Spelt name wrong when booking flights

jammerr

Hello, I've done the stupidest thing and spelt my name incorrectly when booking a flight through TravelUp last night. I put an extra character in my first name.

The flights are with Virgin and the e-ticket has not yet come through. It was booked on a credit card. I notified them ASAP, and an unfriendly customer service rep on the phone told me to email through to them with details and that it will likely cost me.

Anything I can do to fight this? It is one character. After looking at Virgins website they seem to allow these changes. Can I not go to Virgin directly and ask them to change. Or am I at mercy of the T&Cs and just prepare to get screwed and don't make the mistake again.

Cheers

Caz3121

as you chose to book through an agent and not with the airline direct, the agent will need to sort the change. Whilst Virgin may allow name corrections for free (up to 3 characters) you will have the Travelup T&Cs and charges to deal with

Travelup T&Cs
please check that all details are correct and complete; for example, that each name is exactly as stated on the relevant passport. If any information is incorrect or incomplete, please contact us as soon as possible. We will do our best to rectify any inaccuracies that are notified to us, but you will be responsible for any costs and expenses except where any error was ours.
If you made the mistake, then you would be charged their fee
This is where booking direct with the airline would have helped - Virgin allow cancellation for full refund within 24 hours of booking (as many other airlines do) but this does not apply to agents bookings
There may be one bit of hope to hang on to....Travelup as with many other online ticket sellers, do not have live pricing...you don't actually "book" the flights on their site, you are making a request for them to book you...there are a number of posts on tripadvisor where they have contacted the passenger to ask for more money for the real price at which point you could decide not to proceed and get your money back (then go book with the airline direct) If they have already ticketed the flight and will be charging for the change, I assume the saving you made by booking with them would cover this.

jammerr

I usually book direct but the agent was cheaper. Lesson learnt the hard way I suppose

No ticket through yet

jpsartre

If Virgin explicitly allows it then keep pushing TravelUp to make the change. I would not want to wait for them to get back on email, call again and see if you get a more sympathetic. It's too late for you now but it's yet another issue that could have been easily dealt with if the booking had been made directly from the airline.

jammerr

Thank you, I have done this. The agent on the phone specifically mentioned 'full name change or correction'? When I said typo he didn't seem to think it would seem to be an issue as they can contact the airline and get it sorted quickly.

I will wait and see if I get a call back...

jammerr

They want £90

'
Thanks for the email and I have checked the booking and we can amend the name on the booking but there will be a charge of £90.00. Please advise and we will send you a payment link to amend the name.'
Thieves! And worst of all no one to blame but myself

jackieblack

jammerr wrote: »

They want £90

'
Thanks for the email and I have checked the booking and we can amend the name on the booking but there will be a charge of £90.00. Please advise and we will send you a payment link to amend the name.'
Thieves! And worst of all no one to blame but myself

Tell them that you don't want to amend a name you want to correct a spelling error

jammerr

I have done this. We will wait to see their response which will probably be 'tough'.

Virgin have said nothing they can do, no surprise really.

Alfrescodave

jackieblack wrote: »

Tell them that you don't want to amend a name you want to correct a spelling error

Difficult to know when a spelling error isn't an amendment.

Robots

Crikey, it used to be £15 to correct a name. We also got it free once (Virgin), it was only noticed at check-in and my mother wasn't going to leave until they changed it then and there for free. I wouldn't want to have that argument in an airport for fear of being kicked out, but my mother was 65 at the time and they probably didn't want the bad press.

jackieblack

Alfrescodave wrote: »

Difficult to know when a spelling error isn't an amendment.

Not really, (and you'd probably want to avoid using a term like amendment as it is too vague)

I think it would be generally accepted that, for example, changing Spusan Smith to Susan Smith is a correction of a spelling error (OP stated they spelt their name incorrectly / put an extra character in their first name)

Changing it from Jemima Jones to Susan Smith would be a name change