Uh-oh! Ava’s airline ticket says “Eva” — is a notation enough?

Not again.

Pearl Castellino’s daughter, Ava, has a ticket with the name “Eva” — a ticket her travel agent admits he misspelled. “I told him to double-check the names,” she remembers. Apparently, he didn’t.

We’ve seen this before. What makes this situation more complex is Secure Flight, the new government program that requires your ticket match the name on your ID.

Will “Eva” be allowed to take her Lufthansa flight from San Francisco to Mumbai?

The agent says yes, and promised to make a notation in the system.

The airline? It wants her to buy a new ticket. According to Castellino,

The airline says that the ticket was a special fare and so they cannot make any name changes. The ticket would have to be reissued. I can’t believe my only recourse is to cancel the existing booking and book on a higher fare just for one spelling mistake on a three-letter name.

I checked with Lufthansa (here’s its FAQ section) and although there’s no mention of changing an individual reservation for a fee, it says group reservations can be fixed for $200. The standard operating procedure among airlines is that when there’s an innocent mistake, a notation can be made for free.

I suggested that Castellino contact Lufthansa again and explain that the ticket didn’t need to be reissued. This time, it sided with her travel agent and agreed that the notation would be sufficient for her to fly.

A happy ending, right?

Maybe. I’m sure Ava will make it to Mumbai. But this is the first time I’ve ever heard of an airline trying to argue that the a discount ticket couldn’t have a notation on it. I realize that airlines limit outright name changes — but notations? Come on.

Are we about to enter an age of super-restricted airline tickets, where even notations for honest mistakes can’t be made without either paying a hefty surcharge or buying a new ticket? I hope not.

(Photo: Anushruti RK/Flickr Creative Commons)

  • http://www.LegacyTravel.com Catherine Banks

    You’re right, Christopher, this is a frequent problem. The guideline most airlines tell us, and that we’ve actually gotten from the TSA, is that a one letter difference where it is clearly the same name is acceptable and does not need to be reissued.

    For instance if Ava’s real first name were Susan, then the ticket would indeed need to be reissued. The airlines will sometimes be friendly and do it just for the reticketing fee. Sometimes they make a person pay for the difference in the fare too. In my opinion, that is uncalled for and bad customer service.

  • http://travelinggiraffe.blogspot.com Crissy

    Maybe instead of the DOT investigating baning peanuts on planes they should look into this issue. If the ticket was issued with a typo and needs to be re-issued for the same person there should be no fee. And if TSA’s policy is 1 letter off they need to make the decision public to minimize confustion and stress. I would not be happy if I was flying out in the first few days of secure flight with a ticket with a one letter issue, there will be someone who didn’t get the message about the one letter off exception.

  • Aaron

    Chris, this article is a bit different than the normal “I misspelled my name, and they won’t fix it without spending a fortune” articles you normally have. What makes this different is that the travel agent admitted he misspelled Ava’s name.

    Therefore, Ava should not have to do anything. She shouldn’t be contacting Lufthansa, her agent should. And if the ticket has to be reissued, at a higher fare, well since the agent screwed up, it should be the agent’s responsibility to fix it.

    I believe most of the TA’s that follow your blog will agree with me on that.

  • Dave

    There is clear need for a DOT regulation here. It should say that in the case of simple and obvious mistakes of a typographic or name/nickname nature, the airlines will be required to correct at very little (maybe $5 – that would certainly cover their costs for 30 seconds of work) or no charge.

  • Charles Lichtenwalner

    I think Aaron nailed this situation. “a ticket her travel agent admits he misspelled” determines where the fault lies and who should do all the work correcting the problem. What does the travel agent charge for if not to provide a service to his client?

  • Denise

    When I booked my husband’s recent ticket on United I was meticulous about ensuring that I had his name right in accordance with the Secure Flight rules. As on his drivers license he was First M. Last, and the United site allowed me to select a title from a dropdown box (Mr, Dr, etc). When we got the e-tickets, every thing looked fine: LAST, FIRST M. MR.

    When I checked him in online and printed his boarding pass I noticed that they messed up his name. On the printed boarding pass his name appeared thus: LAST, FIRSTMMR.

    Now I know and you all know that this is a simple mistake of the forms not keeping enough space between blocks, but we were really worried that some TSA agent who refuses to actually think about how and why the rules are applied would see that his boarding pass doesn’t match his ID and refuse to let him through. How can you do anything about the airlines printing things incorrectly when you’ve done everything right on your end?

  • Tanya

    This is why I love Southwest. I was booking flights for multiple family members and misspelled a name for one individual. I promptly called the airline as soon as I saw the mistake and very helpful customer service agent changed the spelling on the ticket. No fees. No long wait time. And it was with a promotional fare. I understand not being able to change a name, but to charge to fix a misspelling is just another way for the airlines to charge more and offer less.

  • Joe Farrell

    If you go to your reservation on the LH website- and enter the confirmation number – you will find a ‘Enter Secure Flight’ information or some similar reference – you can enter the correct information there – and it will thusly print on your boarding pass no matter what the name is on ticket . , , ,

    Due to the regulation that airlines need to have accurate secure flight information entered separately from the ticket information all of the airlines now have this either before or at checkin – so it is a non-issue now. So we can stop with the sob stories and the mean airlines charging $150 hcange fee to change Joe to Joseph . . . .

  • K

    Denise, that also happened to my mother-in-law last week. She was also flying United, and it looked like this:

    SMITH RUTHEMRS (should have been
    SMITH RUTH E MRS )

    Thank goodness, no problem with TSA.

  • Thalassa

    I’m shocked. A travel agent made a mistake, and not a traveler using an online service?? Wow!

    Seriously, isn’t this the responsibility of the agent? Shouldn’t they have had to buy a new ticket if that had been necessary?

  • Roberto

    The issue here is not that the travel agent refused to fix the issue, it’s that the TA believed that he did fix the issue, but the client wasn’t so sure.

    The TA admitted the mistake and made the notation and considered the matter resolved. The client didn’t want to get stuck in SFO with a worthless ticket to Mumbai, so wanted to be extra careful.

    Also, as frustrating as it is that the airlines lack flexibility with name changes, let me remind you that the whole idea of discounted non-transferable, non-refundable tickets is that you’re not supposed to be able to change the name of the traveler!

    Ava and Eva are not the same name. How is the airline supposed to know that Ava and Eva are the same person vs. an attempt to transfer the ticket from Eva to Ava? If you saw the two names “Ava Gardner” and “Eva Gardner” together, would your first thought be, “Oh yeah, that must be the same person.” (as you would with “David Letterman” vs. “Dave Letterman”)?

    Part of the bargain when you purchase that discounted, non-transferable ticket is that name-changes are not allowed. I agree that name CORRECTIONS should be allowed, but sometimes it’s hard to tell a correction from a change.

  • http://www.bangaloreaviation.com Devesh Agarwal

    I would strongly recommend that Ms. Castellino get the notation done and get confirmation in writing from Lufthansa, may be in the form of the ticket print.

    Due to the high threat perception levels here in India, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) which guards all the airports, matches ticket names to passports at the entry in to the airport. If Ms. Castellino will be taking the post-midnight LH flight to connect back to SFO via FRA, she might face unpleasantness in the depths of the night with no centralised call centre to call and sort her problems out.

    Let us also not overlook the fact she is flying through Germany, a country known for its finickiness and orientation to detail. Regardless of what a reservation agent says, there will be another ID check when the Castellinos board the flights ex Frankfurt both coming and going, and while Indian security may not notice the difference between Ava and Eva, the Germans just might.

    Last and not the least, if the travel agent mucked up, I am sure he has enough influence within the airline to get his mistake corrected. If not, it is his contractual obligation to issue a ticket with the passengers’ correct name(s).

  • Jason

    Recently I booked tickets on AA for two friends. After I forwarded tickets to to my friends they informed me that I misspelled one of the name. I called American Airlines and the ticket was re-issued right away without a fee. People make mistakes often. In the past I even bought a ticket for a wrong date by mistake. Good think I reviewed the confirmation e-mail and cought it. Thanks for 24 hr no risk cancelation policy some airlines have it didn’t cost me to fix it.

  • Lianne

    I continue to wonder how this will affect me in the future. My legal name on my driver’s license is Lianne Middlename Hyphenated-Lastname. So far most of my boarding passes have looked like LianneMiddlename HyphenatedLastname.

    Haven’t had any problems yet and anyone with a milligram of common sense should be able to figure out that my very unique full name has just been smashed together, but this is the TSA we’re talking about…

  • Arizona Road Warrior

    @ Aaron – I agree with you…the problem is the travel agent. The travel agent made the mistake and he should fix it at his expense.

  • Joe Farrell

    Hey Roberto – since when is ‘Part of the bargain when you purchase that discounted, non-transferable ticket is that name-changes are not allowed.’ Who says this is a ‘name change?’ It is a correction – not a change.

    The airlines know full well that corrections need to be made at times given human frailty – and if that ever happened to me – they’d see me in small claims court in a flash to recover the fee – because there needs to be legal authority that the correction of a misspelled name or nickname vs. legal name.

    A court needs to interpret their contract of carriage to state that the the correction of a name for the same flier is not a change. Imagine this scenario – you make a reservation for Smith John D with John D. Smith’s frequent flier number at the airline in the record. However the reservation is made for Smoith John D because of a fat finger mistake – with the same frequent flier number. Now – is John D. Smith with FF # 324567801 the same person as John D. Smoith with FF# 324567801? Yes- they are. Thus – it is not a name change.

    Similar changes can be made for similar name mistakes like Eva and Ava since for an international flight PASSPORT information is retained by the airline so they can easily verify it is the same person.

    The airlines are ‘interpreting’ their no changes language in such a manner as to include a correction as being a substantive change requiring a change fee. Their contract of carriage does NOT cover this – it is in the fare rules – which are NEVER disclosed in full to the customer. Thus – the definition of ‘change’ in a non-disclosed section of a contract of adhesion like an airline contract is simply not enforceable just because the airline sez so,

    In fact, if any person has paid a change fee to ‘fix’ a name in the last 12 months in California – contact me through this – I’ll represent you in a class action against the airlines for interpreting this ‘change’ language to include silly things like Smoith vs Smith.

    Do the airlines REALLY think there is an active market out there by guys named Joseph Farrell looking for other guys names Joseph Farrell who can’t use their airline tickets and want to repurchase them to get a lower fare at the last minute – or that there just happens to be someone name Eva Gardner who wants to go to Mumbai from San Fransisco on the same day as Ava wanted to? Using THAT as a justification for ‘interpreting’ the language a certain way is not interpreting the language in good faith – hence the class action. I can see not changing from Ava Gardner to Susan Gardner – easy enuf to see that one – or even Ava Gardner to Steven – or Etta – those could be different people – but when you have other means of identifying the passenger – including address, passport, ff#, all sorts of indicia that it is a correction and not a change . . . then refusing to comply is simply unconscionable. . . .

  • Arizona Road Warrior

    @ Joe Farrell – “If you go to your reservation on the LH website- and enter the confirmation number – you will find a ‘Enter Secure Flight’ information or some similar reference – you can enter the correct information there – and it will thusly print on your boarding pass no matter what the name is on ticket . , , ,

    Due to the regulation that airlines need to have accurate secure flight information entered separately from the ticket information all of the airlines now have this either before or at checkin – so it is a non-issue now. So we can stop with the sob stories and the mean airlines charging $150 hcange fee to change Joe to Joseph…”
    - – - – - – - – - – — – - -
    Unless Ms. Castellino was issued a paper ticket instead of an electronic ticket, I agree with you that it is a non-issue. The three airlines that I use for 100% of my domestic flights in the US allows its passengers to change their ‘Secure Flight’ information up to the point of web check-in.

  • Roberto

    @Joe Farrell It doesn’t matter if there is a market for it.

    If something comes up and you can’t use your tickets to Vegas, you can’t just change the name on the ticket to your brother, Jesse Farrell’s, name and let him go have a blast in your place. Non-transferable is non-transferable. If Jesse wants to go to Vegas, he’ll need to purchase his own ticket.

    We’re in agreement that name corrections ought to be allowed, and I said so in my earlier reply. The problem is it’s not always a simple matter to distinguish a name correction from a name change.

  • Carver

    @Roberto

    I think that Joe’s point is what is the likelihood of his hypethetical brother living in the same origination city, wanting to take the same trip, having the same time off work, and having a similiar enough name that someone might be fooled into thinking its just a name correction?

    The scenario while possible, isn’t very likely, and certainly not likely enough that the airlines should be giving people grief unless its clearly a name change

    In cases of ambiguity, the airline should give the passenger the benefit of the doubt.

  • Joe Farrell

    @Roberto – well, I guess if I said that Joe was gonna try to get the ticket changed to Jesse you would have a point – instead – you make no sense. As Carver notes – if I wanted the change the name to Jesse then it would be a change, would it not?

  • Bill

    Names exist in airlines’ databases. They are e-tickets. It is absurd that corrections can’t be made easily and at no cost.

    Can you imagine if you got your name wrong in the phone book and the phone company said that no, it is a residential line, it can’t be changed. Sorry sir, but for the next 25 years, you will have to have your name incorrectly in the directory.

    The airline business needs to get a lot more realistic.

  • Bill

    Oh, and one more thing, I noticed about the MR being put together with the first names, such as Sickoftravelagents, VeryMR rather than Sickoftravelagents, Very MR. seems to happen when I use a travel agent!

    That Saabre system sends it to the airlines screwed up, or they receive it screwed up. I too was apprehensive a couple of months ago when I ran into this…it was a non issue,but it is the computer system the travel agents use!

  • Josh

    @Joe, @Arizona,

    I understand the Secure Flight info gets transmitted to the TSA, however I just looked at my last United boarding passes and it appears that only the ticket name is on there (I’m Josh Middle Last on my ID/Secure Flight, but Last JOSHBMR on the ticket because UA’s FF doesn’t seem to take a full middle name). So you still could have issues at a checkpoint that was comparing the ID vs BP without any way to pull up the actual computer record.

    Do other airlines print the Secure Flight info on the BP? I think that’s what they *should* do, but don’t appear to be doing yet.

  • Liz

    Part of the name issue is that we never know what exactly is going to fly (no pun intended) with TSA. When I purchased tickets to Vegas earlier this year, I was extremely careful to use my dad’s legal first name and his two middle names. Imagine my dismay when his state issued driver’s license only shows one middle name! Fortunately it was within 24 hours and I was able to update the information through Alaska Airline’s website.

    Problem solved–until I got the e-tickets which left BOTH of our middle names off of our tickets. Called Alaska in a mild panic and the very nice customer service lady reassured me that it was only their system and the Secure Flight information was correct. We had no trouble with any of our flights.

  • MeanMeosh

    Devesh brings up an excellent point that’s otherwise been left out of the debate. My guess is, Ava has no trouble getting TO Mumbai. But I wouldn’t be so sure that she’s going to have such an easy time getting back. Indian airport security is notoriously finicky. My wife has been harassed by both security and immigration there because her picture in her passport looks somewhat different from her current appearance. There’s at least some chance the airport guards will give her a hard time – and good luck arguing with them unless you know Mahrathi or Hindi. I’d lean on the TA to bite the bullet and get her new tickets.

    And for the record, I agree, the TA is the one that screwed the pooch here. He should be responsible for fixing the problem and getting new tickets issued, even if he has to eat the cost.

  • Pennagirl

    Had a similar situation…daughter going on vacation with BF family. Her legal first name is common but we switched the last two letters of her legal first name (in honor of her grandmothers) anyhow the ticket was issued with the common spelling. Her full legal name was on the ticket other than the reversal of the last two letters of her first name and her middle name and last were spelled correctly. The airline couldn’t guarantee check in difficulties or offered to make a notation but informed the BF’s parents that to avoid problems to purchase another ticket. (WHICH THEY DID, idiots). The new ticket was for a day later and cost two times the amount. She went on the first ticket with the mispelled name — no problems, every screen was notated, her name basically matched with her driver’s license. The system needs some fine tuning. The parents are out money for the unused second ticket.