Issues when 2 pax have the same name
 

Anyone else encounter AA’s systems breaking on a flight where another pax had the same first + last name ?

Experienced the following today, perhaps exacerbated by the fact the two of us were back to back on the upgrade list.

1. App waitlist showed I had cleared into J when I had not (yet)
2. Signage waitlist would not show either of us as cleared, even when we both eventually did.
3. Upon scanning BP, gate computer said I’d already boarded.
4. FA greeted every other J pax by name, but not us. (This ofc may be her confusion rather than an IT problem, as she seemed to do a double take looking at the manifest).
5. And what I consider the oddest behavior, BP was not marked as TSA Pre despite KTN being attached to my AAdvantage number and working on every other flight (check in agent was able to fix but specifically said the names were the problem)

All’s well that ends well, but I find it very strange that AA IT uses name as an identifier.

Do you both have aadvantage numbers? Very odd.

Somewhat OT, but I come from a family where all the first born males are named after their paternal grandfather. At an extended family reunion, the descendants of my grandfather and three of his cousins (also named like my grandfather) were all on the same plane on the way to the reunion. I think there were 15 people with the same first and last name on the plane. The airline (Olympic Airways, may they rest in peace) handled it perfectly fine.

Yeah, we both had AAdvantage numbers. I don’t know the other guy, but he was at least PPro or higher as he was above me on the upgrade list.

Exactly, that’s the sort of situation that seems like it’d come up every so often. I suppose to be fair in my case, no flights were missed and most of the issues were around complementary upgrades (though TSA pre not being handled properly was very obnoxious). You’d just think AA systems would be better positioned to handle it automatically.

This is often what happens when systems are designed and built without significant input or connection with frontline users.

Mrs. Javabytes has a relatively common first and last name, and at check-in, has been handed the other person’s boarding pass. Fortunately realized it before going through security and check in closed, otherwise I imagine that gets harder to untangle.

My dad and I have the same name and often travel together due to the family business. Only time we ever had any issue was on Qantas. The idiots kept cancelling my ticket EVER SINGLE TIME we checked in, and we had in total about seven flights with them. They literally had to re-instate my ticket at each check in taking almost an hour each time. It was probably 50/50 in terms of agents who knew what was happening and those who looked like we were from another planet because we had the same name and thought we were some how scamming the system.

I've had this happen once (not my original flight, but I switched to it due to a delay, so was already through security), and I didn't ever get the full story, but my conclusion was that they printed his boarding pass and gave it to me, and my boarding pass and gave it to him. As I was late on the flight, I was hopping around seats as better ones became available, and also had an SWU upgrade requested (which subsequently cleared at the gate). Eventually it was "resolved" by having him (low/no status) being pulled off of the aircraft. I was told he was supposed to be on a different flight entirely, but that story doesn't really add up.
You'd think AA would also use a date of birth or something as another identifier, but I guess not.

I've been denied boarding before by this..."you've already boarded", as I was told smugly by the GA.

My reply of "apparently not, because I'm standing in front of you" actually seemed to work. They eventually got me on the aircraft.

All the best, James

And this is how folks just walk on aircraft (talking about that guy who boarded with a photo of a strangers boarding pass).

Not on a flight, but at a hotel. Our family name is extremely rare. About fifteen years ago, brother-in-law and his wife (who live in Canada) asked my husband and me to come to Atlanta where BIL would be performing in a concert (he is a classical musician). We were all staying at the same hotel, two different hotel rooms (obviously). They arrived first, checked in, no problem. We arrived and were told we had no reservation. Impossible. We gave them our name. Our reservation number. The CC under which it was booked. Nothing. It was the middle of the night. We asked to speak to a manager. They said they would call the manager. An hour passed. It seemed they meant they would call the manager in the morning. At that point we realized (meaning I realized) we would have to find another hotel if we were going to salvage the weekend. The next day, after we called a couple times, we got a call back from the manager of the first hotel. He explained that when BIL and SIL checked in, "the system" automatically cancelled our reservation. We figured the FD clerk was the one that did the cancelling, on grounds that it was an extremely rare last name and therefore it must have been an erroneous double booking. When we showed up, no one wanted to confess to the mistake.