Advice re name changes on air tickets, and also a warning!

inflationbusting

You guys are all forgetting that some airlines DO offer a way to make name changes for free.

They are called full-price, flexible tickets.

Allowing a free name change would just compromise the value of these expensive tickets. A business could buy the cheap tickets and make the name change when they knew who was to be flying.

Of course, that is an extreme example and I agree common sense should be used. Some airlines have the policy of changing three characters only, any more would not be classed as an 'honest mistake'. Yet in this case, I am assuming the OP would argue otherwise. So even this method is not fool-proof.

Airlines employ multiple people over multiple countries and cultures. It's far easier and overall leads to consistent brand experience if people are trained to follow rules instead of applying their own discretion. This might sound harsh, but it's for the best. Either you allow it, or you don't.

I don't know what the legislative situation is, but let's take a look at the T-Shirt example, and the Sale of Goods Act. If you go to the shop, and there is a sign above the till saying 'no exchange or refund', you can still take it back, but only if it's faulty. If you buy the t-shirt and it's fine, but make an error on what size you are, the shop doesn't have to take it back, or give you a refund. In this case, if you wanted a new one in the correct size, you would have to pay for a new one.

In the airline case, you have purchased a ticket which there is nothing wrong with, sadly it is the wrong 'size' (name) for the person you have bought it for.

If you were to compare it to the t-shirt, the law would say that the shop is fair if they denied you a refund if the t-shirt turns out to be fine. There is no provision for cost, so it wouldn't matter if it's £1 or £1000 for it, they are still within their rights.

Caveat emptor has to kick in somewhere. If you want airlines to dumb things down, more people will ask for changes, more staff will be required, increasing the cost base. Obviously, it's a bit difficult to see this when talking about making just one change, but multiply that by thousands and it becomes clearer.

More costs = more expensive base fares. That to me, isn't very MSE.

malkie76

Crabman wrote: »

Here's an example. I know someone who booked a flight. It was booked with "Mc cann" as the surname. Clearly it was a typo for "McCann" and as the individual booking it online was in their 80s it was perhaps excusable.

Can you define where to draw the line? I'm booking 4 flights, and accidentally enter the maiden name of a friend's fiance, not realising that the flights I'm booking are dated after they get married.

Common sense allows me to change the surname, yet I could pull exactly the same stunt to get a name change on a ticket which I then sell for more than I paid for it.

It's simple and straight forward to draw the line saying any changes will result in a fee, and take the decision making away from the admin on the telephone.

never_waz

malkie76 wrote: »

Can you define where to draw the line? I'm booking 4 flights, and accidentally enter the maiden name of a friend's fiance, not realising that the flights I'm booking are dated after they get married.

Common sense allows me to change the surname, yet I could pull exactly the same stunt to get a name change on a ticket which I then sell for more than I paid for it.

It's simple and straight forward to draw the line saying any changes will result in a fee, and take the decision making away from the admin on the telephone.

I would tend to agree to a certain point with just changing peoples names - thats why they ask for date of birth. How likely is it for someone to buy all these tickets to sell to people and have guessed the correct date of birth for them all?
I'm not really complaining about a fee (although it still seems a bit expensive - again going back to banks charging £20 to send you a letter), its the "we can't do that" attitude, despite in several calls to each company, each one individually stating that they would normally allow a change. Doesn't make any sense.
As for people on here talking about the cost of the ticket being the reason for being non-flexible. I checked on Virgin yesterday, and their tickets are now cheaper than the one I'm trying to change, so that argument can't be correct either.

inflationbusting

You're not comparing like-for-like though, in your first post, you said the price was through a travel agency, and this is compared to the Virgin website.
How can you be sure the agency aren't pushing through a mark-up?

Virgin offer 'Premium Economy' which presumably allows a bit more flexibility on the ticket - by disallowing changes on the cheapest fares, this protects the value offered by the upgraded product. Of course, premium services are where the money is at for airlines, so they want you to do it.

Even the website alludes to cost being the reason of lack of flexibility:

3.1.3 Some Tickets are sold at discounted fares which may be partially or completely non-refundable.

When the banks charge money for people going overdrawn, the purpose of the charge is to act as a deterrent, not to reflect the underlying costs behind processing it. Same as a parking fine, late payment of taxes, etc.

malkie76

Virgin offer 'Premium Economy' which presumably allows a bit more flexibility on the ticket

Not really - same rules apply throughout airplane cabins.

PE tickets come in a variety of classes with differing rules on changes. Similarly you can buy fully flexible economy tickets which allow unlimited changes (at roughly twice the price of a discounted ticket).

Worringly still, you can spend thousands on business tickets which are totally non-flexible.