Change fee for inverted first and last name on QF International ?

[isdnman]

A friend of mine had booked a Qantas flight and only found that the first / last name in the booking was inverted as per passport when they arrived at the airport on the day of travel.

QF Mel Dom service desk staff charged a total of $120 for a QF MEL-xSYD-PVG ticket. Is this correct ?

I thought QF could have put a note in the booking at no cost regarding the invert name and he be allowed travel.
At least, I think it should be a single $80 charge for married sectors, for one charge per sector ?

Anyone care to comment ?

 

[mannej]

Was this noticed at check-in?

 

[Mark3000]

This sort of behavior infuriates me. When the airline can clearly see it was an honest mistake, why be greedy and charge for it and upset the customer

 

[isdnman]

Yes. It was noticed at check-in at the airport.

 

[kpc]

If he had done OLCI, no one would have been the wiser and he would have boarded the plane without any problems!

 

[dajop]

If he had done OLCI, no one would have been the wiser and he would have boarded the plane without any problems!

For international flights? Where visas need to be checked, immigration needs to be passed through etc etc. I expect at some point someone may have noticed.

 

[RichardMEL]

Correct international there are a number of ID and BP checks involved. Now it may well slip through, but unlikely.

 

[isdnman]

My questions is really
1. Could QF staff had just put a note in the booking and there is no need to change the booking and thus no charge for the change booking fee.
2. I thought QF staff over charged my friend as I believe the international itinerary change fee is $80, but they charged $120 total. No sure why.
Maybe they charged one domestic change fee and one international fee on a married sector MEL-xSYD-PVG ?

 

[isdnman]

Red Roo, are you able to comment here, in which cases the change fee can be waived should similar incident happen to other passengers ?

I think what AA offers is quite reasonable.

Examples of name corrections/changes available in most cases* via AAdvantage Customer Service:

• Correcting misspelled or abbreviated names
• Adding, deleting or expanding a first or middle name/initial
• Reversing middle/first names or first/last names
• Adding or changing a prefix or suffix
• Changing a hyphenated name to any of its variations

 

[Flying mermaid]

This sort of behavior infuriates me. When the airline can clearly see it was an honest mistake, why be greedy and charge for it and upset the customer

Totally agree and some airlines are worse than others. I booked an airfare online with South African airways and left the last letter off Mr Fm's last name (mine was correct). It was from Nairobi to Johannesburg and I wasn't going to take a chance on turning up at Nairobi airport and having problems. I contacted SAA to get the name corrected and found the only way they would fix it was to cancel the airfare and rebook it. It ended up costing a fortune extra, as the airfare had gone up quite a bit.

 

[isdnman]

Red Roo, care to comment on this ?

 

[kpc]

Red Roo, are you able to comment here, in which cases the change fee can be waived should similar incident happen to other passengers ?

I think what AA offers is quite reasonable.

Examples of name corrections/changes available in most cases* via AAdvantage Customer Service:

• Correcting misspelled or abbreviated names
• Adding, deleting or expanding a first or middle name/initial
• Reversing middle/first names or first/last names
• Adding or changing a prefix or suffix
• Changing a hyphenated name to any of its variations

A few years ago I did the exact same thing and got my+1s first and last name round the wrong way on an AA booking A quick call to AA in Dallas and the problem was fixed free of charge!

 

[Princess Fiona]

Just adding to the experience here in name errors.
I booked CX J Awards on AA for my daughters. Noticed once the e-tickets arrived that one of the kids first names was missing a consonant. Rang up AA both Australian number and US and both agents said couldn't be changed without cancelling the awards and re-booking. I thought that sounded like rubbish advice so decided to leave it. Fast forward to earlier this week. Picked up by the sharp-eyed TSA on departure at LAX. She was made to wait 30 minutes for a supervisor who took 2 seconds to waive her on through.
I have to say that I neglected to tell number 1 daughter about the spelling error so have now lost my mother of the year crown

 

[Red Roo]

Red Roo, care to comment on this ?

Without looking at the booking (and also for privacy reasons), I couldn't comment on your friend's situation.

However in most cases, a name change requires the ticket to be reissued. This is particularly important for international bookings where external factors such as customs and immigration are to be considered, not to mention a potential hefty fine to the carrier for incorrectly uplifting a passenger on a fraudulent ticket.

Reissue fees should be as per the conditions of the original fare purchased, and best to be sorted out prior to departure and thus avoiding "surprises" at the airport.

We do have a "Same Day No Mistake" policy for bookings made via qantas.com: Same Day No Mistake | Qantas

 

[farstar]

If first and last names are on the booking, reversed or not QANTAS should honour the booking. The order of the names is pointless, after all in some cultures the first name is the surname rather than the last.

 

[BenSQ380]

The OP is mainly querying the $120 (not $80) fee. Technically & literally it's a name change which some fares don't permit. Depending on the fare booked the $120 may well have been better than what could have been. The $80 fee, from what I understand is per booking - which may not extend to name changes on fares that are booked with a condition of 'name changes: not permitted'. For the sake of $40, learn from the mistake and move on. If the disincentives weren't there people would be even less inclined to take responsibility. AA's FoC name changes are great for those that need it in the same way that QF's first bag free (included in ticket cost) is a comparative advantage. I've stuffed up before and taken a hit well before arriving at the airport - finding out at check-in must have been quite stressful for your friend. If they'd queried the charge at the time they may well have been pleased that they got out of it a lot cheaper than the T's & C's dictate. If you know what kind of deal your friend booked you can mimic that and check the conditions for the fare type through the booking engine - without completing the booking, of course.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Without looking at the booking (and also for privacy reasons), I couldn't comment on your friend's situation.

However in most cases, a name change requires the ticket to be reissued. This is particularly important for international bookings where external factors such as customs and immigration are to be considered, not to mention a potential hefty fine to the carrier for incorrectly uplifting a passenger on a fraudulent ticket.

Reissue fees should be as per the conditions of the original fare purchased, and best to be sorted out prior to departure and thus avoiding "surprises" at the airport.

We do have a "Same Day No Mistake" policy for bookings made via qantas.com: Same Day No Mistake | Qantas

None of this actually explains why QF needs to charge $120.

A ticket re-issue can be done 100% free of charge if the carrier wishes to do so.

In the case of genuine mistakes - and it's unlikely a passenger is going to deliberately reverse the order of their names for any benefit - accommodating the passenger could be simple and straight-forward. Happy to be corrected here, but I find it unlikely it actually 'costs' QF $120 to make the change and reissue. So this seems like a money making exercise. It could easily be done at an 'at cost' basis ($20 for 15 mins of an agent's time).

 

[RichardMEL]

I'm of the opinion that this is a case where common sense should come into it, which the AAdvantage policy as quoted earlier seems to be. I mean it should be obvious to anyone that if I front up with a ticket for Ichard/MEL or Richard/MEL or MEL/Richard, that it's me and it's an honest mistake. Having said that the change fee is part of conditions of many fare types (including some of the more (supposedly) flexible ones) and one needs to cop I guess as a reminder to triple check every time (I know I usually go through the process 2 or 3 times myself, specially with more expensive tickets, to make sure I've put everything in correctly - just in case ).

My understanding is the whole name change thing is mostly there as a means to combat fraud, onselling of tickets and the like and I have no real issue with that policy or even the fee, but I think there should be a clause for common sense - which the QF same day of booking no fee policy seems to cover. Unfortunately if one spots the issue after that initial booking window well...

QF don't *need* to charge the $120(or whatever) fee to technically change the name or reissue the e-ticket - obviously not - but it's up to them to put whatever restrictions and fees they like on their various fare types - we go in to a purchase advised at the time of booking of these conditions and if we accept them by purchasing, then we're bound by those rules and need to accept it in the case of needing to change or whatever.. IMHO.

 

[sausagefingers]

Flying Qantas for the first time Internationally (BNE-LAX-BNE) next month and in my haste to book the fights, I left an E off my daughters middle name (Anne).
I tried in vain to correct the error through both Priceline.com and Qantas and on advice from this forum decided to leave it as it appears a middle name won't be an issue.

 

[UP4014]

Without looking at the booking (and also for privacy reasons), I couldn't comment on your friend's situation.

However in most cases, a name change requires the ticket to be reissued. This is particularly important for international bookings where external factors such as customs and immigration are to be considered, not to mention a potential hefty fine to the carrier for incorrectly uplifting a passenger on a fraudulent ticket.

Reissue fees should be as per the conditions of the original fare purchased, and best to be sorted out prior to departure and thus avoiding "surprises" at the airport.

We do have a "Same Day No Mistake" policy for bookings made via qantas.com: Same Day No Mistake | Qantas

It might be an incorrect ticket but not fraudulent, these sort or words are simply used to justify a charge. Regardless, the ticket could be reissued without charge if QF wanted to.

Matt