New ticket bought due to inverted first and last name

BusinessTraveller

I booked a flight and hotel combination from the UK to the US through Booking.com, which was executed by Lastminute.com
I didn't realise at the time of booking that the first and last name were auto populated and wrong - my first name and last name were inverted.
I only noticed when I tried to check in. Lastminute told me it was too late to make changes (24 hours before the flight - of course I could not check in earlier than 24 hours before the flight).
They told me not to worry, the airline will accept it, according to the Delta policy.
At the airport, the Delta agents could not help as the first leg of the journey was Virgin. They ALMOST managed to change it, but wanted a secondary proof of identity, and I did not bring my drivers licence (had I know, I could have done so of course). Virgin point blank refused.
I had to buy a new ticket (VERY!! expensive) as I was going to a conference, there was no point going a day later.
Lastminute is now refusing to pay me back, claiming it's not their fault. The fact that their system auto-populated the bookig seems to count for nothing. It's VERY easy to miss this error.
I'm now trying to claim with Delta. IF they refund, it would only be the original ticket, not the double-the-price replacement ticket!
Should I go to my credit card provider next? Travel insurance? who can help?
The whole system is broken! EVERY single human being I spoke to knew what went wrong, yet NOBODY could override the "computer says no" attitude of the system. Any advice very welcome. Thanks

Ayr_Rage

Credit card : no redress there as the ticket was delivered.

Travel Insurance : no liability for your mistake in not checking your documentation.

Unless you can prove by means of a video that the system you say transposes names does so on every single booking then you've no comeback against the booking site.

I think it is highly unlikely it does otherwise this issue would be all over t'internet.

The best you can hope for is a goodwill reimbursement for the ticket that was not used.

It sounds like finger trouble on your behalf to be honest.

eskbanker

BusinessTraveller said:

I booked a flight and hotel combination from the UK to the US through Booking.com, which was executed by Lastminute.com
I didn't realise at the time of booking that the first and last name were auto populated and wrong - my first name and last name were inverted.
I only noticed when I tried to check in. Lastminute told me it was too late to make changes (24 hours before the flight - of course I could not check in earlier than 24 hours before the flight).
They told me not to worry, the airline will accept it, according to the Delta policy.
At the airport, the Delta agents could not help as the first leg of the journey was Virgin. They ALMOST managed to change it, but wanted a secondary proof of identity, and I did not bring my drivers licence (had I know, I could have done so of course). Virgin point blank refused.
I had to buy a new ticket (VERY!! expensive) as I was going to a conference, there was no point going a day later.
Lastminute is now refusing to pay me back, claiming it's not their fault. The fact that their system auto-populated the bookig seems to count for nothing. It's VERY easy to miss this error.
I'm now trying to claim with Delta. IF they refund, it would only be the original ticket, not the double-the-price replacement ticket!
Should I go to my credit card provider next? Travel insurance? who can help?
The whole system is broken! EVERY single human being I spoke to knew what went wrong, yet NOBODY could override the "computer says no" attitude of the system. Any advice very welcome. Thanks

Even if you could demonstrate a navigation path through the booking systems that resulted in names being inverted, the companies would no doubt argue that you'd have had the opportunity to correct the error immediately after receiving the booking confirmation documentation, so I don't think you'll have any joy trying to recover costs from any of the parties you identify - no harm in trying, obviously, but it's not clear that any of them actually has any liability here, from what you've described.

The airlines haven't done anything wrong.

Your credit card provider will only refund if you can demonstrate breach of contract by the supplier, although a section 75 claim wouldn't work here anyway, given the number of parties involved.

Travel insurance is unlikely to have this as an insured risk, but check the policy wording.

Lastminute shouldn't have told you that it would be OK, but in itself that doesn't make them liable for the cost when it turned out not to be OK, if you were in the same position as you'd have been in without that 'assurance'.

zagfles

Was it definitely their system that auto populated the fields or your web browser? Mine always tries to auto populate fields like name, phone number, email etc even on websites I've never used, so it can't be cookies. 

DeathByFluffy

I think it was more than likely your web browser that did this - I use Lastminute occasionally, and I've never had it auto-populate even though all of my information is saved and I log in before booking. 

Auto fill often gets stuff like this wrong, and it's down to you to spot it I'm afraid - it may be worth turning the feature in your browser off to stop it happening again. 
I can't see any other party involved is going to pay out for this; I think it's just going to be an expensive lesson.