Dave Noble

with all the aeroplanes, I thought that they were a transportation business

They should , imo, stick to whatever the policy is for a situation unless there is a very good overriding reason why a policy should be excepted. Exceptions should be a rarity rather than what seems too often to be an expectation. If there is an issue with a policy, then that should be addressed at a policy level rather than agents making policy up on the fly

Dave

androobe

How about Type 3... the one's that support AA when they feel they are right (eg: when AA refuses compensation due to a passenger arriving late, or due to weather delays), but they supports the OP when the policy is completely unreasonable.

Even Michael O'Leary of Ryanair only charges a EUR/GBP10 ($15) fee to change a name if it is actually the same person, but GBP100($150) if it is a different person. From a very unreasonable man, that seems fair.

For AA to charge $150 to change a name when it is the same person travelling is not reasonable. Yes, they could travel under their maiden name or could have booked the ticket under their married name, but a $150 change fee. A better policy would be to refuse the name change and advise the passenger to bring sufficient evidence of name change to the airport, if their photo ID name has changed?

Alternatively, the most they can justify is their telephone booking fee - because in this case the charge should be to cover their costs of making the change, not to make an additional profit on someone who has already agreed which services they want to use, and at an agreed price. Some in this forum have argued that it should be charged because a new ticket has to be issued, so don't they think to charge a ticket issuing fee rather than a change fee would be a fair price?

ZeppoX

OK, so the OP has legally changed the last name. Or at least, the wording in the post sounds like it.

TSA requires that name on ticket and ID match.

Isn't it also illegal to use false ID for any purpose, including passing through airport security?

If so, the OP has no choice but to change the name on the ticket. Using the old ID would be illegal.
As well, the airline has no choice but to make the change.

As they did for me, with no fee, when the TSA rule that ticketed and ID name must match went into effect. AA changed my ticket from first initial, middle name to first name middle initial with nary a mention of a change fee.
Rightly so -- it was a legal requirement to make the change. Not like I had a choice.

And as has been posted in this thread by knowedgeable people, CS supervisors know how to make a change without the fee. Of course they do, because AA defines situations in which the fee does not apply. I would think a change of legal name is one of them.

TrojanHorse

although I do not know this for a fact, that doesn't seem to stop anyone else from posting on here; so I will say this

As written above I infer the poster saying that it costs AA $150 to make a change; I don't think it costs AA $150 to make a change to a ticket in 99.5% of the instances however AA does state there is a $150 change fee to the pax which is common knowledge at least on FT

JDiver

I am quoting this again because it seems not everybody reads "upstream" and this is pretty useful information.

Particularly in post-September 11 days, there is less flexibility on behalf of the authorities, so mismatches are definitely a problem. Now, given that a ticket change is made with a name change, whether it is AA or another airline, the OP has several options:

1) Plan ahead - purchase the ticket in the married name, assuring necessary identification changes will be made in time for the flight.

2) Eschew the entire problem by travelling with the maiden name and existing documentation.

3) Hang up when it is obvious the agent will take the unwavering path dictated by "the book" and call again.

4) Pay the $150 and move on, assuming the required identification has name changes as required.

Those are pretty basically the options, notwithstanding our opinions, outrage, posturings and rantings.

Moderator hat on

And negative stereotypings and ad hominem, whether targeted at individuals or groups, are not permitted; such posts will be summarily deleted.

/ Moderator hat off

gemac

Of course, we can discuss whether a policy is a good business decision or not. Whether it is "legitimate" or not depends on which definition of legitimate you use. Under the definition "in accordance with established rules, principles, or standards', my position would be that it is.

My problem is with those launching personal attacks at those who disagree with them, calling them "unfeeling", a "piece of work", etc. I don't think that this tactic advances the discussion. In fact, personal attacks are against Flyertalk rules, although this type of personal attack seems to be routinely allowed.

Even though we might think that AA would be better off to allow this particular change gratis, that doesn't particularly help the OP (who seems to have resolved this issue in their case), or others who will face this problem (and at least one has posted in this thread). For those others, the best way to handle this is helpful information. It is unfortunate that providing that information makes the providers subject to personal attack.

Personally, I am in agreement with almost all FT members - I think AA can establish any rule they want, as long as they always make an exception for me.

controller1

IMO, you have misinterpreted the TSA rule. The TSA rule states that the ID and the TSA Secure Flight data must match. AA has opted to implement this rule by making the ticket, Secure Flight data, and ID match. Other airlines (CO) have not adopted this approach and only require the Secure Flight data and ID match.

I still travel on CO with only my middle name/last name on the ticket. However, the Secure Flight data that I've provided to CO, who in turn supplies it to TSA, has first name/middle name/last name on it so as to match my government supplied ID in accordance with the TSA rule.


UPDATE: From the TSA website FAQs:
If the name printed on my boarding pass is different than what appears on my government ID, will I still be able to fly?

Secure Flight is a behind-the-scenes process that TSA and airlines collaborate on to compare the information you provide against government watch lists. The additional data elements that you may be asked to provide, such as date of birth and gender, serve to better differentiate you from individuals on the government watch lists.

Due to differences in boarding pass systems, boarding passes may not always display the exact name you provided when booking your travel. The name you provide when booking your travel is used to perform the watch list matching before a boarding pass is ever issued, so small differences between the passenger's ID and the passenger name printed on the boarding pass, such as the use of a middle initial instead of a full middle name or no middle name/initial at all, or hyphens and apostrophes should not cause a problem for the passenger.

Dallas49er

+1

"There's no crying in baseball!"-Jimmy Duggin in "A League of Their Own".

Perhaps it's the time of year.

swag

The days when a fee served to compensate the airline for actual costs incurred are long past. There's a reason the AA systems are programmed to charge a fee here, and it's got nothing to do with the manpower required. And in this case, when the name change on the ticket is merely to keep it in sync with the person's legal name, the fee is not justified.

sica4

Agreed, I don't think you'll find an FTer arguing AA shouldn't be more consistent in general.

I think their policy should state 'in the result of a legal name change tickets can be modified to reflect the new, legal name by sending in supporting documentation blah, blah, blah'

Bukhara

Suggest you check this again if there is the remotest chance you will be asking Ryanair to do this for you. All name changes at least GBP100 (E/USD150-ish) regardless. If you use the Ryanair OLCI, you can't make changes at all - and bear in mind that Ryanair OLCI opens something like 15 days before departure which is before the time most people realise there is a name mismatch with their ticket and passport.

That said, USD150 is a pretty steep fee. At BA, we take enough grief for charging GBP30 for a name correction. It's justifiable to charge an admin fee for this task of changing a name and reissuing the eticket, but there aren't even many lawyers that will charge this much for a task that shouldn't be much longer than 6 minutes.

RogerD408

This situation reminds me of a situation I had years ago with my home warranty... I had a leak with the connection to my washer, when I called it in I called it a faucet and the CSR stated they don't cover faucets. When I further described the problem the CSR said, oh, that's a valve and we cover valves!

Moral of the story? Maybe what is being discussed here is an "update" to a PRN and not a "change". The AA CSR should have disclosed the fee upfront if s/he felt it was required, failure to do so I think is a real issue. The OP then at least would have had the choice to continue or not. Having to call back and spend another 30 minutes to undo what should not have been done is another issue that AA should be able to address.

oklAAhoma

I have no idea if "most of us FTers" choose LCCs over AA when buying for family and friends, but I can say for certain that all of us do not.

Agreed. If the agent did not disclose the fee before completing the transaction, it was very poor customer service.

Change "should" to "will" and I agree.

I was thinking the same thing.

Spoil sport.

This is one of those rare times in which I don't completely agree with vasantn. Would it have been a nice gesture for the agent to issue the change without the fee? Sure, and certainly the fee should have been disclosed ahead of time. But... I don't agree that AA was wrong, or wrong-headed, for insisting on collecting the fee. The change was not necessary and travel was unaffected when the OP decided against making the change, so why does it matter whether or not the favor was granted?

brp

When my wife and I married she kept her name. Neither of us were aware of any need to change her name. Perhaps the rules are different where you are. AFAIK, the change of name is voluntary, so bringing that up as justification for anything is irrelevant to this discussion.

On the one hand, we have poor planning by the OP. That's pretty obvious as booking a ticket under the wrong name could have easily been avoided. This is before any discussion of airline policy. Clear planning screw-up.

As noted, though, it doesn't actually cost AA $150 to change a ticket even though that is the fee. I do think that exceptions should be made in certain circumstances- and we all know that they can be made. Yes, they have a policy in place and are justified in that regard, but they really are in a customer service business, as noted, and not just pure transportation- they do have competitors. And,yes, they are in the business of making a profit...but I really think that the cases of exceptions such as this are not frequent enough to cause a serious decrease in revenue.

While I'm not generally one to reward poor planning, as happened in this case, I really do think that name changes like this (and mistyping a name when it is the same person ) should have no fee...or, at least, one that is substantially reduced.

Cheers.

androobe

It's not published on their website, but a family member of mine one needed to correct a name due to a spelling error they made during the booking. A quick google search will reveal many stories where people wanted to change the name due to either a spelling error or legal name change, and all quote a £10 change fee. For AA to come below Ryanair in customer service for ANYTHING is very worrying, I used to fly Ryanair a couple of times a month, but after an unrelated issue I vowed never to fly again since last August, and so far I haven't.