Airlines Changing Software to Allow Hyphenated Names
Sep 24, 2009, 12:49 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,746
Airlines Changing Software to Allow Hyphenated Names
Just booked for a family member with a hyphenated name at continental.com, it accepted it where it had not in the past. I also checked at nwa.com and it was willing to take a hyphen as well.
Presumably for Secure Flight.
Presumably for Secure Flight.
Sep 24, 2009, 1:08 pm
#2
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Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
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Soundex-like technology rendered irrelevant the issue of hyphens in names for systems that used names as some kind of (ineffective) (in)security measure to screen passenger names.
Given that hyphens drop in and out amongst various government ID-issuing-entities/systems (sometimes even within a particular agency/system), this seems to be yet another exercise in futility.
Given that hyphens drop in and out amongst various government ID-issuing-entities/systems (sometimes even within a particular agency/system), this seems to be yet another exercise in futility.
Sep 24, 2009, 9:17 pm
#3
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: MIA
Programs: PC Plat/Amb
Posts: 1,152
Now if they could get rid of the crap software that adds the middle initial to the end of the first name. Nothing like changing a masculine name to a feminine one by adding an "A".
Yes DAL, I'm talking to YOU.
Yes DAL, I'm talking to YOU.
Sep 24, 2009, 9:34 pm
#4
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 5,051
Anybody know what the purpose of the hyphen in a last name is? My wife and I considered a merger of our last names because I think we considered the hyphen hokey. In the end, we just kept our birth names. Oddly, even today, there are people who hear different last names and assume we're unmarried. Kinda dumb, I think. Such people are really in their own universe.
But software doesn't trip us up.
But software doesn't trip us up.
Sep 25, 2009, 1:24 am
#5
Join Date: Dec 2000
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Actually, the airlines did not change any of their sofware (i.e. reservations system).
All they did was modify their web interface (online booking front end) to accept hypens. However, behind the scenes, the hyphen is later coverted to a space. This saves them from having to present a screen to the user with an error message saying that the "-" is not an acceptable character.
So if you entered the following when booking online:
First Name: John-Paul
Last Name: Doe-Smith
It gets converted to DOE SMITH/JOHN PAUL in the airline reservations system (the "-" entered online gets omitted).
All they did was modify their web interface (online booking front end) to accept hypens. However, behind the scenes, the hyphen is later coverted to a space. This saves them from having to present a screen to the user with an error message saying that the "-" is not an acceptable character.
So if you entered the following when booking online:
First Name: John-Paul
Last Name: Doe-Smith
It gets converted to DOE SMITH/JOHN PAUL in the airline reservations system (the "-" entered online gets omitted).
Sep 25, 2009, 2:30 am
#6
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 5,051
Actually, the airlines did not change any of their sofware (i.e. reservations system).
All they did was modify their web interface (online booking front end) to accept hypens. However, behind the scenes, the hyphen is later coverted to a space. This saves them from having to present a screen to the user with an error message saying that the "-" is not an acceptable character.
So if you entered the following when booking online:
First Name: John-Paul
Last Name: Doe-Smith
It gets converted to DOE SMITH/JOHN PAUL in the airline reservations system (the "-" entered online gets omitted).
All they did was modify their web interface (online booking front end) to accept hypens. However, behind the scenes, the hyphen is later coverted to a space. This saves them from having to present a screen to the user with an error message saying that the "-" is not an acceptable character.
So if you entered the following when booking online:
First Name: John-Paul
Last Name: Doe-Smith
It gets converted to DOE SMITH/JOHN PAUL in the airline reservations system (the "-" entered online gets omitted).
Sep 25, 2009, 7:20 am
#7
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: was IAD/DCA, now HSV
Programs: UA AA DL US HH
Posts: 43
Now, what about my younger son? He has no hyphens, but we gave him two middle names, each has 2-6 common diminuitives. He has a do-it-yourself ID confusion kit (269 combinations, including initials or omitting a name!)