Apr 19, 2016, 4:36 am
Last edit by: Prospero
Trivial name differences - first and last names without middle name, blending of middle or Latin style names, etc. should not cause trouble flying, as long as the identification used displays the primary characteristics of the name on the boarding pass / ticket on AA, and on most airlines.
However, Cathay Pacific and some airlines are genuine sticklers and may not make changes at their end. Members have reported challenging times getting fixes for otherwise trivial name issues.
Changing a name on an issued ticket - reissuing the same ticket to another person - will not happen.
Changing a date of birth due to an accidental account entry must be rectified by contact with AA.; you may (or not) be asked to fax supporting documentation. Some other account changes that don’t “stick” (sometimes passport information, etc.) will also have to be called in. Contact for gender changes or issues as well. See here for AAdvantage Account contact form (AAdvantage Customer Service is only open work days 7-7 Central time.) See post #1 for contact phone numbers and aa.com contact form page illustration.
See:
U.S. Department of State: Change or Correct a Passport link
Posts prior to 2016 have been archived, and can be read here.
Signed in members with 90 days / 90 posts can edit this Wikipost. Wiki contents may be printed by using the
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However, Cathay Pacific and some airlines are genuine sticklers and may not make changes at their end. Members have reported challenging times getting fixes for otherwise trivial name issues.
Changing a name on an issued ticket - reissuing the same ticket to another person - will not happen.
Changing a date of birth due to an accidental account entry must be rectified by contact with AA.; you may (or not) be asked to fax supporting documentation. Some other account changes that don’t “stick” (sometimes passport information, etc.) will also have to be called in. Contact for gender changes or issues as well. See here for AAdvantage Account contact form (AAdvantage Customer Service is only open work days 7-7 Central time.) See post #1 for contact phone numbers and aa.com contact form page illustration.
See:
U.S. Department of State: Change or Correct a Passport link
Posts prior to 2016 have been archived, and can be read here.
Signed in members with 90 days / 90 posts can edit this Wikipost. Wiki contents may be printed by using the
(lower right wiki corner)
Name, Gender Difference, Date of Birth, Change, Errors, etc. Account, Ticket, Award
Sep 17, 2016, 5:20 pm
#61
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Flatland
Programs: AA Lifetime Gold 1MM, BA Gold, UA Peon
Posts: 6,111
Some nations allow a third gender or "no gender"or "other" (Bangladesh, Nepal) or "X" (Australia, New Zealand) or "E" (India) so the TSA aren't going to be able to match everyone. Meanwhile, indeed, airline tickets don't show gender and a title is not required. The title could also be "Dr" which gives no clue.
I expect the TSA, unless some officer is particularly officious, will not notice. Running into an obnoxious TSA official is always a small possibility and one tends to have take what they give one (at the time).
(This is clearly the sort of topic that can cause OMNI-level discussion, but let's keep off that).
The FAA ( http://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/m.../AC120-27E.pdf ) gives different weights for men and women but allows an average to be used if gender of passengers is not known. I would frankly be surprised if most airlines are using other than an average passenger weight for all adults and another average weight for all children (who are recorded as such in their ticket). It would only gain them an advantage on a highly female-dominated flight which I do not expect happens very often.
I would expect you could contact AAdvantage and send them a copy of a passport saying "Male" if you wanted them to change the gender they have on record for you. If you have a gender-ambiguous name or one not familiar to Anglo-Saxons (Lakshmi, for example) someone may have made an incorrect assumption somewhere in the past when editing or transferring data.
I expect the TSA, unless some officer is particularly officious, will not notice. Running into an obnoxious TSA official is always a small possibility and one tends to have take what they give one (at the time).
(This is clearly the sort of topic that can cause OMNI-level discussion, but let's keep off that).
The FAA ( http://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/m.../AC120-27E.pdf ) gives different weights for men and women but allows an average to be used if gender of passengers is not known. I would frankly be surprised if most airlines are using other than an average passenger weight for all adults and another average weight for all children (who are recorded as such in their ticket). It would only gain them an advantage on a highly female-dominated flight which I do not expect happens very often.
I would expect you could contact AAdvantage and send them a copy of a passport saying "Male" if you wanted them to change the gender they have on record for you. If you have a gender-ambiguous name or one not familiar to Anglo-Saxons (Lakshmi, for example) someone may have made an incorrect assumption somewhere in the past when editing or transferring data.
Sep 18, 2016, 8:07 am
#62
Join Date: Jun 2016
Location: NYC,MIA,XFL
Programs: AA EXP, B6 Mosaic, DL PM
Posts: 863
If you have precheck - I don't think they'll give it to you if the gender on the ticket doesn't match your trusted traveler profile. If you don't have precheck - the nude-o-scope is set differently for males and females - but that probably goes by appearance anyway.
Sep 20, 2016, 7:34 pm
#63
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: US
Programs: AAdvantage
Posts: 1,753
For domestic flights, not correcting the gender may affect the granting of TSA Pre✓. I've seen it not granted at times because of missing middle names, so it's fair to assume that the wrong gender could also affect the DHS response. A ticket agent can manually correct the Secure Flight data at the airport.
I don't believe TSA officers can see the collected Secure Flight data at their podiums. Granted, I've never taken a particularly close look, but there doesn't appear to be a screen or monitor or anything.
Sep 21, 2016, 6:58 am
#64
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: South Florida
Programs: AA LTG (EXP), Hilton Silver (Dia), Marriott LTP (PP), SPG LTG (P) > MPG LTPP
Posts: 11,329
I booked a ticket a week or two ago to fly in October, and just went to confirm that my KTN was listed.
The reservation shows that I'm listed as female, but my gender has always been male. To make things stranger, my AAdvantage account profile shows female as well. This isn't editable, so there's no way I made a typo when buying the ticket.
Can anyone offer any advice on what to do? My temptation is to ignore it, but I'm concerned that AA might not honor the reservation, or TSA may not let me board.
This is a domestic flight, by the way.
Thanks!
The reservation shows that I'm listed as female, but my gender has always been male. To make things stranger, my AAdvantage account profile shows female as well. This isn't editable, so there's no way I made a typo when buying the ticket.
Can anyone offer any advice on what to do? My temptation is to ignore it, but I'm concerned that AA might not honor the reservation, or TSA may not let me board.
This is a domestic flight, by the way.
Thanks!
Since it's not an editable field, I would your ID to override what they check.
Oct 18, 2016, 3:10 pm
#65
Join Date: Sep 2016
Posts: 245
How much flying have you been doing? AA should have an audit trail of when this was changed and be able to correct it. Most likely an errant change when an AAgent was working with a different customer but still in your account. Trying to fix this may take more work than you'd expect.
Since it's not an editable field, I would your ID to override what they check.
Since it's not an editable field, I would your ID to override what they check.
To answer flatlander's question, I have a relatively common name from the New Testament that's unambiguously male.
Now that I have no AA travel pending, I'll write AAdvantage online and see what happens. Thanks again.
Oct 19, 2016, 8:55 am
#66
Join Date: Jan 2015
Programs: SPG Plat, Marriott Plat, Hilton Diamond, United Premier Silver
Posts: 208
Name Change Policy for O class fare?
I just went over the entire fare rules for O class LAX-YYZ on EF and it does not mention name transfers at all.
Does not state ticket is non-transferable so does it mean ticket is transferable?
If so, what is the fee structure for said name change?
Does not state ticket is non-transferable so does it mean ticket is transferable?
If so, what is the fee structure for said name change?
Oct 19, 2016, 9:36 am
#67
Moderator: American AAdvantage
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2000
Location: NorCal - SMF area
Programs: AA LT Plat; HH LT Diamond, Maître-plongeur des Muccis
Posts: 62,948
NO ticket issued by AA can be reissued for a name change for transfer to another person.
Last edited by JDiver; Oct 19, 2016 at 9:45 am
Nov 3, 2016, 4:15 pm
#68
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Benicia, California, USA
Programs: AA PLT,AS,UA PP,J6,FB,EY,LH,SQ,HH Dmd,Hyatt Glbl,Marriott Plat,IHG Plat,Accor Gold
Posts: 10,820
Help! Wife's AA/ticket name somewhat different from passport: a problem?
Using my wife's AA miles, we have a CX award ticket for next week, flying to China via Hong Kong. The potential problem, which I'd forgotten at the time of booking the tickets, is that her AA account name is somewhat different from her passport name in the following way:
Her AA account name: First name: Joan. Last name: Smith
Her passport name: First name: Joan. Last name: Green Smith (Yes, two words in the last name. "Green" is her maiden name).
FWIW, my ticket and passport name is: First name: John. Last name: Smith
In anyone's experience, is this a potential problem? I'd think that passport control outbound in the USA and in transferring at Hong Kong would see that part of the last name on the passport matches her ticket and not have a problem, but I'm far from certain.
I think, but again am not certain, that it won't be a problem with CX, especially since we might be able to get our boarding passes online. But I can check that at the CX forum.
And if it is a problem, any advice on how to deal with it?
Thanks for any help.
Her AA account name: First name: Joan. Last name: Smith
Her passport name: First name: Joan. Last name: Green Smith (Yes, two words in the last name. "Green" is her maiden name).
FWIW, my ticket and passport name is: First name: John. Last name: Smith
In anyone's experience, is this a potential problem? I'd think that passport control outbound in the USA and in transferring at Hong Kong would see that part of the last name on the passport matches her ticket and not have a problem, but I'm far from certain.
I think, but again am not certain, that it won't be a problem with CX, especially since we might be able to get our boarding passes online. But I can check that at the CX forum.
And if it is a problem, any advice on how to deal with it?
Thanks for any help.
Nov 3, 2016, 4:19 pm
#69
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: US
Programs: AAdvantage
Posts: 1,753
I don't think you would have an issue in the US, as mismatches like this are very common with people who are married.
Can't comment with any certainty on Hong Kong or Cathay's specific policies, though.
You may be able to call in to do a name correction.
Can't comment with any certainty on Hong Kong or Cathay's specific policies, though.
You may be able to call in to do a name correction.
Nov 5, 2016, 5:02 pm
#71
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: SFO
Programs: AA EXP
Posts: 5,270
I think four or five different permutations of my first/middle/last names or initials have appeared on Oneworld carrier tickets. It's never once caused a problem. I assume airline agents and immigration authorities are completely used to this.
Nov 5, 2016, 5:27 pm
#72
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: LAX
Posts: 104
Not the same, but my friends has a two word first names a middle name and a hyphenated last name. Mark Anthony MiddleName Last-Name. Few years ago I used miles for a trip to Europe and AA website would not take his name as it was shown on his passport. So we just entered it as Mark MiddleName Last-name and had no issues at LAX, BRU and FCO.
Nov 5, 2016, 9:33 pm
#74
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2004
Location: DFW/DAL
Programs: AA Lifetime PLT, AS MVPG, HH Diamond, NCL Platinum Plus, MSC Diamond
Posts: 21,422
Have you asked AA to change the name on her account to match her passport, to avoid concerns in the future?
Nov 6, 2016, 8:52 am
#75
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 876
this was quite a few years back when I was still resident in Europe.
A complex itinerary booked by company. The name on the ticket was only initial + surname. Which was very common for inter European flight, never have any problem.
No problem for my LHR - HKG leg. After stopover in HKG 3 nights for meetings.
Got problem to check-in at HKG for HKG-PEK-KIX. Join another colleague at PEK.
Ground staff was not allowed me to check in, after a long conversation with supervisor and so. I needed to sign a declaration that CX would have no liability in case I was denied entry by Chinese immigration (am only transit) and only issued HKG-PEK boarding pass.
When landed at PEK, ground staff from CA was already at the gate and escorted me to their lounge and issued me PEK-KIX boarding pass. And said it was strange CX didn't issue my connecting boarding pass. When she checked in the system, she was almost 100% sure I was from either Europe or US (only initial).
No issue on my return from KIX-HKG-LHR.
A complex itinerary booked by company. The name on the ticket was only initial + surname. Which was very common for inter European flight, never have any problem.
No problem for my LHR - HKG leg. After stopover in HKG 3 nights for meetings.
Got problem to check-in at HKG for HKG-PEK-KIX. Join another colleague at PEK.
Ground staff was not allowed me to check in, after a long conversation with supervisor and so. I needed to sign a declaration that CX would have no liability in case I was denied entry by Chinese immigration (am only transit) and only issued HKG-PEK boarding pass.
When landed at PEK, ground staff from CA was already at the gate and escorted me to their lounge and issued me PEK-KIX boarding pass. And said it was strange CX didn't issue my connecting boarding pass. When she checked in the system, she was almost 100% sure I was from either Europe or US (only initial).
No issue on my return from KIX-HKG-LHR.