Mis-spelt name on a flight booking…

reminds me of a time a few years ago when Matthew Murray and I booked a day trip to Dublin with FR. First flight out on a Friday, last flight back, same day, just to fly the 737-200.
We printed the booking form for confirmation.

We phone FR the week before departure to get a confirmation of aircraft type. They had changed the booking it first flight out on a friday, last flight back the following friday.

The cheek of it was that they wanted us to pay £30 per head to correct it. More than the original fare in the first place!

We cancelled.

I am however slightly interested why you a) Used Expedia at all and b) booked over the phone?

Many thanks to all of you for your speedy replies and assurance.

Mark, in answer to your questions, whenever booking travel, I use travelsupermarket.com to compare the fares. Since I am travelling during half term on this occasion (particularly expensive anyway), I wanted to get the best deal possible. The best fare was one with Emirates and it was only available with Expedia. Secondly, there are four of us travelling in all. We’ll be travelling out in two groups, one week apart, but we want to return on the same flights on the same day. With this complication, we were keen for the booking process to go smoothly and for somebody else to do the work for us. Knowing that prices are constantly changing, we didn’t want to book the first lot of flights and then find that they had suddenly jumped up for the second lot.

This isn’t the first time Expedia have caused us problems. A few years ago, I travelled to Hungary and was given the option of a twin room or a double room at the hotel. Not wanting to jump into bed with my best friend, I opted for the twin. We checked into our room – a double – and were less than happy. On the second night, the hotel allowed us to move to the type of room we had requested at the time of booking. I appreciate that these requests cannot be guaranteed and that Expedia has no control over allocation of hotel rooms, but if this is the case, the option of twin and double rooms should not be given at the time of booking.

Samuel Samuel Samuel…I know how you feel! :rolleyes:

Had kind of the same problem with Expedia. My friend booked himself, me and friend on his card to make it abit easier. My name on my passport is Samuel and he put Sam. I gave Expedia a call and they were very nice about it and changed it, and said it wouldn’t be a problem. Not sure why they just won’t change it. I think there being awkward. Try ringing again and try it with another person, it may work. If not, just do what you said about Emirates. That will be fine. Good luck 🙂

Don’t worry about it your booking will be retrieved at check-in using your surname anyway, generally it’s only really the initial of your first name that is important (in cases of differentiating pax with same surnames). It will most likely go unnoticed.

You will be fine. The only scenario I would envisage there being a tiny chance of a problem is if flying to Japan or the USA where there is Advanced Passenger Information that could cause problems.

I’m assuming that you are not going to either of those places on this booking?

I am however slightly interested why you a) Used Expedia at all and b) booked over the phone?

I’d never do either in a million years! 😮

I do not work in the aviation biz, so take my word for whatever you want. But I do not think you should worry, and here’s why:

My name is rather unique in being insanely large (37 letters including spaces, excluding christian names). It is therefor routinely spelled differently in varying computer systems. In some systems the full name fits, in some the last letter does not fit, in some only a fraction of my name fits. And that is not even counting typo’s. At last count I had 43 versions of my name. 😀

If I go flying I will need my passport and frequent flyer pass. A ticket is booked with my credit card. Now here’s the interesting bit:

* My passport has the full name including christian names.
* My credit/debit card has initials only and half my last name.
* My Skyteam pass has no initials or first name, but around three quarters or my family name.

The above mix of names seems to bother no one. Only disadvantage is that the self-serve check-in boots never seem to recognise me, even when entering my Skyteam pass into the machine.

Now you will no doubt expect me to reveal my full name…. tough luck. This long name is ideal for preventing anyone from assuming my identity online! I could post my bank account number (which I won’t do either) and people could still not get any money since even the bank has difficulty keeping track of my name! :dev2:

Hi Michael,

Sounds very poor to me on the part of Expedia given that it was their mistake. Synics might suggest that this is a bit of a money spinner for them.

Expedia are telling us that this system they speak of does not exist,

Why would Emirates talk about a system (presumably their reservations system) that doesn’t exist.

Obviously I can only speak with any confidence about the airline that I work for, but we often have comments against reservations where passenger Smitt should be Smith or Jonez should be Jones. In fact if you notify a straightforward name mis-spelling within a given timeframe it will be changed free of charge, even if you make the mistake online.

I’m sure a spelling mistake as minor as that, especially in a first name, won’t even be spotted. I’d happily accept the Emirates advice over that of Expedia.

1L.