Hi everyone,

So I am flying later this month to Chile and next month to Peru from Australia.

I found out that my travel agent booked my flight with my first name (John Paul) and last name (Smith) order mixed up. So right now my first name is (Smith) and last name is (John Paul). In my passport, the order is Smith John Paul which is exactly what will be issued on the ticket so I was wondering if that is fine?

Cos apparently in my passport, there is a category underneath the picture page which actually separates your name into Smith << John < Paul< with the surname having 2 << to it.

I acknowledge that it was my fault for not checking the order of my name with the travel agent before signing off. The travel agent is quoting me a fee in excess of $1,400 (due to the peak hour travel period and the category of my ticket) to change my name etc.

As I am a student and do not have that amount of money, I just wanted to check if I were to wing it and just try my luck, do you guys reckon I will be fine? Or should I just try pay up the $1,400 and go with a piece of mind?

Really appreciate any advices, thank you for taking the time in reading!

Welcome to FT!

This has happened to me and to many others. Do not worry. You will be fine.

The only hitch you may run into is that you may have to tell an airline agent to look for your record under your first name, not your last. That may add fifteen whole seconds to your check-in process if the agent is slow.

Thank you for your welcome and prompt reply!

Well, my travel agent is pretty adamant that it is going to restrict me from entry to South America's countries so I was wondering if your experience pertain to SA's countries too?

Will the airport border security at the other end stop me?

Thank you so much for your help!

Don't worry, you'll be fine. Your travel agent is talking nonsense.

i have never been to SA, however, i have on two occasions had a name screw up.

i bought a ticket with my credit card for my mother's travel. got my name on the ticket. gave her a letter explaining. she never had to use it.

the second one, i put my first wife's name on the ticket. called united, and they sent a letter somewhere, and i ended up with the second wife(and not a happy wife) this was for a trip iAd-ath. no big deal

first, call the issuing airline. then check back with us, we have a lot of solutions for this problem.

I can't be certain, because I don't save all my old boarding passes - but I've been to South America 6-8 times (mostly Chile, also Brazil and Ecuador) plus Central America as well, so it probably happened there too. In my experience, airport security are more reasonable in South America than in the U.S.