RickA63

Hello,

I have a trip to Japan coming up in a month or so and for the longest time, I was unable to enter my info on the JAL site/app and retrieve my itinerary. I just brushed it off reading a bunch of other people having similar issues. However, I started down the rabbit hole of whether or not to include your middle name and how most people who put a middle name needed to smash their first and middle names together in order to make it work. I knew I hadn't used my middle name, but I started fiddling around with different combinations anyway...

Eventually, on a whim, I discovered why I couldn't retrieve my itinerary... my first name and last name are reversed. My first/last names are very obvious to a native English speaker, the equivalent of something like.. Richard Allingham. Due to the Japanese naming convention, this looks 100% normal on all the ticket info and the only reason I caught it is due to the itinerary retrieval boxes explicitly stating first/last name and comparing to other family members. Mine says Mr. Richard Allingham, theirs all say Mr/Mrs Allingham Karlea.

So, with my first/last name mixed up AND missing my middle name which is on my passport, I've been growing more paranoid by the minute. My thought is that I should have little to no issue on the native English side of the world, it looks "normal" to have Mr. Richard Allingham. However, I'm especially worried on the Japan side of things.

I'm going to try to call at 5am tomorrow and see if this can be corrected and hopefully not have to rebook, but I would love some words of advice/encouragement to mull over.

Thanks for you help.

Updates:
9-5-23- Called first thing in the morning to the USA line and was immediately connected with someone. I explained my situation and they asked some verifying info (name, flight date, reservation number) and, once they verified, asked me to read the name from my passport. After reading it out, they said I also needed to add my middle name. I was then told to visit the JAL website and use the e-mail service there to use the "submit documents" category and use my reservation number as the subject and to put that I was requesting a name correction in the body of the e-mail. I was told that I would then receive a response e-mail with further instructions and would likely be responding to that e-mail with passport information (the impression I got was a picture or scan.) Once I had sent that information, I should call again. I did as requested and received an automated reply letting me know the e-mail was received and that they would get back to me. Currently waiting on the e-mail that should be requesting further information from me.

9-6-23- Nothing to update. The JAL website lists that there are a large number of e-mails and to please be patient, so I'm just trying (and failing) not to think about it too much. Hopefully I'll get the e-mail soon.
9-7-23- Still waiting on the e-mail.
9-8-23- The wait continues.
9-9-23- My sadness grows.

9-10-23- I received the e-mail! Unfortunately it says, "We couldn't name correction for the ticket if your reservation include other airlines." Guess I'll be calling them tomorrow to see whats up.

9-11-23- I called first thing and once again they answered fairly quickly, only a 10 minute wait. I spoke with 3 different people this time as they transferred me around to the various departments. I asked my questions to the representative and she informed me that the reason the name change couldn't be done was due to all of the seats in my fare class had been sold out and there needed to be the same class available to do the name correction. I asked if talking with Alaska would help anything, but she said it wouldn't make a difference. Ultimately, it sounds like my only options are to get a refund of the taxes which is around 800$ of the 1300$ ticket OR to risk it and just go and hope I don't get denied. I'm going to take a day to think about it, but I'm likely going to get the refund and book a flight on a different airline as this is about 1/3 of the price of rebooking with JAL.

9-27-23- Called a little later and had a 20 minute wait. Spoke with rep and requested to cancel my ticket. After a short hold I was told I would be getting a full refund, which is conflicting with what I was told previously, but will be awesome if true. As for the trip, I booked a cheaper flight with United as seats on the JAL flight, if I were to rebook, are now over double in price.

11-8-23- Received a full refund.

CPH-Flyer

That is a bit of a pickle. Did you book direct with JAL? You would need to contact your booking agent and get a name change. The caveat is if it is only a domestic flight, ID is generally not checked and you'll be fine. International, you probably do need to get it fixed.

RickA63

Yes I booked directly through their website. I was able to get through on the phone with practically zero wait time this morning so that's a good start. They are walking me step by step through some things so we'll see how it ends up and I'll keep the thread updated for any future visitors.

The full itinerary is a connecting flight from my town to Seattle and then Seattle to Tokyo. On the way back its Tokyo to LA then LA to my town. So it has domestic and international flights.

CPH-Flyer

Domestic Japan flights has no ID checks, domestic US still meets the scrutiny of the TSA.

bobbytables

This is a very very common mixup in east Asia (due to local name order being the reverse of the typical name order elsewhere) and you should have no problem getting the name fixed at no charge.

As someone who previously had four names, I have had computer systems and booking agents in Japan and China produce, I think, every possible permutation of name order. I was always able to get it fixed with a call — occasionally I didn’t notice until at the airport and still had no issues.

RickA63

Haven't gotten much further in the process, at the moment just waiting on a e-mail from them with instructions, but it sounds like I'll be sending them a pic of my passport to verify the name before they'll change it. The person on the phone was a little difficult to understand but the impression I have so far is that with the passport pic, they'll just change it. We shall see.

RickA63

So.. I did get the e-mail today, unfortunately it sounds like I'm about to watch some money disappear...

"The name on your international ticket must be the same as the name on your passport.
For security reasons, you cannot board an international flight
if the name on the ticket is different from the passport.

We couldn't name correction for the ticket if your reservation include other airlines.

In that case, you need to cancel your reservation and
purchase a new ticket with the correct name.
*cancellation charge will be applied.

Please contact our reservation center as follows."

I'll give them a call tomorrow and see what a cancellation charge costs me. Hopefully it isn't too bad but man, this is rough for swapping first and last names...

• Does that sound right that they cannot name correct because the flights are on different airlines? Its AA and JAL but I booked straight through the JAL website so that seems odd.
• Second, would I have any luck if I were to offer to go to my airport's AA desk and see if they can change my name for their flights and just have JAL do their own?
• Third, is there any way to know what the cancellation charge will be? I see people mentioning different fare categories, but I'm not sure what mine is or if that would determine the cost?
• Fourth, I'm flying over with my family and would really like to keep my seats.. what are the odds that happens?

Thanks to anyone reading and/or able to answer any of these questions. I'll probably have all the answers to these questions tomorrow morning when I call, but would still like your guy's thoughts in the mean-time. Appreciate it.

JALPak

JAL MMB page should show the fare rules if you booked via JAL website. For the cheaper tickets, cancellation is not allowed.

RickA63

If its not allowed, but it needs to happen, does that mean I just lost all my money for swapping first and last name?

JALPak

Pretty much if they stick to the fare rules. But I have no idea whether they will strictly follow the fare rules in this case. If the AA legs are the problem, can you split the PNR then reprice it without them, make the name change and then reprice it with the AA legs?

RickA63

I've started looking in to this, but really, even getting to Seattle or LA on my own or through a different airline isn't the problem. Its cheap and/or close. The JAL flight itself, if I were to rebook for the same dates, has more than doubled in price (~1300$ to ~$3000.) If they can't work with me, I cannot afford that. I mean heck, even if they credited me 100%, that's an extra 1700$.

It is just killing me that I even have to think about this though. It shouldn't be this stressful just to swap a first and last name. Now, I don't even know if I'll get to go to Japan with my family and I was supposed to be the experienced guide...

It is 100% my mistake in putting the names in the wrong order, but that it cannot be fixed because it involves multiple airlines, mind you the airlines they put me on booking directly through the JAL website, and therefore the only option is to pay 3000$ on top of the 1300$ I'd already paid... seems crazy to me. There's just no way I can afford that.

Anyway, maybe all this worrying will be for nothing. In the morning maybe I'll call, they'll just cancel the ticket and book me a new one with the correct name order, keep the same seats, keep the same price, and all will be good. If not... well.. its too depressing to think about.

JALPak

If your ticket is only $1300, then it isn’t that bad. Fuel surcharge and taxes should be close to half of the total fare? They *may* be able to help keep your lower booking class if they work with inventory control.

RickA63

Yeah, just got off the phone. I can get a 787$ refund, which is at least something, that's "only" 500$ down the drain. Its a bummer but at least not a 1300$ bummer. The lady I spoke with checked to see if any new seats had opened up but it sounds like, on both flights, the cheap seats are all sold out so they cannot do the name change since it'd be giving me the "new" ones for too cheap.

I asked about talking with Alaska directly but she said it wouldn't help due to the fare class stuff.

There are cheaper flights available on the days and around them from other airlines, so I may just end up flying solo and meeting my family there. Not ideal, but I've seen some flights around the 1000$ mark which would be doable since that's only a couple hundred more total after the refund. Super bummer since I had been planning this for a year but I do have some options.

RickA63

I had been waiting to see if any flight cancellations might entitle me to a full refund, but didn't want to leave it to the last minute so, today, I called around 7:40am PST prepared to say RIP to my 500$. Someone answered around 8:00am (including this because I always hear about insane phone wait times and this one was longer that my last two calls but 20 minutes isn't so bad). I THINK this was the same person I talked to when I originally started this process but I cannot understand the name so I can't be certain. I said I needed to cancel my flight and was put on hold for about 7 minutes or so. When the rep returned, she said I would be getting a full refund within 1 to 2 billing cycles. I was very surprised to hear this so I asked again what I would be refunded (I was hoping she would say the dollar amount for absolute confirmation) and she said, again, I would be getting everything back that I had paid for the ticket.

Now, I know my fare is not entitled to the full refund and I know the last person I talked to said I could cancel then for the 787$ (taxes), but if this turns out to be true, that is obviously good news. I'll believe it when the money is in my account but just wanted to give a little update here since I had some good news. I'll post again when everything is truly settled and done but as it stands now, its looking OK.

If anyone cares about what I've done to deal with this, I ended up booking a slightly cheaper flight through United. I won't get to fly with my family, the seats suck compared to the JAL layout, I won't get to experience the hyped food and service, and I'm getting in a little earlier than them at Haneda instead of Narita, but we will still get to have a nice trip to Japan in the end and who knows, maybe I'll meet someone interesting on the flight...

RickA63

As promised, a final update.

I received a full refund from JAL on Nov 8th. The request was made Sept 27th, so it took 43 days. Obviously, I am happy with the eventual outcome.




I had a nice trip, but got sick and had to make some last minute flight changes for the return. That was done instantly and painlessly through the United app. I won't make a blanket statement since its the first time I've flown United, but I was very happy with my experience with them this time.

As a last note, the rest of my family still flew JAL and, much to my frustration, my seats were empty. They never filled them. Oh well. It turned out to be nice for the family member who was going to be sitting next to me, they got to lay down and sleep.