Surname change during trip and flight

IBlameGordonB

Good morning

I have a problem, we went on a long holiday to my wife's home country, and (for reasons I won't go into) my wife had to renew her passport there, and as we'd recently got married, she got her new passport issued in her married surname. However now the airline (which I won't name yet!) has said she can't fly back on the return leg of the ticket, they won't change the name, and is charging ~£650 for a single (similar price to a return). Surely this isn't fair? Her new passport does show the name in this format:
Forename Middlename NewSurname nee MaidenName
So maybe she can just keep the ticket in her maiden name?

duchy

A warning to others to remember that name on ticket MUST match the passport.
Pretty much common knowledge but as you've demonstrated not universally known.
Thanks for posting such a useful reminder.


If you want advice rather than a rant -posting the airline concerned would be useful.

PeacefulWaters

Name the airline.

Then people can point you in the direction of a customer relations area that can probably help for a small fee.

But, and I hope you don't take this the wrong way, it was a pretty stupid thing to do!

IBlameGordonB

I am aware the name on the ticket must match the name on the passport, I have not quibbles with this.

However, where there's two flights, and two passports (for one person) I am asking that the second ticket be issued in the name of the relevant passport, and the airline is saying this is not possible.

IBlameGordonB

PeacefulWaters, I don't know which way to take "it was a pretty stupid thing to do" because I'm not clear what we should have done differently... although you probably won't accept this without me going into our particular circumstances (which I'm not going to do!), but I believe our only alternative was to renew her passport in her maiden name, which she didn't want to do as she wanted to take my name - maybe this was the stupid thing to do??

duchy

The proper thing to do would have been to renew the passport in her maiden name - and once the journey was completed to have done a name change on the passport to the married name (although many people don't bother and continue to book in the maiden name until that passport expires even if they use the husband's name for everything else except travel tickets). The charge for the subsequent passport name change would have been a lot less than the air ticket charge.

Passports are so expensive that most people take the MSE view that they won't change the passport name til they have to upon expiry even if it is years

If there were immigration issues it wouldn't have mattered as using a husband's surname is a matter of custom not law so the marriage is what counts not the name the wife uses when travelling.

So yes the way you did it was unwise or uninformed (did you seek advice?) but stupid was a little bit strong even if there was a better option that wouldn't have cost so much money.

I used to be a travel agent- newly weds travelling on honeymoon or within the first year with an unchanged passport was the norm. Most people don't care that the check in and immigration staff at airports might think or care they are unwed (and no-one else sees it). So long as YOU know you are married - it really doesn't matter.

barbarawright

Why don't you want to give the name of the airline? I hate these threads where the OP dripfeeds information...

IBlameGordonB

Ok the airline is Virgin Atlantic. Duchy, thank you for the helpful reply. Does anyone have a view on whether she could fly on a ticket named:
Forename MaidenName
when her passport gives her name as
Forename Middlename NewSurname nee MaidenName

HHarry

It depends on the airline. I booked a ticket for my daughter as 'Daughter X', before the flight she decided to change her name to double-barrel it becoming 'Daughter H-X' on her passport.
BA said that that was close enough, and let her fly.

Does it make a difference if you supply a marriage certificate?

Voyager2002

Check with someone at the airline who has a brain...

It is not that unusual for someone to change their surname, and usually that is not a problem so long as evidence can be provided such as a marriage certificate. One of my friends was the son of a writer who was very famous in her maiden name but also had travel documents and air tickets in her married name... this often gave rise to tricky situations, but they could always be resolved without major issues.

InsideInsurance

What nationality is her new passport? Does she have a British passport too? Presumably the old non-british passport was retained/ destroyed/ rendered unusable upon issue of her new passport?

As others have said, you may find someone in customer relations who will change the name for small fee, its important to point out to them very clearly that you are just changing the name not the person but it may cause them problems having different names for the same person on different legs of the same ticket.

You could risk trying to fly bringing the marriage certificate etc but its down to the person on the desk to decide if they'll accept it or not.

The Mrs has two passports with different names in each because her second nationality doesnt change names after marriage in the same way as the UK but its always been a case of ensuring the right name is used based on the passport she intends to use.