Misspelled first name
 

Hi folks, hopefully i am posting in the correct forum as Royal Jordanian is now part of OWA. Flying out of O'Hare to Amman to Riyadh (saudi Arabia). Just got the e-ticket issued today from my agent and my first name has one letter off. My name is Ammar Bhutta and it is spelled as Anmar Bhutta so basically instead of two mm's in the first name the ticket has it as Anmar. Called the airline and the said first it would not be a problem and second nothing can be done as the ticket has been issued. Called up TSA and the lady asked me to talk to the state department :) as it involves ID's. Any way no one in state was able to help me, i am not worried about the airline as more headache when i return back to the US from Saudi Arabia. I am worried about immigration on the way back, i am a permanent resident but my passport is from Pakistan. So i guess being in early 30's, from Pakistan, visiting Saudi Arabia I am destined for extra scrutiny (which i don't mind) but my question is if this name spelling will be an issue?

any one please?

I would be requiring your agent to rectify the problem at their cost - given it is seemingly their mistake
or otherwise provide you with a full indemnity in the event that it does cause you any problems.

Should be a simple matter of cancelling the original ticket and re-booking another one.

I agree with moa999. Try to get it changed. It shouldn't be too difficult to do this.

if it was easy or even possible would have done it, the airlines told me they don't have a problem with misspelling but to have it corrected ask your agent to cancel and issue a new ticket. Per the agent the ticket is non-refundable, even if they try to do it with penality it would be around $300 just for peanlity or if they cancel then rebooking would be at the new rate which is about $200 more than the orginal rate i got.

Sometime last year, my last name was misspelled. It ends -sen; the ticket was -son. It was an international ticket. It was clearly the error of the airline; they said it would not be a problem and didn't reissue. And it wasn't. Now, this was before the beefed up ID checks, but the airlines seemed to think that one or two letters different wasn't a problem.

I had something similar happen to me twice.
One i cought the problem early enough, called the agent and he had it changed without any issue - since it was an error and not a different person. The agent also told me it was his responsibility because he made the mistake. So clearly i would insist that the agent correchts his mistake. I would also threaten him that - in case somebody catches it and you are not allowed to fly and have to buy a last minute ticket - you would hold him liable for any additional costs.

Second time i did not catch the error until after i boarded. Nobody noticed a missing letter in my first name before. The risk is that the airline sees it when you check in or the passport check at security find it. Unlikely with such a small mistake, but possible. Not sure what happens then.

Why should US immigration be a problem? Are they looking at your ticket?

The agents problem - they stuffed up, it is their problem to sort it out. If their is a penalty involved, they get to wear it.

Dave
(a former travel agent)