Hyphenated name
Mar 9, 2019 | 8:10 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2008
Posts: 70
Hyphenated name
I purchased my mom a ticket on CX a few weeks ago. She has a Chinese first name and in her travel documents, her first name has a hyphen in it. i.e. Abc-Def. When I entered it in the system I entered it as Abc Def since it wouldn't let me enter the hypen at the time of booking. Will this pose an issue for her? Should it have been just run together as AbcDef instead?
Mar 9, 2019 | 10:44 pm
#3
Join Date: Jan 2017
Programs: Cathay Pacific, IHG, Air Astana
Posts: 109
Well, my first and middle names run together on boarding passes, I've noticed.
Also, my surname is two words with a space (though no hyphen) and even when entering the space in an online booking, I end up with the two words of my surname run into one.
If you're worried about the CX warnings regarding consistency of name, my understanding is that these are more to do with people using consistent latinizations of Chinese names, i.e. if travelling on passport using a Hong Kong latinization of a Chinese name (based on Cantonese pronunciation of characters), then use that same spelling in the ticketing and not a name spelling based upon Putonghua pronounciation/ pinyin romanization
Also, my surname is two words with a space (though no hyphen) and even when entering the space in an online booking, I end up with the two words of my surname run into one.
If you're worried about the CX warnings regarding consistency of name, my understanding is that these are more to do with people using consistent latinizations of Chinese names, i.e. if travelling on passport using a Hong Kong latinization of a Chinese name (based on Cantonese pronunciation of characters), then use that same spelling in the ticketing and not a name spelling based upon Putonghua pronounciation/ pinyin romanization
Mar 10, 2019 | 12:17 am
#4
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: WLG
Programs: CX Gold; OZ Diamond;QF;TK
Posts: 207
I have a hyphenated name and it doesn't seem to matter for boarding whether it's Mr Smithjones, or Mr Smith Jones.
Sometimes when claiming miles from other airlines they may query if the boarding pass says Smith Jones and my frequent flyer account is Smithjones.
I also get addressed by cabin crew as Mr Smithjo, which takes a while to get used to, as my full name is too long to print out for whatever system they use.
Sometimes when claiming miles from other airlines they may query if the boarding pass says Smith Jones and my frequent flyer account is Smithjones.
I also get addressed by cabin crew as Mr Smithjo, which takes a while to get used to, as my full name is too long to print out for whatever system they use.
Mar 10, 2019 | 9:28 am
#5
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: LON
Programs: BAEC
Posts: 5,137
This is all a non-issue. The basics of airline booking systems were built many many years ago and their name handling is very very basic and punctuation, spaces and other unusual characters are removed or converted. Provided that the name is on the reservation is recognisable to that in the passport or other ID document then you would be very unlucky to face any problem.
Mar 10, 2019 | 6:01 pm
#6
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: YVR, KUL
Programs: AC, MH, BA, AF-KL
Posts: 3,175
I purchased my mom a ticket on CX a few weeks ago. She has a Chinese first name and in her travel documents, her first name has a hyphen in it. i.e. Abc-Def. When I entered it in the system I entered it as Abc Def since it wouldn't let me enter the hypen at the time of booking. Will this pose an issue for her? Should it have been just run together as AbcDef instead?
Mar 10, 2019 | 11:32 pm
#7
Join Date: Feb 2019
Location: Australia
Programs: QF, KF, CX, HH, SL
Posts: 26
I purchased my mom a ticket on CX a few weeks ago. She has a Chinese first name and in her travel documents, her first name has a hyphen in it. i.e. Abc-Def. When I entered it in the system I entered it as Abc Def since it wouldn't let me enter the hypen at the time of booking. Will this pose an issue for her? Should it have been just run together as AbcDef instead?
CX's & the travel agent's advice to us has been to use Abc Def - they warned us that any other form might render the ticket invalid. Not sure if this advice is correct, but we have always followed this in putting the kids names down and never had a problem (so far anyway!).
Last edited by gobblercat; Mar 10, 2019 at 11:32 pm Reason: Spelling mistake
