I dunno what it costs THEM. But I can tell you it will COST ME the agent $250 to change their ticket

Heather Matinde s problem is fairly common, but when it happens to you, it can sure seem like the end of the world. She d just paid a small fortune for airline tickets from Los Angeles to Brussels rental car stores denver airport on Expedia, only to discover a serious problem with her sons reservation.
Each boy had each others middle names on their tickets, and the airline was balking at making a correction. Unfortunately, Matinde didn t reach out to Expedia and the airline, Jet Airways, within 24 hours and — you guessed it — the airline was refusing to fix the names.
But Matinde wasn t freaking out about it. Instead, rental car stores denver airport she d stumbled across my site, and appropriately enough, my error page in which I quoted the great surrealist artist Salvador Dalí, who said, Mistakes are almost always of a sacred nature. Never try to correct them.
Before I get to Expedia s answer, let me make one more point. Some of you will probably be saying to yourself, She should have used a real travel agent. I understand. But a lot of real agents don t do these simple point-to-point rental car stores denver airport airline tickets — there s just no money in them. Most people turn to an online travel rental car stores denver airport agency or book directly, and that s where problems like this happen.
Turns out this is a borderline case. The TSA would have probably let her sons through, dismissing rental car stores denver airport this as a small difference . Also, the airline rental car stores denver airport should have fixed the names on the tickets at the airports without charging anything extra; most airlines do.
Thank you for contacting Expedia on behalf of Ms. Matinde. Expedia s records found that the customer booked a flight reservation validated by Jet Airways for four travelers online for roundtrip travel beginning September 3, 2013 from Los Angeles, California to Brussels, Belgium. There was also a connecting flight in Newark, New Jersey.
Expedia s records show that the customer misspelled the names of children, age 13 and 6, as Cody Joseph Matinde and Ian Ochieng Matinde. The names should have read as Cody Odhiambo Matinde and Ian Okinyi Ishmael Matinde.
Expedia advocated on the customers behalf and was told by Jet Airways rental car stores denver airport that without exception, rental car stores denver airport tickets are non-transferable and the names cannot be changed. The Expedia representative was also informed that although middle names are not required, to avoid problems they suggest splitting the incorrect names from the ticket and exchanging rental car stores denver airport them for a fee of $100 per person for a total of $200, as long as the same flights in the same class of service are available. This change would cover all airlines rental car stores denver airport associated with the ticket, preventing additional name correction fees.
There are at least two really important lessons to be learned. First, and most obviously, always double-check the names on your tickets rental car stores denver airport before you click the buy button. Remember the DOT 24-hour rule , which allows you to fix the mistake, with certain limitations.
Note (June 13, 2013): Some of the comments on this post went a little sideways yesterday, veering into territory this site tries to avoid. After a slew of flaggings by readers, our moderator team consulted late today and early yesterday and deleted some of the threads that violated rental car stores denver airport our comments policy . We didn t take this action lightly. We favor an open debate, but we also want the comments to be reasonable and readable. Thank you for your understanding.
We all make mistakes. They should be corrected without advantage being taken. This mistake is entirely understandable and you re not really helping with your snide comments. I would prefer to pay $200 to change my ticket when I need to (instead of $150 today), but have small administrative changes that don t affect anything be taken care of for free as they should be. It s petty in the extreme and demonstrates abusive customer service.
My theory is wrong. rental car stores denver airport I did a little googling. They are a sweet and loving family of four from Redlands. Heather is a Caucasian American and husband is from Nairobi, Kenya. Ochieng is the husband s middle name. Cody is a white kid and Ian is a mixed race kid. There has to be some very weird name mixup here. This family has traveled before and the parents are professionals and highly educated people. This does not look like it is a simple operator mistake. It is possible that the older kid had to change his name to his mom s married name and that caused the issues. I say give them a break and sorry for all the crazy speculation we did here. Have a nice trip this coming Sept.
I have purchased tickets online for my son. I have him on the phone and tell him to take out his ID and read to me *EXACTLY* what is on it. I know his name. I gave it to him! But that doesn t mean he might not used a nick name on the ID.
I dunno what it costs THEM. But I can tell you it will COST ME the agent $250 to change their ticket because the airline will charge me that amount per ticket. In addition to that I the TA will have to do all the requests rental car stores denver airport and follow up. So my time is money and I will charge the customer for that.
Looked what happened at WN. Used to be you can use your banked SW money for someone else. So essentially you SW funds were transferable. rental car stores denver airport They changed it since it was being abused. People were selling it in ebay and craigslist.. Travel agents were buying and selling SW credits.
The pilots rental car stores denver airport on my last flight were Capt. Morgan and 1st officer Jack Daniels. No, really, I checked while getting off the plane. That s what their official picture badges said. There were several chuckles when the captain made his announcement right after take off.
Maybe I m missing something in the story. I also haven t read the numerous posts here, so this may be a repeat of someone else s thoughts. How can the mother make such a big mistake in inputting her kids names. They are not even close to what they should have been . See the following per Expedia: Cody Joseph Matinde and Ian Ochieng Matinde. The names should have read as Cody Odhiambo Matinde and Ian Okinyi Ishmael Matinde. The airline(s) should NOT charge rental car stores denver airport to make a name change that was obviously misspelled and/or rental car stores denver airport left out.
OK so Cody s former name was not Matinde and his former middle name could have been Joseph. After Heather married Teddy, she may have gone to court to change her son s name to Cody Odhaimbo Matinde. Hence the mix up.
Think about it. Even if you have a middle name, there is no reason why it has to be used to identify you when your picture is pasted on the passport. Sorry but Americans are getting dumb and dumber :)
I fly at least once a week, sometimes more, and in the past 4 years have started doing international flights about once every couple rental car stores denver airport months. About half is for work, the other half is because I just like to travel, finally am at a point where I can afford rental car stores denver airport it, and I have family scattered all over.
Can someone help me here out please Jet Airways (9W) is an Indian airline that flies to many destinations rental car stores denver airport from its hub in Mumbai, So how did OP manage to get her sons ticket on 9W to travel from LAX to Brussels? rental car stores denver airport Via Mumbai after the stop in Newark? That seems like a long-way-round not to mention that LAX is NOT one of Jet Airways destination in the US. Or did the OP buy a complicated codeshared and interlined ticket and didn t turn to the right party as there are more than one airline in play for the ticket, and perhaps rental car stores denver airport 9W wasn t even actually flying any of the segments? If that s the case, how does one go about fixing things like this?
And I m afraid this is one of those posts where the story got garbled among the customer and Chris, because it says that the boys middle names were switched with each other s middle name, yet the middle names on the tickets did not match either boy s middle name.
I need to make one point very clear. Middle names are not required for OPERATIONAL reasons. An airline should be able to identify, check in, and board a passenger with only his Surname and First Name (even if they were slightly misspelled). Since the passenger must show a photo-id then the agent can check the name on the if vis-a-vis the name on the ticket. If they are more-or-less the same, then there is no reason to deny passage. Middle names are superfluous information and are often truncated in the boarding pass anyway.
The only reason middle name started rental car stores denver airport creeping on the scene was because airline needed to do passenger name vetting against a no-fly list (for international flights). Presumably using a middle name would distinguish a passenger better since there would, theoretically, be more characters to match.
rental car stores denver airport Since the TSA made the airlines enter the SFPD (Secure Flight Passenger Data) separately in a SSR DOCS message, the passenger rental car stores denver airport name on the PNR does not have to exactly match the passenger name on the SSR DOCS message. They only have to be associated.
Then they massage rental car stores denver airport what you enter to create the PNR name field and the SSR DOCS message. A real live person travel rental car stores denver airport agent does not have to do that. They have to enter the PNR name and SSR DOCS separately. rental car stores denver airport So a TA can shorten your PNR Name and then put your complete passport name on the SSR DOCS message.
Therefore, from the airline s (sole) perspective your middle name is irrelevant. It is only relevant for passenger name screening of the TSA/DHS so that if your name is quite common, they can find a way to exclude you from being questioned or denied boarding.
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