What strikes fear into the heart of every travel agent…
“That’s not how my name’s spelled on my passport.”
Or, even more terrifying,
”That’s not the name on my passport.”
Aargh! Names are like travel kryptonite, the one thing that airlines don’t like you to change once the ticket has been paid for, at least not without a sizeable fee (and we’re talking hundreds here, people). From what I hear (this is back before my time in the industry) you used to be able to book a ticket using just an inital or a random name and then, if that person couldn’t/didn’t want to travel, you could just change the name and you were good to go. Not any more. Especially not since 9/11. Every country wants to know without a doubt who the heck they are letting onto their soil, and this is not taken lightly. If you show up at the airport and your ticket doesn’t match your passport (or ID, depending on the destination), you’re not going anywhere, plain and simple. That’s why we always, always, always ask for your name as it appears on your passport.
“Binky” might be cute, and I’m sure you like it better than your legal name, but it’s not going to get you on a plane unless it’s the first name on your passport. Not the middle name either (for all intents and purposes, middle names are to airlines like olives are to martinis, nice and decorative and easy to ignore), but the first. And it doesn’t matter if the people at Visa were happy to issue you your credit card to that name, either. Until they become a legal governing body (okay, with the way we all love our credit cards – me included – this could happen eventually…) it’s not going to help you get to Lima any more than your library card would. On a side note, firearms licences are never a good idea to show the people at airport check in, it just makes them double-search your luggage and eye you suspiciously for the duration of your flight.
Typos can happen, although rarely. If they do, we fix it. We’re professionals, we might be hyperventilating as we do it, but we’ll make sure you get on that plane. On the other hand, if you’re not 100% sure of what name appears on your passport, or your friend’s passport, go home and reconfirm it before putting your money down. The second that ticket’s issued, any change, no matter how small, is going to cost you big. I’ve witnessed friendships fall apart over this, when one friend gets a little over-eager and books the tickets with the names they think are right, only to discover their best friend has always gone by their middle name, and now it’s going to cost CAD$400.00 to get the ticket reissued. The friend with the wrong name doesn’t want to split that bill, since it wasn’t their fault the names were spelled wrong in the first place, but the friend who made the mistake either doesn’t have the money for the fee or resents the friend for not being understanding and helpful. From there it just spirals… you get the point.
Oh, and if you’re looking at tickets on EBay or Craig’s List, I hope it’s for decorative purposes only, because there’s no way that CAD$50.00 ticket to London is going to actually get you to London. Unless, of course, you actually do happen to have the same legal name as the seller, but I have yet to see this happen. If anyone knows of a time it has, please let me know, I’ll pass it around the office and it’ll become the stuff of travel legends.
So before you part with your hard-earned money, check your passport and make sure you know what name the government would like you to go by, or you’ll be parting with even more of that money and earning yourself (and your agent) a world of unneeded stress. You would never believe the amount of Tums I go through. Really. But if we work together and get the names right in the first place, we’re golden.
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