Christian name error in booking AA flight . How to change?

littlerock

OH is going on trip to US with male friend next year. Friend just booked flights but using OHs nickname as first name, not his full name which is on his passport. Unfortunately nickname while used widespread for full name, is not similar to it. How does he get it changed? Flight is with American Airlines.

jpsartre

They'll have to contact whomever the tickets are booked from (hopefully AA). It may not be straightforward to change.

heatherw_01

As jpsartre said you need to contact who you used to book the tickets but name changes can be a pain

agrinnall

Does your OH really want to go on a holiday with somebody who is so dumb that they can't understand what "name must be the same as on passport" means?

Westin

Love to now know the traveller's nick name. Hopefully not booked as something embarrassing like Mr. "FluffyBunny" Littlerock.

littlerock

Actually it is very simple - it is very similar to a case where everyone calls him Sandy but his real name is Alexander.

I looked up possible issues and it seems it is more straightforward to change a Christian name in the US if it is just your christian name and nothing else. There are lots of people called Buddy and things over there as nicknames.

Voyager2002

littlerock wrote: »

Actually it is very simple - it is very similar to a case where everyone calls him Sandy but his real name is Alexander.

I looked up possible issues and it seems it is more straightforward to change a Christian name in the US if it is just your christian name and nothing else. There are lots of people called Buddy and things over there as nicknames.

He will have to contact whoever sold him the tickets. They may well charge a change fee comparable to the ticket price.

Caz3121

agree do not mention 'name change' this is a "name correction" that (hopefully) falls under their 'legal name' change
https://saleslink.aa.com/en-us/documents/archives/agencyref/name_correction_restrictions.pdf
this is unlikely going to be free to fix...but it will need fixed

littlerock

OK. OH requested name correction to change his first name from "Teddie" to "Edward" on his ticket. He has spoken to the airline direct who confirmed a simple name change (with all other details unchanged) can be made over the phone if flight booked direct with the airline but they said if booked via a travel agency, he had to contact the agency.

He did this, as soon as he received the e-ticket (same day) and they asked for a copy of his entry page on his passport to verify he was same person. He supplied this.

A week later the agency have responded that their "ticketing staff" say a change to his christian name to reflect his full name, in place of his nickname, cannot be made as it constitutes " a complete different name". It is only his christian name everything else is identical.

Is this the ticketing agency pulling a fast one? He let the agency know as soon as he got his ticket (within an hour) that name needed correcting.

I have looked up the airline and in theory he could have got a full refund if cancelled within 24 hours. However it has taken a week for the agency to get back to him to say it cannot be done so chance of refund and rebook has gone. It is ABTA listed so presumably he could make a complaint to them.

Westin

Unfortunately I think you will find the selling agent can apply their terms & conditions and charge a fee for the “service” of taking care of the administrative task of completing the name change.

Heliflyguy

Agency are a bit slow arent they.

This is what they should be doing its simple but they want to make it complicated.

https://saleslink.aa.com/en-us/documents/archives/agencyref/name_correction_restrictions.pdf

They can of course charge for their time.