Legal Name change on flight made impossible when booked through third party agent

BROWNIE1996

I am writing today as I have experienced and am still experiencing the worst customer support for a name change on a flight booking made in January this year via a well known third party agent.

Although the airline has agreed to the name change and this could have been done weeks ago, I am travelling next week on a trip of a lifetime with my husband to celebrate our 30 year wedding anniversary and the third party agent has now emailed to advise I need to buy another full ticket due to the name change (although the airline has confirmed on the OSI notes on my file that the name change is accepted)

There is no email to make a formal complaint, I certainly do not want to change my ticket as I would be forced to pay double what I originally paid due to the increases in air fares in the last few months.

The third party booking agent has a chat or call option, no formal written complaint option which is strange especially since they are a renowned agent.

I have been booking with them for years with no issues to report however their partner who operate flight changes are extremely difficult to deal with and have delayed my request and provided me with wrong information on several occasions and are now asking me to rebook my ticket.

When I spoke to the airline today they confirmed the agent has not made a request to them They also advised that the name change is not chargeable and that I do not need to purchase another ticket at today's rate especially since I have a fully flexible ticket and I have the required documentation to justify the name change request.

They have also confirmed that the agent knows this as it is on the OSI notes on my customer file visible to the airline and the booking agent.

My husband and I are due to fly next week and I spent over £10,000 on the tickets.

The airline cannot change my name directly unfortunately as the booking was made through the booking agent.

The airline has offered as a last resort for me to go to the airport when checking-in for my flight next week and advised that they would do the change for me if I provide the legal name change documents which I have already sent to the booking agent weeks ago.

I believe the agent will not come back to me in time and I will have to do what the airline suggested but this surely is not how a booking agent should operate and I have been extremely anxious throughout.

I have paid in good faith for them to provide a service. Name change requests is their remit. If the airline has accepted, why did they say I had to purchase a whole new ticket at today's rate?

I wanted to find out if anyone else has experienced similar issues

luci

Is the ticket in the same name as your passport?

QrizB

Welcome to the forum.

I suspect it would help if you named the agent and the airline.

BROWNIE1996

It was a Virgin flight operated by Air France booked through Booking.com

GotoGate are the partners of Booking.com who are in charge of any name changes to be made on a flight booked with Booking.com

eskbanker

The third party booking agent has a chat or call option, no formal written complaint option which is strange especially since they are a renowned agent.

Businesses operating in unregulated sectors, such as this, aren't under any obligation to have a formal complaints process.

I wanted to find out if anyone else has experienced similar issues

Absolutely - there are many similar tales on other threads here, it's a recognised feature of many such middlemen that the quid pro quo for offering cheap headline prices is the cost (and awkwardness) of handling changes thereafter.

BROWNIE1996

The ticket was in my original name when I booked in January this year but a few months later both my maiden name and married name had to appear on my passport due to dual nationality rules which is why I had to request the change of name on my ticket

born_again

There is no email to make a formal complaint, I certainly do not want to change my ticket as I would be forced to pay double what I originally paid due to the increases in air fares in the last few months.

The third party booking agent has a chat or call option, no formal written complaint option which is strange especially since they are a renowned agent.

You do not have to write to open a complaint. Just phone them & use the word "Complaint"

Dispute resolution centre

Share your feedback or make a complaint.

https://secure.booking.com/dispute_resolution.en-gb.html

BROWNIE1996

I did and it made no difference

This has been going on for weeks and I am flying in a week so I hope I will be able to get my name changed at the airport when I check-in next week as suggested as a last resort by Air France today.

Pollycat

This is the sort of problem people experience when booking flights via a 3rd party…

luci

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82139748#Comment_82139748

Am I understanding this correctly, the name on your ticket is also on your passport? If that is the case, I don't understand why you want a name change, unless I'm missing something.

BROWNIE1996

My name was changed after I purchased the ticket and I sent the required legal proof of this to the booking agent well in advance in order for the name change to be made.