£90 spelling mistake correction

fifeken

Westin said:

I think the point Pollycat is trying to get over is that leaving the problem until the day of travel may cause more issues.  If the airline or agent refuses checkin because of the incorrect name then the OP may be faced with the only option of buying a new flight at whatever the walk up fare is at that time.  Surely best to try and sort this out in advance?

Of course, best in advance.  My PoV though is that if the furthest in advance I could do it was at check in, I wouldn't be losing sleep the night before about whether it would work - I am comfortable that it would.  Others will have different fear thresholds based on their knowledge/beliefs and how they balance these up against the fee (£90 in this case) for fixing it through the shonky agency.

Pollycat

fifeken said:

Pollycat said:

I'd never do this ^^^^ as I'd be worried that there might be a very vigilant check-in staff n duty that day.

Pleading ignorance would not get you on your flight if your mistake is picked up and your ticket does not match your passport.

Disagree as the check in staff, or better still the airport ticket desk staff if the airline has one, will have the authority to do it without charging, and I've read several instances of this happening.  Even better, and it would make the OP feel better too, do as Caz3121 suggests above and do it through them when the airline takes control over the ticket from the TA at T -24 or T-48 usually.

I've read lots of instances of people being denied boarding because their ticket didn't match their passport.
Even in cases where it's clear that the ticket name is just a shortened version of the name.
I guess it's up to the OP what to do about it.

mattyprice4004

It doesn't matter if you think it's too much or not, sadly - these OTAs charge a fee for any changes, regardless of if it's a mistake or not. 

Unfortunately it's a risk of booking through a 3rd party and not direct - you pick up the (large) tab for any amendments. Have been there, done the same and I'm afraid it's wallet out time! 

Amandag76

Holiday gems entered my name twice as both passengers, they have now amended this, but they have my 8 year old son as lead passenger. They’ve told me it’s fine, the flights and hotel have correct details, this is just paperwork error. Don’t understand why they can’t send me correct paperwork then? 

I’m worrried this is going to cause me problems? 

I’ve found the whole process with holiday gems so stressful. I tried using my bank to fight them for booking me 6 nights and not 7, but my bank said I have no proof as it was a phone call. I said listen to it, you will not hear me once agree to 6 nights, but they said they can’t listen to the recorded call for data protection reasons. I ended up having to just pay the rest of the very expensive holiday of 6 nights, and now I am having all of these problems. I’ll never book with holiday gems ever again

AlexMac

Book direct in future.
Friends who booked our flights (unusually- we don't generally trust anyone else to do our stuff for us)  garbled my wife's name. 
BA didn't turn a hair at check in- just corrected it for free.
But then, we didn't use an agent or third party. Maybe we should if it saves us loads of money?  And if it does, over a lifetime, you can pay for the odd error with the money saved...
But does it save...?

gingerdad

I had an issue like that with RyanAir - just went to the desk at the airport in France and they changed it - an obvious mistake so could see it was an error rather than something else - cost £0. If its a main flag carrier just pop to the desk at the airport

Pollycat

gingerdad said:

I had an issue like that with RyanAir - just went to the desk at the airport in France and they changed it - an obvious mistake so could see it was an error rather than something else - cost £0. If its a main flag carrier just pop to the desk at the airport

Did you book your flights direct with Ryanair or via a 3rd party (as the OP did)?

Some airlines refuse to deal with the passenger as they are not their customer.

The passenger is the customer of the 3rd party agent and the 3rd party agent is the customer of the airline.