Unreasonable airline charges

Gerry_Attrick

I suppose what's reasonable and what's not is very debatable. However, what do you think of this. I booked five flights to Australia with Singapore Airlines. Three of these were for my daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter. Their surname, which they use for the majority of transactions in the UK, is a shortened version (single surname rather than a double surname as conventional in Spain). I booked the flights using the shortened version and this went through with no problems. I then went to complete the pre departure check in details and was asked to provide the surname as shown on each of the passports, which is the full two surname version. The airline software would not let me change the names and when I called the airline I was forced to pay US$100 per ticket to change the names. Is this reasonable ? The original screen, shown when buying the tickets didn't specify the need to define the same name as shown on the passport, and the same people are flying.

George_Michael

Gerry_Attrick wrote: »

The original screen, shown when buying the tickets didn't specify the need to define the same name as shown on the passport, and the same people are flying.

The ticketed name having to match the passport name is a requirement of all airlines and this is clearly stated on the Singapore airlines booking page:



$100 isn't really that bad as some cheapo airlines may have insisted that you rebook totally.

eDicky

The second surname of a Spanish style name is not normally used or necessary for airline ticketing. So the surname on the bookings was already correct, there was no need to add or amend anything and airline staff are aware that the second (mother's) surname is not the main one.

peachyprice

For future reference you only need to put the mother's surname as a middle name and the last name as the surname. This is how I have always done it for my children with a similar Portuguese name, 3 given names, 1 family name.

agrinnall

I've had to request flight bookings for quite a few Spanish and Portuguese colleagues in recent months, and using the conventions described by eDicky and peachprice not one of them has had an issue. I think the OP has wasted $300 on an unnecessary change.

shaun_from_Africa

As the Op was unable to complete the online check in using the names shown on the passport, this indicates that there may well have been a problem with the differing names.

With most, if not all airlines having heightened security due to recent events around the world, it's possible that even a slight name difference between the ticket and passport may have caused problems somewhere on the journey.

Because the SA website specifically asks for "Last / Family name (as in passport)", it makes sense to ensure that this is complied with.

jpsartre

Gerry_Attrick wrote: »

when I called the airline I was forced to pay US$100 per ticket to change the names. Is this reasonable ?

I'd categorize it as cheap. Many airlines would have asked that you buy a brand new set of tickets.

eDicky

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

As the Op was unable to complete the online check in using the names shown on the passport, this indicates that there may well have been a problem with the differing names.

With most, if not all airlines having heightened security due to recent events around the world, it's possible that even a slight name difference between the ticket and passport may have caused problems somewhere on the journey.

Because the SA website specifically asks for "Last / Family name (as in passport)", it makes sense to ensure that this is complied with.

Actually, people with Hispanic names are flying around the world in their millions using only their patriarchal surnames, as they do for most things apart from very formal and legal matters. Doing so complies with the requirement of "Last / Family name (as in passport)", and the OP had no need to pay to add the matriarchal surname.

peachyprice

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

As the Op was unable to complete the online check in using the names shown on the passport, this indicates that there may well have been a problem with the differing names.

With most, if not all airlines having heightened security due to recent events around the world, it's possible that even a slight name difference between the ticket and passport may have caused problems somewhere on the journey.

Because the SA website specifically asks for "Last / Family name (as in passport)", it makes sense to ensure that this is complied with.

I have a feeling there may have been some confusion when the OP's daughter applied for the passports and applied in the 'wrong' format. If the daughter and granddaughter's passports are UK, they should only have one of the names as the surname, not two.

shaun_from_Africa

eDicky wrote: »

Actually, people with Hispanic names are flying around the world in their millions using only their patriarchal surnames, as they do for most things apart from very formal and legal matters. Doing so complies with the requirement of "Last / Family name (as in passport)", and the OP had no need to pay to add the matriarchal surname.

Just because some airlines permit the use of patriarchal surnames doesn't mean that all of them do, especially an airline based in a country that may not come across this sort of family name very often.

As the SA website specifically stated "as in passport", surely the time to find out exactly what was required would have been before booking and not at a later date.

The SA policy for name changes backs this up:
http://www.singaporeair.com/htdocs/local/uk/TAW/sq-name-policy-jun14.pdf

The name and title indicated on the ticket must be equal to name and title reflected in the passenger's passport.

eDicky

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

Just because some airlines permit the use of patriarchal surnames doesn't mean that all of them do, especially an airline based in a country that may not come across this sort of family name very often.

As the SA website specifically stated "as in passport", surely the time to find out exactly what was required would have been before booking and not at a later date.

The SA policy for name changes backs this up:
http://www.singaporeair.com/htdocs/local/uk/TAW/sq-name-policy-jun14.pdf

I think that airlines are more aware in general of various name structures than you might suppose. The 'family name' does not always come last (in Chinese names it comes first for example), and for Hispanics the primary family name is the father's name. Note also that they ask for 'family name', not 'names'.

I have booked and flown with Hispanics in and out of UK, Singapore, etc, and they never include their second surname on the ticket. But when they are asked for 'Full Name as in passport' for visas or immigration landing cards etc, then of course they write the whole string including the secondary maternal surname.

In a similar way we don't include our middle names when we book a flight, we are just asked for a first name and a family name, one of each.