Thomas Cook flight name amendment - refusing to honour fee they quoted

davidmcn

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

Not without changing her name legally by Deed Poll and then purchasing a new passport. Sounds like a whole lot more faff and expense...

Deed poll needn't cost anything (or require her to change anything else) and a passport is almost certainly cheaper than a new ticket - I've read at least one news story of someone doing similar. Need to consider likely processing time though (including new ESTA).

jennduck

Thanks so much everyone for all your help and advice. I should've thought to look at the T&Cs - but being confidently told 3 different contradicting things by 3 different customer service agents totally threw me. I rang the customer service number last night and they seem to have changed it for the original fee of £20 without me even complaining - the call centre seems to based abroad and there obviously isn't any coordination between them and the various other TC customer service teams, as they all say different things. I've had the email confirming the name change, just need to wait for the charge to pop up on my credit card before I know I've not been overcharged...

@George Michael - great idea, I live near Manchester airport and this was going to be my next step. Love your work btw. :rotfl:

@Aylesbury Duck - thanks for your logical advice. No, I didn't book flex option. However, as mentioned further down thread, I would think "change of names of passengers" is a different thing to a name spelling change/shortening, and is more about transferring your ticket to another person? But it's not clear.

unholyangel wrote: »

What you were told over the phone didn't form part of the contract at the time you entered the booking so you can't hold them to any part of it.

You need to look at the terms you agreed to at the time you entered the contract to see what they say about name changes.

None of this was done over the phone: the original booking was online, then the 3 customer service conversations have been in writing (2 online chat & 1 on Twitter). I was naively hoping that because I had it writing I could hold them to it, even though it was not part of T&Cs.

Money_Grabber13579 wrote: »

It does mention elsewhere that a minor name change is up to 3 characters. Could you change your name to Jenni (from Jenny) and then ring again to change it to Jennifer? It might lead to 2 processing fees, but maybe it is the cheapest route? Assuming there are no restrictions on correcting a name twice, of course...

This is a great idea, thanks. It's so frustrating that this info from their website contradicts their staff yet again. The second customer service agent told me the £20 fee only applies to "minor" changes, ie. typos, which he specifically said were 1-2 characters, and that it was also only available on the flex option. The world of TC is extremely confusing.

@comeandgo - yep, I was starting to think this would be the only option I could afford.

davidmcn wrote: »

Deed poll needn't cost anything (or require her to change anything else) and a passport is almost certainly cheaper than a new ticket - I've read at least one news story of someone doing similar. Need to consider likely processing time though (including new ESTA).

Yep: It's £80-100 for a new passport and $14 for new ESTA; a new ticket would be £300. This is still my backup option if all else fails.

Honestly, thank you so much everyone for your useful input. I felt so sick about this last night before I'd spoken to them and there's options here that I wouldn't have thought of and might still be useful..

Aylesbury_Duck

Sounds like a good result, well done. Enjoy the holiday!

jennduck

Still convinced something's gonna go wrong, but thanks!