Yes Darren, I did catch this on TV and very interesting it was too.

The airlines are saying that they charge this amount because of people trying to sell the tickets at a higher rate and make a profit and the tickets getting on to the black market.

I Know it’s scandalous and you would think with Modern Technology, how Much admin does it take to find an Airline Locator and Press one button to change an initial.
The Rules are this, The Christian name and surname has to be exactly on the passport. We re-iterate this to clients before they are booking and at the time of enquiry. We Spell out the name given to us Phonetically as well as saying the letter, so A Alpha, B Bravo etc. It Still amazes me that both Clients and Tour Operators can still get this wrong, and we have constant battles with Operators on this subject.
The other Problem occurs when a friend makes a booking and has always known his best friend as ” Bert” although his first Christian name could be ” William” and makes the Booking in the name of Bert Smith instead of William Smith.

Golden rule for all you Independent Bookers1. Book with your local Independent Travel Agent, it only takes 5 minutes to leave your requirements and let us do all the Work.
2. If you must do it yourself, then you are on your own and have to fight the charges.
3. Free bit of advice, If making your own Booking, Learn the proper Phonetic alphabet ( not T for Tomato but T for Tango!) and always state your Full Christian name and Surname as per your passport saying the Letter as well as saying it phonetically, In Theory there should then be no problems with incorrect names on invoices and tickets. Always Check your invoice and immediatly call to rectify mistakes.

I always try to be very careful when I type in names for online flight bookings as I’m terrible for making typing errors and then don’t seem to notice them even when I supposedly proof read something.

There was a piece about this in the times travel supplement recently too. If you make a booking like this chap did - through an online agent, involving more than one airline - you’re well and truly up the proverbial creek, because it’s not at all clear who you should go to in order to request an alteration, let alone whether you’re actually entitled to one.
Lee is right that it helps to have a professional take care of bookings for you, though I don’t think you’re truly ‘on your own’ if you book independently - your statuatory rights still exist, and there are consumer watchdogs that will help you assert them.
There’s also a part of me that’s just incredulous that it can happen. If you can’t spell your name correctly there’s a strong case for you not being allowed out of the house, let alone on an aircraft…

The Point about the Phonetic alphabet Darren is there can be no confusion about letters that sound the same such as M and N , S and F, if you use M for Mike and N for November , S for sierra and F for Foxtrot there can be no confusion, especially booking by telephone, where most mistakes happen

We were charged £119 by Jet2 earlier in the year, because I left the ‘a’ out of our surname due to a typing mistake. I complained to Jet2 but they haven’t had the decency to contact me back yet.

I too watched the programme, but I have to side with the airlines.

If you can’t spell your name correctly, then can you be trusted to fly on an airplane?

How did you know I worked for an airline?

Btw my comments are my own personal opinion, and not the airline I work for.

I booked a trip for my Mother in Law and her partner and made a typo on his surname I typed Mckevan instead of Mcevan one letter incorrect ? Can anyone honestly say this justifies a £65 admin charge ? Come off it we live in 2007 and this surely could be rectified in 5 seconds. By the way I booked with On The Beach who are not very helpfull or polite when replying to emails beware when using this company.

I agree such a charge is over the top.

On the Beach apply a standard charge of £65 for a name change. This is broken down as tour operator charge plus our charge.

This is because most tour operators charge £40-50 for what amounts to no more than the push of a button.

As such we advise in our terms:

‘Please note that if you book a holiday or flights online any mistakes made in entering passenger titles, initials or surnames will be chargeable immediately the holiday has been confirmed by the tour operator. They will apply their standard charge whatever the nature of the mistake, even if it is simply one letter, an initial or a title.’

Conversely our charge is £15-25 on top of this for which we have to wait on hold for the airline for many hours (some airlines are much better than others but many take 3-5 hours to answer a phone). We also send a confirmatory email, we liaise with the customer, and the change then has to pass through our admin and accounts departments to be logged.

On top of this work we also have to spend endless hours justifying the charges to the customer, who undoubtedly is unhappy with the £65 charge and does not understand that it is the tour operator who are charging the majority of this fee for doing very little work.

I’ve just been told that because of an error made when booking a flight for my father to LA that he will not be able to travel unless I purchase a new ticket. That’s £500 for the first one and now £675 for the same seat.

Somehow when booking his flight through opodo my name as the opodo registered customer has superceded the information I entered about him including his name, date of birth, passport number and credit card details. I can’t figure out how it happened but clearly am at some fault for not checking the details properly, but seriously can it be justified bneing charged twice for the same seat? Does anyone have any suggestions on who I can take this up with. I’ve got nowhere with the flight operator (British Airways) or Opodo ( who charge me premium rate to even talk to them) Am at my wit’s end faced with a 70 year old Dad who can’t fly out for his sister’s 50th wedding anniversary this Saturday.

Having just booked flights with BA and Qantas through lastminute.com, have noticed a typo, two letters in my partner’s christian name are the wrong way round. Ba and Qantas were friendly but said to go through lastminute.com whose only advice was to cancel and start again - losing £2500!!! They said there’s nothing they can do but have advised the airlines about the mistake but can’t guarantee travel. I wouldn’t mind being charged £200 if it saves losing the entire round the world bookings!

booked a flight to florida for mewife and 2 kids with ba realised i booked the wrong week to to return contacted them straight away , charged me £200 to change date then yesterday i realised my wife was down as a mr so phoned again and i was charged £25 ho i wish i stayed with virgin never to fly with ba again well after this holiday anyway

Darren,

I too am in a ridiculous situation with Opodo. They will not allow me to change a name on a booking. They insist that I cancel the booking (paying 115 GBP) for it and re-buy the same seat in a different name for 147 GBP. Very poor indeed. The operator is Lufthansa (operated by Eurowings and Lufthansa Cityline).

I was very interested to read your post to Hannah:

“’ve just droped you an email.

Let me know how you get on ;)”

I take it the email contained some “magic words” or tips on how to solve it.

Here’s hoping…..

Rob and all,

Heres my problem. I changed my last name in Dallas before I moved with my partner to Australia. I changed it do to we were having a baby and I didn’t want to give her and my child my fathers name who left my family a few years back for another family and we never heard from him again. So that being said I booked a ticket to Sydney under my previous name because I didn’t have a passport with my new name on it. So legally my name was A it was booked under B due to my passport. I booked through STA Travel and told them the situation and they told me not to worry about it and just get a new passport when you get to Australia and you can change the name on the ticket. The ticket is good for a year so that years has come around and I’m due to fly out of Sydney to Dallas on August 28th on my previous name but now have a new passport with my legal name. So my passport I flew over on is no longer valid and the new one has a different name then the ticket. I have all the legal documentation showing my name change and my other passport so I called STA to change the name on it and they said the ticket is no longer going to be valid due to the name change. Something about once you commence travel on one name you can’t come back on another, I couldn’t understand it because this is what there company told me to do. So I have a ticket they cant change and they are telling me I have to spend another $1400 on a ticket home when I already have a ticket. Has anyone ever had a problem like this, maybe due to marriage,honeymoon kind of stuff. If anyone has some advice for me on what I can or should do to get STA or Qantas to help me would be much appreciated. Its extremley frustrating when your family spends over $15,000 a year with Qantas traveling back and forth and they won’t change a name for you.

Thanks,

Bill

I have just had my tickets from a company and they have left one out completely and duplicated another. the booking confirmation is correct. I have emailed the company because thats what they ask you to do.
i am really worried because i am supposed to leave at the end of the month.
can anyone help

I am gearing up for another round this morning against Opodo and British Airways having spent £312 on a ticket for my girlfriend and mistakenly entered my own name instead of hers as the passenger! Yes yes I know I must be brain dead etc but I was thinking it was the credit card details as I have done a lot of this lately. I put in her passport details and desribed the passnger as ‘Ms’. So no-one can use the ticket anyway. I don’t mind paying any reasonable admin fee but so far all I have been met with is stony indifference, racked up a fortune holding on to these premium lines, had both opodo and BA saying the contract is with the other party. Surely if it is part of the contract that you cannot amend a mistake once made it is an unfair contract term: the supplier is unreasonably refusing to perform their share of the contract even though they have pocketed all of your money. Has this been tested in court? It seesm akin to the unfair bank charges issue. Any further thoughts from anyone please let me know!
Good luck to all other combatants…
Peter Rowlands

Peter,

Sounds like you’ve got stuck on the very same merry-go round in between Opodo an British Airways I did a few months ago and I have much sympathy for you.
After paying full price for the second seat for my Dad to travel, he was then forced to go on stand-by for his return flight because they’d cancelled his ticket as a ‘no-show’ on the outward journey. So they couldn’t link the ticket bought for him in my name originally but then when we bought the replacement they somehow couldn’t avoid liking the two and cancelled them both - I think this means they got paid three times for the same seat?
Anyway - a bit of advice which may help? We contacted my Dad’s credit card company that we bought the ticket with to see if we could claim under the terms of the insurance - they have refunded the money - with the proviso that they may come back and charge us for it again if they lose the battle with BA / Opodo. It seems to me though if you can bring the credit card companies into this war BA / Opodo may have to start acting more reasonably rather than the blatant disregard they show for their passengers and customers.
Am interested in your point about testing this in court, especially as am still quite nervous this will come back to bite.
Good Luck and post how you get on?

Another example; very similar to Peter’s above. I booked through Expedia.co.uk but I had an ‘associated traveller’ saved on my Expedia account from about 4 years ago. Anyhow somehow his name appeared on the ticket I just booked to Australia for £1,000. I guess I must have missed it appearing in a auto-filled box. Was busy making sure the plane schedule etc was correct and my name and address, credit card etc correct. Anyhow Spotted the error within 3 minutes of booking when got confirmation email. But could not phone Expedia immediately as was after 9:30pm at night. Next morning when I called it was ‘all too late’. Had to cancel tickets costing £150. Not really clear who gets this, Expedia or the airline. Anyhow definitely agree its like excessive charges on Bank Accounts. They shouldn’t charge for obvious errors like this more than cost.
Would be interested in how easy Peter found it getting money from credit card. And if it would apply in my case.. I should check.

Hi Guys

I wounder if anyone can help me, I’ve just booked a packaged deal for my family and I put the short version of my brothers name instead of the long version that we have on his passport. What do you advise we do, should we cancel the payment from the credit card company, or speak to BA or ebooker?

Hi Everyone
Thanks to Hannah and Graham for their thoughts. I have not long been back home and am picking up the thread. BA have twice ackowledged my letters but no more. The total disinterest for a customer is extraordinary. I am planning to take this to court as I believe it may be possible to argue that the forfeiture of the entire sum is unfair and disproportionate. I don’t know if this has ever been tried. If this doesn’t work i will try the credit card company although to be honest it’s now more a matter of principle than the money.!

I have just made a booking for two flights over new year to Alicante. When booking online with Skybargains i realised i had booked the wrong dates. I rang the company within 15 mins of the order being confirmed and asked what the charge would be to alter the dates. £240!!!! The flight was with EasyJet and they dont even produce a ticket as you pick it up at the checkin desk and what really gets me is as being an ex employee for a tour operator i know the amendment takes a few minutes and the seats i originally booked would have been back on sale at the latest over night.
My choices were to cancel the holiday and lose all my money or pay the charge The holiday was booked on the 25th September, 91 days before departure. So far i have paid the charge but does anyone have any advice on whether there’s anyway to get the charges back

I have been encouraged by what I have read. I made a mistake with my wife’s name when booking through Opodo. Both Virgin and Opodo adamantly refused to change the name. I was forced to cancel the £375.00 ticket and rebook it at a higher fare of £453.00. Opodo did refund the tax portion of the ticket which was £159.00 but charged a £25.00 Admin fee for a few seconds work. When I protested at this further injustice I was told that it was not their mistake. The whole excercise has cost me £560.00 extra. This is highway robbery of the most sinister kind. It is grossly disproportionate to any task the companies may have to perform to rectifiy the mistake. This was an e-ticket which required one minute on a keyboard to make the change. Unless we challenge this legally then these unlawful, illegal, fraudulent practices will continue. I for one will be taking this futher.

I booked a holiday this WEEK with a company called sunsave.co.uk
Yesterday I received my invoice with hotel voucher. My girlfriends FIRST INITAL!!! wasnt right, its was an R instead of a C. I phoned them up asking to change it, they siad there will be a £65 charge!! to change it! Im not happy.

I entered inital information on their website. That was followed by a telephone conversation to which i confirmed my details.

I cannot understand this. I pleaded with them telling them I dont even know an R Ranger, the company listen to voice conversation of that phone call and have told me I confirmed it was an R!!!!

Its not as if ive got her surname wrong just the first inital of her forename!! Basically it reads R Ranger and not C Ranger.

I thought full name was required for flight tickets??

Any one any advice?

Ive asked them to play me the tape they said “no.” they said it will cost me £50 for a copy.

After reading all of the comments about charges to amend ticket detail, I feel that somebody needs to challenge these charges. Surely charging more than the cost of a ticket for an amendment that can be completed within minutes is unfair, particularly when you haven’t even received a hardcopy of the ticket itself!

On booking my holiday to the Caribbean with Thomas Cook, I (like many others) gave my partners shortened name, rather than his full name, as his full name is 12 characters long. His shortened name is used for all of his official documentation, including mortgage, utility bills, tax documents, medical documents. Despite this, when I contacted the agent, Thomas Cook, I was told that a name change would cost £540, more than the cost of the original ticket.

I tried to confirm with the agent that I had made several attempts to inform them about the need for a name change on receipt of my invoice, but that I was unable to get through as the Direct Sales line, responsible for taking amendments, was constantly busy. When you did manage to get through, it would cut you off! Although it was accepted that lines were busy, in the two weeks prior to me attempting to call, the member of staff would not accept that their was any difficulties in getting through when I wanted to be connected.

Through making a series of complaints, the charge for amending the ticket (or more correctly re-issuing a new ticket, as they said the original one was invalid) has been ‘reduced’ to £295. I feel this is still unfair as I have already spent almost £3,000 on the holiday and frequently fly with Thomas Cook (this can be up to three times a year).

Because I am in fear of losing the seat I may have to pay the £295 (which I can ill afford) but am making one last attempt to have my complaint addressed by the Chief Executive of Thomas Cook, in the hope that they will value their customers enough not to charge them twice for a ticket for the same person.

If anyone else has any tips, I’d be very grateful and also interested to know if anyone is prepared to support customers like ourselves in bringing ‘class action’ in the courts, at what appears to be very unfair and disproportionate charges.

What I did for mine was speak to the airline directly. The told me that they could change the name but they would need authorisation from the travel agents in my case ebookers. So I called ebookers and relayed this information to them and even though they tried to fob me off, i remained on the line and insisted that they do it, and it worked, as british airways had now changed my brothers name shortened name to that on his passport.

All very interested to read these examples of exactly the same situation i find myself in. I booked 4 tickets to Vegas but on 2 tickets stupidly used abbreviated names, I hold my hands up. Now BA want to charge me £1500 which I refuse to pay. I can accept a small admin fee possibly up to 10% or so but this is absurd. Absolute daylight robbery. If everybody started behaving as the airlines are doing where would we be? Going to speak to a consumer lawyer this week, have mailed watchdog, looking like out trip to Vegas to watch Ricky Hatton is off because of this minor oversight.

I have a slightly different problem. My friend and I booked online with Southall Travel. When we got the tickets one of the names was wrong and the vegetarian meals we ordered were not there. We both confirmed we had entered the correct names on the website (we know how important it is!), including the vegetarian meals. Southall deny any responsibility saying it was our fault! We are currently starting a small claim against them but would appreciate any advice or inside information………

I PURCHASED 4 TICKETS FROM TURKISH AIRLINES . AFTER MANY FAILED ATTEMPTS AT MAKING THE BOOKING I FINALLY SUCCEEDED .BUT TO MY ANNOYANCE NOTICED THAT THE CREDIT CARD HOLDER’S NAME WAS ON THE FIRST TICKET INSTEAD OF THE TRAVELLER. I EMAILED TURKISH AIRLINES IMMEDIATELY BUT THEY REPLIED THAT I HAD CONFIRMED THE DETAILS AND I MUST PURCHASE A NEW TICKET TO THE VALUE OF 400 EURO. THE CREDIT CARD HOLERS NAME SHOULD NOT HAVE APPEARED IN THE TRAVELLERS ‘ AUTO PROMPT BOX AS I NEVER PURCHASEED OR ATTEMPTED TO PURCHASE A TICKET WITH THAT NAME.HAS ANYONE DEALT WITH TURKISH AIRLINES WITH A SIMILIAR PROBLEM?

Hi

Does anyone know if Darren Cronian had any luck with BBC Watchdog? I think a case has to be made to the Office of Fair Trading about these charges. How can they be viewed as fair!

hiya
i made a booking but unfortunately need to change the date due to something thats come up,i have tryed several times on jet2 booking page but unable to do so,the message refferance,surname,e-mail not reconised.i have spoken to someone at jet2 quite a few times it a technical fault.i would rather change the date myself than pay extra costs….what can i do..it costs quite a bit to call them..
thanyou
kuli

We are in a similar position with Opodo/Air Maroc regarding name changes. We are going to claim via credit card insurance. BUT, in answer to testing the matter in court, the small claims court procedure is very simple, costs £30 pounds and can be started online. I have used it myself and been very satisfied with it. If the insurance route fails, I will take both Opodo and Air Maroc to court. This is a scam which must be stopped. There is a strong case for arguing an unfair contractual term

Given yesterdays ruling on bank overdraft charges - is their a solicitor out there who’s prepared to start a class action against the budget airlines

STA and DELTA Airlines rip you off too!!!

I recently booked flights for me and two friends, when printing out the details I realised the return date was incorrect, it was a week too late. I rang two days later to change the details and I have incurred charges of £405. £100 was airline fees each. I am a student in my final year and have been saving for 3 years to fund this trip. i am currently revising for my exams and these charges have made me unsure as to whether I can still afford to go let alone eat and pay the bills. I know these sounds like a sob story but it makes me sick that Multi million pound profit making companies have such high charges when I’m sure it only really costs them a minor % of this. I understand this is my mistake and I understand that I have to pay the £110 charges from the travel agents for all three. But a £405 airline charge from Delta is haunting me. I would like to know what the best way is to deal with this charge and what is the easiest as I have no time to worry as I am revising for my final exams. I would like these issues to be raised to the media and from advice by friends who are involved in the PR and Media industry this should be addressed like the bank charges!!!
Thanks for anyone who can help.
Sarah. B

Hello Sarah

I am currently suing Opodo - see entry above above for 23rd March - the agents we bought tickets through in similar circs. It is a very simple procedure to sue online. It costs £25, which you get back if you win, from the defendant. just google ’small claims online’ Your claim will be that such a charge constitutes a penalty clause or a breach of the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977. If you want to speak to me about this, Goggle me. You’ll find me! I am a psychotherapist, but was a lawyer for many years.

Hi,
I have just booked a flight with Singapore airlines and used my shortened first name ‘Tim’ instead of ‘Timothy’ which is on my passport. Can anyone tell me whether I will need to change this to my full christian name? It’s £50 to change the name, which I would prefer not to pay!
Many thanks,
Tim

What happens to my current plane ticket if I am not able to have the passenger name changed?

BA Customer service have told me that I cannot change the name on ticket I bought in Oct 2007 online for my wife. The name shown is mine, not hers. They said they would ask the “back room customer service staff” for a decision on what can be done. In the meantime, I have no idea what I will have to do to enable my wife to take this flight? It is the lack of information that irritates me. I will pay a reasonable price for the name to be changed, but why do I have to wait and stress over this? Is it not reasonable to expect that British Airways would have a policy on this issue and be able to tell me up front what it is? When I booked this ticket online, I should have seen a large highlighted warning about the passenger’s name being exactly the same as their passport! What agencies or people should I contact to voice my views on this ridiculous policy?

I’v just booked flights for my friend and I with Ryanair. The flight details were confirmed with my male friend’s title as Mrs not Mr. I consulted the website and it only gave information about name changes which would be £80 for a amend. As the title is not on the passport and not actually part of our name should i be confident when approaching Ryanair about this or do you think I will be charged? there is no information on their website about title changes. HELP PLEASE!!

My husband booked my ticket in the name Teresa,my name on passport is Terri(shortened version of Teresa. Virgin Airways charged us £615 to do a name change as I was given same seat no.etc and they had cancelled the original ticket before I boarded.We were happy to pay an admin fee but this is a crazy,Virgin also informed us that there were no spare seats on the plane where did the £615 go to.

My Dad booked flights & hotel with easyjet for his 8 friends, and one of them the surname is spelt wrong “murrary” instead of “murray”.
Easyjet want to charge £80 for changing this one letter in a name! (which my dad and his friend both swear they checked before they confirmed, and that they had spelt everything correctly).

If they all check in online, will they get away with not changing the name??

hi i was wondering if you could help, my friends sister and her friend booked a holiday through on the beach but unfortunatly something important has come up and has passed the holiday to us. we quite happily paid the name change fee for on the beach as we expected this but now the airline have got touch GTR is it and said they cannot authorise this as they find it very rare to have two name changes at once.

they say the only way round it is to buy two new flights tickets which is going to cost us £450 in total. does anybody know of anyway to help us?