA later). But re the OP's comment that the gate agent is god: I don't think a gate agent has ever been empowered to board a passenger without a proper ticket. It seems that, inexcusable as it was, AS did not have a proper ticket: they had to tickets with identical names and no DOB.

Honestly, if the PNR were split, I might think it even more likely to cancel one ticket, as it would look more like a mistaken double booking. But that's my own logic, which probably doesn't have much to do with airline booking systems.

400% of the fare seems like a reasonable starting point in terms of actual justice, but the bumping due to oversales regulation is not relevant. That text specifically refers to

This flight was not oversold; the OP and his son's seats went out empty. So some combination of AS and AA messed up (pardon the inappropriately-clean word) big time, but it wasn't an involuntarily denied boarding situation. I don't know if there's any legally-required compensation beyond a refund of the fare paid; even that may not be legally required in the US since the OP did eventually get to their destination. (And since this is an AA award ticket on AS metal, even a 400% refund is difficult and, to me, not satisfactory: this should be cash paid out, not miles.)

chrisl137

It probably wouldn't have occurred if they'd been able to book with AA miles directly through AS. It sounds like AA failed to forward complete passenger information (middle initials, birth dates) to AS, so they looked like the same person with two tickets.

And I have to post the obligatory link to Falsehoods Programmers Believe about Names that anyone who puts together a system that accepts names should have tattooed to their arms.

Baker421

This is what we do, too, after an almost identical situation happened with BA years ago. Splitting PNRs is not necessary (although it does also fix the problem). Just squish together first and middle names of one person in the first name space when booking. A check in agent actually told me about this trick, which is of course counterintuitive when the airlines are constantly screaming at us that names on IDs must match exactly the names on the boarding cards or we will be denied boarding. Jetblue encourages you to use the Sr/Jr option, which I've also done without issue, even though Sr/Jr are not included on the relevant IDs.

RG1X

Yup. I've got no middle name, so I assume that I'd have to have my documents changed to Jr. if I was in this situation. What happens when I get old? Am I allowed to become Sr.?

zsalya_fly

I completely agree with all the comments that it's daft that the airlines couldn't somehow cope.
It shows bad process design, whether inside a computer program or not.

However, for aspiring parents, may I suggest that you minimise the risk of this and similar problems by ensuring that children have different first names, and different initials, from parents (and siblings).
We have neighbours (in Europe) both with initial J, who have given both their children names starting with J - they presumably think it's cute - I think it's asking for trouble.
Oh, and that the initials don't spell anything undesirable - E.g. Andrew Simon Smith is not a good idea.
Admittedly the parents of one of my friends born in the 1960s were hardly to know that PDF would acquire a meaning later...

Putting the father's first name as the middle name of the child is one option (baked into the Russian language, and common in parts of certain other cultures)
Looking from outside America, and certain royal families, the Sr.Jr, and I II III IV just seems so unnecessary.

david55

Kudos to you JMHarvey.

Your original post outlining the frustration and disappointment of your experience is really well written and without any anger we see in so many other "rants". Even with a touch of humor which I would have lost the moment I couldn't check-in.

Thank you for sharing your experience and I hope that you and your son make it home soon....you certainly earned it.

chrisl137

And don't pick names that are very long either - nothing over maybe 6 letters max for both first and last. I have a fairly long name (first and last) for an anglophone and it continues to cause problems, even in an age where a few extra bytes to store more characters is essentially free. I can't imagine the pain some immigrants I know from India go through with computer systems. The only positive (sometimes) about my name is that it still appears to be unique among the 8 billion-ish people on the planet.

bchandler02

My dad doesn't fly much, so I've never had that issue - but being a "Jr" - I can relate. It is a total PITA all across the board.
Parents need to stop this crap. If you can't come up with an original name, maybe don't have kids?

notquiteaff

Yes, with a court order

eqeqeqx

Should have thought about that before you insisted your boy should have the same name as you, is all I can say.

Oh, and also this: I am considering naming my next dog the same as my ex-wife ("Sit <ex-wife>!" has an undeniable pleasant ring to it), but at least there is very little chance both my dog and my ex-wife will be travelling together on the same airplane.

Detroiter

I'm not sure whether this was in my NW or DL days, but I would enter my name as "Detroiter Esquire" (my actual first and middle initials, if not my actual names), and the system would squish it together as "DetroiterEsquire" on my boarding pass. Never had any problems at the ticket counter or security.

VegasGambler

No way. Some names are just way too common. Even for a small airline like AS, two people with the same name on the same flight has to happen at least a few times a month.

Actually the fact that they have never flown AS before is kind of the point. You and I know what the inside of an Alaska plane looks like. Someone who has flown enough to be familiar with all the different classes of service, but never on AS, might think that they are actually getting premium economy. This would be a very reasonable assumption.

ashill

Then how about, instead of phrasing it in a way "Oh man..." that, to me and apparently others, read as pejorative towards the original poster, you said "FYI, Alaska's "Premium Class" is not a true premium economy like many airlines have on widebodies which primarily serve intercontinental flights; true premium economy having seats that are very similar to typical two-class domestic first class seats on North American airlines, including Alaska. Instead, it is a regular coach seat with a few inches extra leg room and some complimentary alcoholic beverages, akin to United's Economy Plus or American's Main Cabin Extra with a misleading marketing name."

VegasGambler

I don't see how it could possibly be interpreted that way

notquiteaff

And the OP may very well have been aware of what they were getting given the quotes around “upgrade” in their post, just not the product name that Alaska is using for it.