How tight are airlines on names for flight bookings?

[OwlMother]

Dd (18) has booked a flight herself for the first time. She has just realised that she's used the name she goes by, rather than precisely what's on the passport- think Ellie and Eleanor.

It's obvious that it's a diminutive of her real name, but am I right in thinking that they're very precise about these things and she'll need to pay to change it? It's Ryanair and of course she's only realised after the 48 hour grace period for amendments.

Check in and security do not have access to the details used in her booking, they just have the details on her boarding pass and her passport.

They will 95 % likely be turned away at check in and need to go to airlines help desk and get it changed at £££. I wouldn’t want that stress prior to boarding.

I wonder how 'The Artist Formerly Known as Prince' managed? 🤔

@Owlmother

You need to run this past the airline, not just rely on this place.

With regard to the comment that it's not the airline but airport security that's the issue

It very much is the airline, at least in part.

The airline want the name to match primarily to ensure that the ticket is being used by one of the persons involved in the original booking - to stop touting, but they do check you have a valid travel document because of immigration restrictions at destination.

Airport security don't care.

So the info she enters at check in are what ends up on the boarding pass/ airport systems? And if that's ok she shouldn't have an issue?

Before September 11th… yes?

OP I’d still be weary - is it worth the risk of it causing problems for the return flight? I’d just pay to change the name properly.

I sometimes have boarding passes with my middle initials stuck onto my first name which then spells a different actual name e.g. SMITH, ANNEKA. It's a quirk of my work travel booking system that it feeds our initials through with our first names. There's never a problem, but I've never flown with Ryanair and I think they're the type of airline that would be inflexible if they can justify charging you an admin fee.

It's the info entered at the booking stage that's the problem, you don't normally get to change/amend details at check-in.

As I understand it:

If your Dd does an on-line check-in the boarding pass will automatically reflect the name your Dd put in the system when booking...in that case your Dd potentially runs into problems when the passport first gets checked by the staff at the gate on boarding.

If your Dd checks in in person at the airport then what usually happens at most airlines is the passport details are (hopefully) matched by the staff against the booking at the check-in desk. Note, Matched, not changed.

Forget about airport security, at most places they do not check passports at all, this is going to be a problem it'll be at at the check-in desk or the gate.

I honestly think you need to contact the airline.

Thats not quite true. On my birth certificate my middle name is spelt wrongly - Leslie (male) instead of Lesley (female) - thanks dad! But I have never used the male spelling and have never had any problems with my passport.

Whereas I have seen people refused boarding more than once on domestic flights due to no ID.

OP, it might be cheaper for her to buy a new ticket than pay the name change fees, but I now see that you might be able to get very near to her passport name for free and get away with the last letter.

Definitely a learning experience for DD. She needs to read everything very carefully to avoid getting tripped up like this. Maybe also suggest she double checks the baggage and liquid rules so she doesn't turn up with bag that's too big, that they won't let her take on the plane without paying £££s and also make her throw away all her expensive products because the container they're in are too big.

I'd pay to change it before she travels, they'd change it at the airport if it's picked up but the charge will be more.
This happens all the time btw, steve-steven, mike-michael etc.
If I'm ever booking someone with a name like this I always ask them to make sure it's matching their passport. Some still are absolutely sure their shortened name is on there then have to call us later to change.

I remember putting Mrs for my DD instead of Miss. The advice was so varied that I actually called BA the day before my flight to let them know. The call handler said they needed to reissue my ticket ( longhaul) at a cost of £699. He was pressuring me on the phone saying I wouldn't be able to fly etc.

I took a chance and didn't buy it. I thought that he would notify someone and they would stop us boarding but no one said anything!

@BarbaraofSeville

Whereas I have seen people refused boarding more than once on domestic flights due to no ID.

Like you I'd be surprised if there was no check.

For those that don't know the reason airlines do things this way, including ID checks on domestics, it's because they don't want a Mr or Mrs Random buying a batch of 20 quid tickets in a sale 6 months ahead of flight date and then flogging them on to other individuals on e-bay a month out from the flight date at 100 quid each....hence the pickiness about the name on the booking.

I was very, very surprised recently to fly (within the UK) with my passport in my married name and my ticket in the name I use professionally.

That was with BA, and I didn’t realise till I got to the airport so I decided to chance it. I wouldn’t recommend that though!

I’ve done this. It was cheaper to book another flight than pay to change the name on the booking.

I also changed my name by deed poll to match my booked name as it was cheaper than changing the ticket.

@Simonjt She might be able to check in as Ellie, but surely it would be picked up at the airport before boarding?

Yes, and no.

API is what the check in assistant is comparing the travel document with when they scan it. Likewise security (ignore pp saying security don't care, you're much more likely to be scrutinized without you realising it by them than by the airline ) and again at the gate. Your API, in short, is compared 3 times with your actual document once you're in the airport.

You might not have an issue if her name is different on the booking to the API. But it's not worth risking and you need to do whatever the airline (not people claiming to get on planes without ID) tells you.

Good luck!

We can change her name for free so it's only one letter wrong- Milie instead of Millie for example. When she checks in she'll use her full name as the passport name so hopefully this should all be ok. Ryanair website says if your name is one letter wrong this is acceptable.

It will cost EUR 345 to change the name on all flights.

ignore pp saying security don't care, you're much more likely to be scrutinized without you realising it by them than by the airline

Ummm…..

Well of course Security may well be scrutinizing people, that goes without saying…However in the context of this particular question and thread which is about names on passports they rarely if ever look at passports or ask for passport details…OTOH they often check boarding cards (either manually and/or scan) to ensure someone has a valid reason to go airside.

Passports are scanned, and the information brought up on the screen is not just the information printed on the passport. It's called a status check. Trust me on that one.

I booked a ticket for someone recently (KLM) and missed out their middle name and was fine but like others have said I'd check with airline as way too stressful to worry about at the airport.

Years ago the passport office forgot to add my middle name on new renewal and it was going to be so much hassle to get it changed that I have dropped my middle name on all official documents!

I always assumed that there was a big computer behind the scenes that checked that everything matched up.

Your airline checks that your booking and API data match, then the API data is compared against your passport details.

The people doing the physical scanning will only be a small part of the system.