Ryanair passengers face £115 fee after name-change 'glitch' - MSE News

Former_MSE_Naomi

Some Ryanair customers who've booked flights for passengers with different surnames have reported a bizarre glitch which apparently results in the group's surnames being changed to be the same - and those affected could face a £115 fee to correct the booking...

Read the full story:
'Ryanair passengers face £115 fee after name-change 'glitch''

Click reply below to discuss. If you haven’t already, join the forum to reply.

Backbiter

Not been affected by this glitch, but Ryanair's website did alter my wife's surname after I'd entered it from the drop down list that showed her as a past passenger.
We have an unhyphenated double-barrelled surname, but when I selected my wife's name and completed the booking, Ryanair only included the second of the surnames.
Fortunately I spotted this in the confirmation email and was able to correct it without penalty straight away. Otherwise, it would have been a very expensive mistake.

To be fair, quite a few airlines can't cope with our surname unless we put both names as a single surname with no gap. Ryanair doesn't normally have a problem with it - we've flown with them dozens of times - but it did this time.
Our passports clearly show the correct surname so it's odd that airlines struggle with it.

Lesley5

Like many others we have our names entered in the "myRyanAir" account.
This time, it changed my name to the same as my partner's on making a booking!!!???
Tried to tell Ryanair via chat and email to their IT Department but they won't budge from the £115 to change name. GRRRRR :mad::mad::mad:

Hopefully they will try some other underhand technique to squeeze extra cash from this booking that will enable us to cancel free of charge

Westin

Did you make the booking on your boyfriend's computer by chance? You may have had Google Auto-Fill switched on.

Backbiter

Backbiter wrote: »

Not been affected by this glitch, but Ryanair's website did alter my wife's surname after I'd entered it from the drop down list that showed her as a past passenger.
We have an unhyphenated double-barrelled surname, but when I selected my wife's name and completed the booking, Ryanair only included the second of the surnames.
Fortunately I spotted this in the confirmation email and was able to correct it without penalty straight away. Otherwise, it would have been a very expensive mistake.

To be fair, quite a few airlines can't cope with our surname unless we put both names as a single surname with no gap. Ryanair doesn't normally have a problem with it - we've flown with them dozens of times - but it did this time.
Our passports clearly show the correct surname so it's odd that airlines struggle with it.

Well, that was stressful, but fair play, Ryanair's online chat sorted it free of charge.
After spotting the problem with my wife's surname (see above), I checked us in last night for our flight tomorrow, and the same thing had happened to one of my sons (there are four of us).
Three of our boarding passes showed our full surname, but my son's just showed the last of our double-barrelled name (Mogg, not Rees Mogg, for example - no hyphen). The problem seems to be their website at the point of booking, when it shows you a drop down list of previous passengers. I selected all of us that way, but it filled in the form wrongly for my wife and son. I should have noticed it back then, but only spotted the error with my wife's in the conformation within 24 hours.
I was sure we'd be stung for the £115 name change fee, but Ryan air sorted it once I'd sent them a scan of his passport.

Very, very relieved.

gjohnson

Would love to know the type of system Ryanair use to make their bookings, and if its a generic, off-the-shelf system


I had an identical issue with booking agent GoToGate (a Skyscanner partner) in October, booking Thomas Cook flights to Orlando. Carefully checked the names before booking as we are a party of 6 and wanted to make sure everything was OK. When the confirmation came through, my wife's name had been changed to mine (so there were two of me on the booking, with different DOBs) and my daughters DOB had changed to her sister's.


I noticed immediately, emailed them within half an hour of making the booking, but they still charged over £250 to amend the name on the booking!!! Although, to be balanced, they did amend my daughters DOB for free...


I'm wondering if the system these companies use to process bookings is the same (or based on the same platform), and whether there is indeed a glitch in the software...


A quick search of social media will reveal that this is not an uncommon issue on GoToGate either. The cynic in me thinks it may be a deliberate ploy, as I'm pretty sure they will have made more profit on the £250-ish fees to amend the booking details as they did for all 6 flights...Although that's obviously only my opinion.

CIS

gjohnson wrote: »

Would love to know the type of system Ryanair use to make their bookings, and if its a generic, off-the-shelf system


I had an identical issue with booking agent GoToGate (a Skyscanner partner) in October, booking Thomas Cook flights to Orlando. Carefully checked the names before booking as we are a party of 6 and wanted to make sure everything was OK. When the confirmation came through, my wife's name had been changed to mine (so there were two of me on the booking, with different DOBs) and my daughters DOB had changed to her sister's.


I noticed immediately, emailed them within half an hour of making the booking, but they still charged over £250 to amend the name on the booking!!! Although, to be balanced, they did amend my daughters DOB for free...


I'm wondering if the system these companies use to process bookings is the same (or based on the same platform), and whether there is indeed a glitch in the software...


A quick search of social media will reveal that this is not an uncommon issue on GoToGate either. The cynic in me thinks it may be a deliberate ploy, as I'm pretty sure they will have made more profit on the £250-ish fees to amend the booking details as they did for all 6 flights...Although that's obviously only my opinion.

Seems to be this software that Ryan Air uses based on the information on the page - https://www.navitaire.com/p_new_skies.aspx

The above software company is owned by Amadeus, a company who provide software for GoToGate.

MartyDoherty

I have just fallen victim to this scam also... my partner and I are spending the Easter weekend in London and just within the hour I checked my itinerary to get my documents ready. Having noticed that my partner's surname was down as the same as mine (which it is not) I found this extremely odd... I have booked flights dozens of times for us both and I know I would not mix up a surname on a flight booking, I am very careful when booking. I had to pay the £115 for the name change and I feel like i've been robbed.

I had a feeling there was something dodgy about this so I performed a Google search and found the Money savings expert article. Just wondering if you guys had any further information to report on this matter... I knew Ryanair were crooks but this is a whole new level. after this weekend I will never book with them again.

I'm absolutely fuming.... has anyone ever been reimbursed with the £115...?

��

[Deleted User]

MartyDoherty wrote: »

I have just fallen victim to this scam also...

I suspect you've confused 'system error' with 'scam', although they're in the same rough area of the dictionary.

steve900

Hi. There is a forum on Tripadvisor and there are posts about the Ryanair issue. Maybe you could have a look there.

Backbiter

Backbiter wrote: »

Well, that was stressful, but fair play, Ryanair's online chat sorted it free of charge.
After spotting the problem with my wife's surname (see above), I checked us in last night for our flight tomorrow, and the same thing had happened to one of my sons (there are four of us).
Three of our boarding passes showed our full surname, but my son's just showed the last of our double-barrelled name (Mogg, not Rees Mogg, for example - no hyphen). The problem seems to be their website at the point of booking, when it shows you a drop down list of previous passengers. I selected all of us that way, but it filled in the form wrongly for my wife and son. I should have noticed it back then, but only spotted the error with my wife's in the conformation within 24 hours.
I was sure we'd be stung for the £115 name change fee, but Ryan air sorted it once I'd sent them a scan of his passport.

Very, very relieved.

This has now happened for a third time. This is not a misspelling, Having had this surname for all of my 57 years, I know my family surname is double barrelled without a hyphen, and I do not carelessly omit the first part of our surname when booking flights. Our surname shows up correctly in their list of past bookings. And yet on three separate occasions several months apart their website has shortened our surname to just the last name. Not for everyone on the booking, just for one passenger.
I have been onto their online chat, and - despite being initially told it would cost £115 to change the name - I now have it in writing that Ryanair only require the first and last name to match. So Jacob Rees Mogg could fly off to some European destination with a booking in the name of Jacob Mogg and he'll be fine.