Airline-daylight robbery for name change?

arthurwat

I arrived to board a BMI Baby flight and had made a typing error on the booking. I was sent to the airline office to get it corrected and was charged £125 for the privilege. The airline has a policy whereby they charge £30 for the name change (admin fee - fair enough) plus the difference between the fare you originally paid and the cost of the flight on that day.
They refer to their terms and conditions which state that name changes are charged in this way but I contend that this is not a name CHANGE so much as a name CORRECTION. Also, the plane was completely full so who determines the "price" of the flight today.

Is this fair? Can I/should I be able to claim this money back? Is this daylight robbery?

Alias_Omega

yes but a set amount

What was wrong with the ticket.? Did you not check it before hand.?

arthurwat

yes but a set amount

You don't actually receive a ticket - you print out the booking form and you give a reference number at check in.

Alias_Omega

yes but a set amount

Alias_Omega wrote: »

What was wrong with the ticket.? Did you not check it before hand.?

Ok, so the booking information was entered by yourself.

What was wrong, why did they charge you the cash. What did they ammend, and why.?

Regards,

Alias

arthurwat

yes but a set amount

They charged me because one of the surnames (out of three) on the booking had been incorrectly entered (by me), even though all others were correct. The names were all correctly entered on the return booking. The name had to be corrected to match the name on the passport.

Cheers,

Arthurwat

jonesMUFCforever

yes

If you cannot type your own surname don't blame anyone else but yourself!

Take responsibility for your own actions and don't make a fuss over something that could have been avoided by you.

dmg24

yes, as much as they like (as at present)

I get the feeling there is more to this than the OP is letting on ...

If the booking had been entered as SMUTH rather than SMITH, then the above charge would seem quite high. However, most airlines would change such a mistake for a nominal charge (Ryanair charges £7), if requested within a short time after booking.

If the booking had been entered as JONES rather than SMITH, then the charge would seem quite fair.

Nonetheless, I have to agree with the others, did you not notice the mistake earlier? It would have been considerably cheaper to have changed it at the time of booking, or shortly afterwards.

duchy

If you'd checked the confirmation on the day you booked it -it would have been changed at no charge. Sorry but I honestly don't think you have a legitimate gripe.if you entered a wrong name and I know from experience BMI aren't over picky and would have let an obvious typo like Smuth for Smith go by.

LuciferTDark

no

While I agree it's the OP's fault for getting the name wrong, don't you think it's a bit unfair & possibly dishonest to charge the difference between the original price for the ticket & what the ticket would cost on the day? especially as the change would take no more than a couple of minutes.

arthurwat

yes but a set amount

ejones999 wrote: »

If you cannot type your own surname don't blame anyone else but yourself!

Take responsibility for your own actions and don't make a fuss over something that could have been avoided by you.

It's not a matter of taking responsibility - it's about the scale of the charge!!!

I accept that it was my fault; I also accept that a charge should be made. The point is that the charge is neither standardised nor limited.

arthurwat

yes but a set amount

duchy wrote: »

If you'd checked the confirmation on the day you booked it -it would have been changed at no charge. Sorry but I honestly don't think you have a legitimate gripe.if you entered a wrong name and I know from experience BMI aren't over picky and would have let an obvious typo like Smuth for Smith go by.

This just isn't true. I have spoken to other people who have suffered in the same way. One person typed the wrong initial for one of his children, realised his mistake, notified the airline ON THE SAME DAY and was charged £30 for the name change and another £50 because the ticket price had risen in a matter of hours.
I'm not sure what "over picky" means; if the name is not identical to the name on the passport they (allegedly) have to change it.