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Stressed and Sad


Cyn874
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I've taken the lead in setting up and arranging my cruise, hotel, airfare, transportation, etc for my families cruise coming up at the beginning of April. THANKFULLY I'm obsessive compulsive about checking, double checking and triple checking everything. I was just going through all our reservations today and found a near fatal mistake- all of our names on our travelocity tickets/boarding passes are booked as first name, middle INITIAL, and don't match the government ID's exactly. To make matters worse, mine also had my shortened first name (Cyndi) instead of Cynthia, and just my middle initial. 

 

I called Travelocity and they were able to change my first name, but can't do the middle name without basically having to cancel and rebook the flight. And this was before I was even sure about my parents middle initials. I had them go ahead and just do the first name for now- I was on the phone with a supervisor at Travelocity. She basically said that neither she nor the airline can guarantee that TSA will let us on the flight without the full middle names. They might. Or they might not. It's up to the whim of the TSA agents that day. 

 

I'm going to call back tomorrow and see if I can get a different person and finagle the middle name changes for all of us without any penalties or having to cancel/rebook and pay a lot more. *Sigh.* Really I'm just so disappointed in myself for letting this happen and causing myself all this unnecessary stress. Thank god I'm prone to second guessing myself and caught this with enough time to change it. I cannot even imagine if I hadn't, and found this out at the airport. 

 

Moral of the story: It doesn't matter what you THINK your travel documents say. Check, and check again. 

 

 

And then check a third time, haha.

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I wouldn't worry about reservations having a middle initial instead of full middle name.  I don't think I've ever heard of that being an issue getting through security.  The issues tend to be when the (first/last) name on the ticket is completely different than what's on an ID.  Examples:   new brides who book a ticket in their new married name but haven't had a chance to change their ID from their maiden name, people who go by a middle name that isn't spelled out on their ID, or people who book tickets in a nickname rather than their given name, etc. as you originally did.  You got that one changed and that's the important one.

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Last year, I had a air ticket booked with points that the phone agent somehow booked as first name-last name, despite it being booked on my FF account which has my name as first name-middle name-last name, like my passport. I had no issues at all.

 

I agree that you needed to change the first name, but I think you'll be good with the middle initials.

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While anything can happen in theory, I would have zero worries about the tickets. The things is that if you look under the hood, the software that many airlines use for ticketing and other business operations was written for mainframe computers in the 1970s, and was also designed for a set of very specific naming conditions common in the airline's home territory. (A Spanish airline's system may have been built with no space for a middle name but two spaces for surnames,  An American system may not have as many letters as needed in the last name field to fully record a Thai surname , etc.) So the current systems often do a very poor job of matching names as written on your passport or other government ids and everyone knows it. 

 

I've had tickets issued to me after buying them as (using my screen name as an example)

 

Sumi K Musha

Sumi Kage Musha

MRSSUMIKAG MUSHA 

Sumi Musha

SUMIKAG MRS MUSHA 

 

in assorted conditions and no one has really cared when looking at my ticket or boarding pass info. I've been told that for USA or European carriers, (exception possible Wow, but they're about to fold anyways) the only time it actually might matter is that you want a 100% match if you have TSA Precheck and want to make sure that populates to your ticket correctly. 

 

I actually never put my full middle name on plane tickets until I signed up for TSA Precheck for those mapping concerns- sometimes a middle initial, sometimes no middle at all, and never had a problem

Edited by sumiandkage
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It's been a day. 

 

Long story short, although Travelocity said that the full middle name is not required by JetBlue on domestic flights, calling JetBlue directly gave me a different story, and they told me that yes, everything had to match exactly, letter for letter, what it says on my government issued ID. 

 

It was a $176 mistake, but at least I have updated plane reservations now, and won't have to stress that at the airport.

Edited by Cyn874
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13 hours ago, Cyn874 said:

Long story short, although Travelocity said that the full middle name is not required by JetBlue on domestic flights, calling JetBlue directly gave me a different story, and they told me that yes, everything had to match exactly, letter for letter, what it says on my government issued ID. 

 

 

It's done now so doesn't really matter, but the Jet Blue rep was just reciting policy written to cover their own butts.  If they don't tell you that even the middle name has to be a letter for letter match if it's on your ID, then someone will assume none of it matters, book a ticket in their middle name or nickname or maiden name, get denied boarding or detained at security and miss their flight, and then try to sue the airline them because "you didn't tell me!"   

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On 2/16/2019 at 12:42 PM, 6rugrats said:

Except for one Asian airline (can’t remember which one), no one cares about middle names.

 

I had this from Cathay Pacific a couple of months ago. My ticket was booked in passport first name, passport last name. That's how all my tickets are booked, for exactly the reason in this thread: middle names are not needed (particularly as mine are complicated), and they just mess things up.

 

All was fine, as usual, until I gave CX my Advance Passenger Information, which really ought to match your passport name exactly. The CX website starting issuing error messages about the API name not matching the ticket name.

 

So I ignored the error messages, and nobody said a single thing more.

 

It does make me understand better the hassles that a family member sometimes has with CX because they travel using two passports in two different names, sometimes needing to use both on a single trip.

 

But the fact that all of that travel nevertheless works even if the ticket name does not exactly match the passport name, and I agree with the others that no money needed to be spent or time taken over the middle names.

 

Booking a ticket in the first name "Cyndi" when one's first name is actually "Cynthia" is, however, the kind of mistake that can cause trouble.

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I'm on Cruise Critic because my parents are taking us on a river cruise and I wanted to learn more about that kind of vacation. As part of that, my parents' TA booked plane tickets for us and I've now got a ticket for May that has the first name field filled in as MYFIRSTNAMEMIDDLENAMEMRS . I've got zero concerns about Delta having issues with how that name shows up since it's obvious that I'm that person. 

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That particular type of listing the name has been occurring for us, too, recently.

 

FIRSTMIDDLE  LAST

 

Sometimes with a title appended *somewhere* in there...

 

Never had a problem with it, and never even thought to view it with suspicion or alarm.

It seems to be just a matter of spacing.

 

GC

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Thanks, everyone. Yeah, I realize that there was a 99.9% chance that I could have gotten through security with no issues over the middle name. It was just that the little inkling of doubt, and knowing that it would only take one person to be a total stickler for the rules to completely upend this trip that we've been anticipating for about a year now. It's a bummer that I felt the need to pay the $176 to get it fixed, but the amount of stress I went through over those two days was  horrible, and I'd hate to feel that kind of stress on a day when I should be nothing but happy and excited to travel to our cruise port, you know? 

 

At least it was a valuable lesson learned, and from now on I'll never assume anything other than what is on my ID will suffice. 

Edited by Cyn874
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4 hours ago, sumiandkage said:

As part of that, my parents' TA booked plane tickets for us and I've now got a ticket for May that has the first name field filled in as MYFIRSTNAMEMIDDLENAMEMRS .

 

4 hours ago, GeezerCouple said:

That particular type of listing the name has been occurring for us, too, recently.

 

FIRSTMIDDLE  LAST

 

Sometimes with a title appended *somewhere* in there...

 

This is the way that airline systems work.

 

Mr John Smith will be booked as SMITH/JOHNMR.

 

Mrs Jane-Anne O'Leary will be booked as OLEARY/JANEANNEMRS.

 

Mr James Patrick Allen will be booked as ALLEN/JAMESPATRICKMR.

 

Once the special characters have been stripped out, systems that try to show the name in a more conventional way will sometimes get confused.

 

2 hours ago, Cyn874 said:

Yeah, I realize that there was a 99.9% chance that I could have gotten through security with no issues over the middle name. It was just that the little inkling of doubt, and knowing that it would only take one person to be a total stickler for the rules ...

 

It may have been worth the money to relieve yourself of your own stress and uncertainty, but there really was no need for it to begin with. The rules don't require that your middle name appear on the ticket. They can't require that, seeing as many booking channels are unable to even ask for your middle name at all.

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22 minutes ago, 6rugrats said:

There are several threads in the air travel forum on TripAdvisor, discussing WOW denying boarding because the passenger’s middle name was on the passport but missing on the ticket.

 

There seems to have been a short spate of these incidents in April 2018 but I couldn't immediately see anything more recent.

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I have the good fortune to be a third, so in addition to the whole middle name/middle initial confusion, I sometimes end up as LastNameIII, or LastNameIii, or LastNameiii. Or worse yet, LastName/FirstNameMiddleName(or middle initial)III(or Iii or iii)Mr.  so I have real trouble knowing how my ticket is going to be issued.  So far have never had any trouble EXCEPT when trying to use an airline's app.  If I haven't registered the app using the correct combination of middle initial or middle name as well as the correct version of the third, it won't "find" my ticket even if I have the confirmation number.  This hasn't caused any real issues other that I sometimes have to check in via the web (for some reason it seems to be able to find my ticket whereas the app can't) or worse case at the airport.

Edited by Clay Clayton
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On 2/17/2019 at 4:55 PM, sumiandkage said:

As tempting as it is to select 'bishop' or 'baroness' in my BA Executive Club profile, I typically leave the title field blank when making my own flight reservations. 

 

Globaliser may recall from another forum we use but someone "accidentally" listed themselves as Ambassador on their BAEC profile. They found themselves arriving in Rome, where the British Embassy had sent a welcome party and golf cart to meet them at the gate. Presumably BA had seen the reservation with the "Ambassador" reference some time ahead and notified the Embassy! 😄

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6 minutes ago, fbgd said:

 

Globaliser may recall from another forum we use but someone "accidentally" listed themselves as Ambassador on their BAEC profile. They found themselves arriving in Rome, where the British Embassy had sent a welcome party and golf cart to meet them at the gate. Presumably BA had seen the reservation with the "Ambassador" reference some time ahead and notified the Embassy! 😄

 

Sounds good to me!

And all that is needed it that nice little drop-down menu :classic_wink:

How convenient!

 

GC

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  • 2 weeks later...
On ‎2‎/‎16‎/‎2019 at 5:51 PM, LHT28 said:

why not just book with the airline directly & cut out the middleman :classic_blink:

Booking directly with the airlines doesn't always get good results. I booked with United, the first two legs of my trip are United the third is Lufthansa, which is a partner with United, all booked with United. Well on my reservation the last letter of my first name is showing as the first letter of my middle name. Debora Hellen Smith correct is Deborah Ellen Smith. Well I called United, talked to 3 people and they told me it couldn't be changed due to part of my flight being with Lufthansa. I was told that the correct name is in the system, and Lufthansa made aware of the situation and all would be fine. I was told I just would not be able to go through the Pre Check line. Well I e-mailed United, haven't heard back yet.. Also emailed TSA and the reply was that there should not be a problem however encouraged to call Air line to correct.  No middle man here. 

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On ‎2‎/‎17‎/‎2019 at 10:30 AM, Globaliser said:

 

I had this from Cathay Pacific a couple of months ago. My ticket was booked in passport first name, passport last name. That's how all my tickets are booked, for exactly the reason in this thread: middle names are not needed (particularly as mine are complicated), and they just mess things up.

 

All was fine, as usual, until I gave CX my Advance Passenger Information, which really ought to match your passport name exactly. The CX website starting issuing error messages about the API name not matching the ticket name.

 

So I ignored the error messages, and nobody said a single thing more.

 

It does make me understand better the hassles that a family member sometimes has with CX because they travel using two passports in two different names, sometimes needing to use both on a single trip.

 

But the fact that all of that travel nevertheless works even if the ticket name does not exactly match the passport name, and I agree with the others that no money needed to be spent or time taken over the middle names.

 

Booking a ticket in the first name "Cyndi" when one's first name is actually "Cynthia" is, however, the kind of mistake that can cause trouble.

How do you get the "Advance Passenger Information"?

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I don't why your "name issue" has anything to do with the pre-check line.  Your name should be fine. 

 

Advanced Passenger information is just your information; name, address, DOB, passport number, etc.  You can enter anything that's missing from your reservation when you check in online; in fact for an international flight, it will ask you for passport info.  Just be aware that sometimes UA will not let you complete online check in for an international flight.  That's not a problem, you can finish and get your boarding passes at the airport; they just want to do a passport check.

Edited by 6rugrats
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