Name Too long (Air China)
 

Hello,

Trying to book a domestic flight in China. Air China, via Trip.com.

My name is too long for Trip.com however. According to Trip I can just write my middle name as an initial (probably).

Below is how my name* looks on passport:

Last name/Surname:
Silver

Given Names:
Long John


I am worried I'm gonna mess this up somehow, so I wanted to check if anyone with long names got any experience with Air China?


*not my actual name

Welcome to FlyerTalk!

My partner's name is 23 letters in total, which I thought was a long name, but it fits fine into Trip.com so yours must be even longer! So I don't have the firm answer, but I can say that the Chinese often get very confused about western names - I once travelled on a Chinese bus ticket for [middle initial] [first name], and nobody objected that it didn't match my passport. So I would guess you will be ok, particularly if that's what Trip.com recommends. Air China generally doesn't try to rip you off at every opportunity, compared to some European low-cost carriers that might charge you £200 for a name change in this situation...

You can drop your middle name, no issues at all.

26 characters :)

Thanks for the replies, I decided to just go with my first name and last name, as they are in the passport. Hopefully that'll work out fine.

Chinese-speaking societies don't care much about the middle name, as the Han Chinese don't have middle names.

I usually drop my middle name and rarely have issues. However, the one place I do consistently have issues is in China, whenever I'm flying on a flight departing URC. They are very particular about names that that airport, and while I usually make it through, there is often a lot of hassle involved.

have there been times you didn't?

There is such a lot of conflicting experiences reported on various threads about this issue.