psubill78

OK, say my name is "John A Smith Jr"

My mileage account name, and card show John A Smith Jr.

Sometimes the travel agents combine the Smithjr into one, sometimes it is in the middle initial, like John AJR Smith.

I finally got the travel agent to send it over as the full name, and it STILL requires me to call and have it manually added.

I can't be the only person with this problem? How can I fix it? This has happened with Navigant, Expedia and Carlson Wagonlit travel. Actually, you can even add Citicards Thank you network redemption also.

I'm so frustrated, as when they force the number into the reservation, it doesn't allow you to choose E+, etc...

mahasamatman

It all depends on how you set up your account. Your last name could be listed as "A Smith Jr", "Smith Jr", or "Jr".

richmond3121

Or, even... drop the "jr" from MP and your tickets. Save yourself the trouble.

1kBill

My passport has a Jr tacked on to my name. Until I could get the travel agents to drop the Jr from the tickets, I had problems getting .bomb to recognize my itineraries, mileage credits, etc. Once that went away, everybody was happy - especially me.

I have never had a problem with the passport showing Jr and everything else without. Occasionally immigration officers will write it in on the arrival forms.

Suggest dropping Jr wherever/whenever you can.

nzpilot

Wise advice. Matches my experience with a pretty fair amount of overseas travel.....^

noah

I rarely use my middle initial but for some reason my corporate travel system started inserting it into my United reservations. Except they would add it onto my name so .bomb wouldn't recognize me.

Since our corporate travel system uses data from our SAP system, the only solution was to officially "delete" my middle initial from my HR record. Now it works again and United recognizes me again..

tods27

I haven't had any troubles with corp travel agent, but I do have lots of issues with MP Award tickets (OK, it just annoys me - haven't had any real problems). For awards, the name John A Smith is listed as Mr. John A Smith (the Mr. is from MP) and the boarding pass says, Smith JohnAMr. Doesn't look nice and I keep waiting for a clueless TSA agent to tell me it doesn't match. I called once to ask about this and was told "The ticket must match your MP name". Somehow they have no problems with my regularly booked UA.com and TA tickets that leave out the Mr. and my middle initial. Not worth too much of my time, but it is annoying.

freshairborne

I feel your pain. United has been spelling my name wrong for the last 21 years. I've asked them to please change it to the right spelling numerous times, and each time, the response is along the lines of how difficult it would be to redo all the paperwork.

Is really is frustrating since I've been a United pilot the whole time!

Freshairborne

adstockton

I had the same problem recently with Air Canada, when booking through United. My travel agency somehow chopped the last letter off of my first name (so if I was John A Smith Jr, the name on my reservations would be Joh A Smith Jr). I could not use the kiosks to check in for flights, and had to convince the counter agents that I was actually *John*. Strangely, this only happened with Air Canada and only when booking through United (the flights were 10% cheaper this way), but was repeated a number of times.

u600213

Sometimes when the corporate travel agent appends my middle initial to the end of my given name, I cannot request an upgrade online. I can select E+ or exit row just fine and can get the upgrade request by phone either from the robot or a person. This started happening a few months ago. Before then .bomb didn't care.

psubill78

It is a pain in the butt.... the worst part is that it appears correct on United's system, and even when the ticket matches 100% - it still sometimes will not 'match' - the TA may put "Smith Jr" as the last name vs. "Smith" as the last name and a suffix of "Jr"

Rediculous.....

I may try to have them alter my name on the system. Perhaps that will help LOL. There is some comfort knowing it's not just me though

mred

Anyone else notice this happening again since the merger?

I was on the phone for over an hour on Tuesday trying to get it sorted again. Seems someone screwed up the coding of JR in the system during a recent "upgrade". They are aware of the problem and claim to be working on it.

Log in, recognized with status (P), choose itinerary, choose seats, purchase, bounced - system says flyer is not on file.

Crazy frustrating.

I think keeping the JR matters more than ever with the new TSA requirements.

horantj

The name on my passport and Mileage Plus account both have a '4th' tacked on to them.

I never include this in a reservation or my Secure Flight Info and I have never had an issue with TSA or CBP in the US, or a foreign passport control desk.

I also haven't seen any issues with the computer systems WRT upgrades etc...

I think the previous advice of trying to leave the suffix out if possible is still valid.

choster

I, too, have had issues with tickets booked as "Choster, Mrflyertalker" instead of "Choster, Flyertalker" (though not with the also common "Choster, Flyertalkermr"). The last time this happened, I could not check in online or with Mr Chicken (Chickenmr?) because the name on the ticket did not match the name on my MP account. Apparently the system should have rejected it altogether, but the phone agent had "forced" the number to stick. Oddly, my upgrade was processed. The agent typed away furiously for quite a while, maybe two minutes, which gave me the sense he had to re-issue them under the correct name.

On the subject of corrections, CO still has "#1122" as my apartment number, even though I haven't had an apartment number for five years. Evidently, if I blank the field, the system treats it as if I made no change. I suppose it is all right on an academic level as I can see what mailing lists I land on.

ajc1970

I'm a JR too, but my similar issue was because I selected a title ("Mr.") on my united.com profile and then bought a ticket that had a segment operated by CO.

My first name is Andrew, it showed on the Continental boarding pass & manifest as ANDREWMR. Didn't automatically get mileage credit, and when I requested it online, they denied it. Finally, 3 months after the flight, they gave it to me (after I faxed everything to UAMP).