US Ticket - Wrong Birth Date
 

I booked a ticket for one of my kids and entered the wrong year for the birthday. 1996 vs 1999. Does this make any difference for US Domestic travel? If if makes a difference can it be corrected online?

I'd give United a call for them to fix it. Also, you should have their MileagePlus number/identifier included in your account - you have signed them up for MP, right?

David

I found this under the Saved Travelers section of the web portal. I corrected the birthday here. Does anyone know if that corrects it for previously purchased tickets?

If you book travel for others, add them to your account to save time during the booking process. Providing information to us means you have obtained permission from the traveler to do so.

To comply with the TSA Secure Flight program, the name, date of birth and gender on your MileagePlus account and flight reservations must exactly match your government-issued ID.

It won't correct it for previously booked tickets, only new ones. Your best bet is to call and ask them to correct it. In my experience there are no practical consequences to it being wrong except that they'll usually lose TSA PreCheck if they were otherwise eligible, but legally it's supposed to be correct. (Having said that, it's been a while since I tried--I suppose it may cause more issues at airports where your ID is checked against the airline data in lieu of the TSA scanning a boarding pass.)

(I seem to recall that it used to be possible to correct it on united.com by pulling up the itinerary, but as best I can tell that functionality is gone now.)

UA will change the birthdate if you call, which you should do in advance of your flight.

Last time I entered an incorrect birth year for a travel companion, they were denied access through TSA because the birthdate mismatched the ID and were instead sent back to the check in counter to have United change the birthdate.
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OTOH I've heard of newborns not running into this problem.
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Thank you for the replies. Major bummer that we can't change this with the website or app.

I didn't realize the birth date was part of the boarding pass information that TSA confirms at the security check point.

Major bummer that you have to dial your phone? I guess that’s an incentive to avoid typos.

It's the hold times that I don't like.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/reach-airline-prepare-wait-hold-hours/story?id=78042240

https://thepointsguy.com/news/airport-call-times/

I think the reason this is becoming a bigger issue now than in the past is that most of the new TSA scanners now scan your ID and not your boarding pass. The new systems match the info on your ID to the airline boarding pass in the system, so a birthday mismatch will flag immediately. In the past, it was only if the agent noticed it when looking at your ID after they scanned the BP - much less likely to flag a concern.

Of course this is part of the boarding pass info. Why do you think you need provide the info every time you buy a ticket? It lets the system perform a check against watchlists, etc. and then TSA matches that you are the same person. I think the system is just now getting tighter with the new ID scanners vs boarding pass scanners.

It's fine. Don't call. Won't be a problem.

David

A single Shares entry of 4 keystrokes plus last name/first will bring up a window to correct TSA data once you are checked in or checking in. Equally as easy for the agent to do using the GUI.

Is that something we can do with the online check-in offered with the web portal or app?

I saw someone get sent back to the ticketing counter because of this last month. Earlier in a summer a co-worker couldn't figure out why he didn't have Pre on his boarding pass, found out after the fact that when the company booked his ticket they screwed up his birthdate, check in agent caught it on his return leg.

Probably only a ticket agent can do this.

No you can't do it via website/app, but very easy for TA/Airline and these is hardly any restriction to change it.
A quick call will fix it.