Name slightly differs from passport
 

Hi all,

I've booked some flight tickets for someone and realise his name is slightly different on his passport from the flight tickets. I booked his flights under Alan Cheung but his passport is First Name :Ho-Loon Alan Last Name:Cheung.

Will this cause a problem?

It might. I would make the change to make sure. I have heard of others who ad problems with name matching at security and border crossings.

All the discount Asian travel agencies have this posted on their counters about name correctness and they are not responsible for any errors or reticketing charges once paper tickets are issued. The always recommend that ticket holder's passport and they copy the name letter for letter.

That is why with ethnic Chinese you need to make sure what is the legal form of their name is, whether it is just a phonetic translation or a given name.
This not only apply to travel documents/tickets but many other legal transactions (banking, property ownership, wedding certificate etc etc)

Think I'll take the risk. Worse case scenario is to pay £80 for the name change.

I have had far worse problems with how travel agents spelled my name on tickets and never had a problem (in several countries). Two things to be aware of:

1. He should have his reservation number (passenger record locator, etc.; airline names for this vary, but it's usually a six-character code) and be ready to offer it if the check-in agent can't find his reservation by his name.

2. He may not get automatic frequent flyer credit if the name on the ticket doesn't match the name associated with his FF number in the airline's database. In that case, he will have to request retroactive credit after the flight.

Neither of these will prevent him from getting a boarding pass, clearing security, or flying.

This depends on what parts of the world Mr. Cheung's itinerary includes. In many countries, and on most airlines, it is usually no problem at all.

If his itinerary involves the US in any way, it will be a problem because their regulations regarding passenger names have become extremely strict.

Shouldn't be a problem. My FF program has the wrong name and I can't seem to change it. Every time I book a ticket which is about 6 times a year, it has the wrong name transfered to the ticket from my FF.

Always fine.

FYI, they print "Matt Hudski" and not "Matthew Hudski" as in my password. And my last trip from the UK to NYC had the wrong name on the ticket.

Then again, you might not be as lucky?

Absolutely get this changed. If it's a problem, it can cause hours or days of delays. It's essential with names originally in non-English character set that they be booked exactly, as to every space, hyphen and the like as their name appears in their passport.

Again, this applies in the US.

Elsewhere, not so much.

Last year a travel agent made a 1 letter mistake in my name on the ticket. He had my correct name given in the remarks column of the e-ticket. Travelled to France and Switzerland and used Air France and Swiss.

Thankfully there was no problem.

My most recent "no problems" experience with misspellings was in the second half of 2010 and included four departures from U.S. airports, three of them with full security screening. Other departures on that trip were in India, Singapore and Japan.