Real-life MMD: Boarding pass blunder - who should pay?

Former_MSE_Debs

Money Moral Dilemma: Boarding pass blunder - who should pay?

I recently went abroad with friends. One of the group had booked and printed all the boarding passes at home, but didn't realise mine had only my initial, not my full name. I didn't notice either, but was stopped at the gate and told I couldn't fly. I was left alone to book and pay for for the next outgoing flight. Should the person who printed the boarding passes should pay half of the cost of my new flight, as this was her responsibility?

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jamesjenkinsyates

I think when you give up control of the process to someone else (who isn't making a profit on you) you just have to hope for the best. It is yours responsibility to make sure your boarding pass is correct, if you want to make sure do it yourself.

I would contact the airline and argue it was a printing error and that it is there responsibility (to warn you it wasn't valid/not accept initials) and you might get a free flight or something.

firawla

you didnt notice either so how can you really blame your friend? no dont ask them to pay

ironlady2022

Agree, your friend is not at fault, she should have forwarded everyone details of flight and it's up to you to double check. See this as a lesson to be learnt.

pennypinchUK

Sounds a bit harsh to ask your friend to pay anything. You were presumably happy for them to make all the arrangements and take the responsibility to book the flights and print the boarding passes.

Yes, it's unfortunate you're out of pocket, but isn't it just one of those things that happen? Pay up, move on and keep your friendship. You'll laugh about it with them at some point in the future.

AAAAA

Your friend should pay 100%.

AnneMary

This is a tricky one - you were well out of pocket for someone else's mistake. But it was important to realise that it was a "mistake". If I was in this situation I would hope that ALL the group (of my FRIENDS) would have come up with a solution like splitting the cost of of the extra ticket between the whole group by the time I had arrived - it is difficult to deal with this situation much later and decide what is "fair". If nothing was suggested and it was all left to you - I'd find other friends.

galaxynicole

Had a similar situation where my friend paid on her card and then the airline went bust but because she didn't pay on a credit card we only got the flights back, they could afford to get flights but I couldn't so I lost my accommodation money. Unfortunately, I took the hit but they paid more for their flights so it equalled out in the end.

originaladidas

Did they not forward the email of the booking itinerary? I'm sure hundreds if not thousands of people have done a group booking before but anytime we've done this the "booker" always sends the confirmation to everyone so it can be checked and errors spotted.

Playing devils advocate maybe the person who made the booking knew of the mistake and didnt want to admit it......

If they didnt give you the chance to check for any errors prior to arriving at the airport youd be well in for asking them to cough up towards your cost, but you should have asked for confirmation to check yourself

gloriouslyhappy

AnneMary wrote: »

This is a tricky one - you were well out of pocket for someone else's mistake. But it was important to realise that it was a "mistake". If I was in this situation I would hope that ALL the group (of my FRIENDS) would have come up with a solution like splitting the cost of of the extra ticket between the whole group by the time I had arrived

Wow,what rotten luck! But as print commands for boarding passes don't usually include a name change alteration option, the booking must have been made in your name with first initial only, which means it should have been spotted long before it got to the printing boarding pass stage. So technically, it's the responsibility of the person who first made the booking, as well as the person giving the information to the booker, ie you. These days, with all the security checks, no liquids, shoes off, etc, it's always worth double and triple checking airline documentation, so I'm afraid I think this is your responsibility and no fault of the person who physically printed the boarding passes, although I'm sure they're feeling mortified.

Having said that, as AnneMary said, real friends would have had a quick whip round to at least make a token gesture towards your extra costs, hope they treated you to a dinner or two.

lydiajmassey

Speaking from very recent experience (last week!) When I booked a group holiday, I got the bookee to send all the details across and noticed that they had got my date of birth wrong :eek:

I let them know their error and have let them to call the company and rectify as necessary as we still have 3 months before the holiday, if this had been noticed at the airport I would have been in the same situation as you.

It isn't fair to leave all responsibility with the person booking and then turn on them if it goes wrong, the responsibility lies with everyone in the group to ensure the details are correct. I think the cost should be split between all.