Flight centre cancels booking without authority

[DrGStar]

Hello AFF community,

I'm reaching out to see whether anyone else had similar experiences with the Flight Centre, and more importantly, how this may be resolved? I recently booked flights to the UK via Flight Centre's online booking platform, intending to travel during the Christmas period. However, I noted that the booking defaulted to my preferred name, rather than the full name in my passport. I have spent months trying to change this, to no avail.

In the last two weeks, I finally made some headway (after spending almost 20 hours coughulatively on the phone to their Philippines call centre). I paid the Flight Centre international flight change fee along with the airline fee which was promptly deducted from my account. However, now Flight Centre says the change can't be made (despite receiving an email stating it could be done). The justification is that Singapore Airlines won't allow this as there is one internal codeshare Virgin flight, but I wasn't informed about this until 2 weeks later. In the interim, they took the liberty to cancel my e-ticket without explanation, but left my partner to fly on his own. They didn't even have the courtesy to inform me that my e-ticket was cancelled - I discovered this after logging on to the Singapore Airlines website. I have been trying to resolve this for weeks and I'm at my wits end. The customer service has been appalling and beyond personally confirming with the airlines that it can be done (it's a matter of changing 4 letters of my first name) what more can I do?

 

[docjames]

I think you have to keep pursuing Flight Centre for a resolution. Be clear with what you want (seat on same flight as spouse, costs as agreed only).

Be prepared for a battle……

In the past my understanding was an error of ?2 letters in a name were acceptable, but 4 may be a problem.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I believe it’s three letters… provided the name doesn’t change materially and is obviously the same person. So Jon->John is ok, but Franny->Frank might not, as the gender could be different.

 

[Franky]

I believe it’s three letters… provided the name doesn’t change materially and is obviously the same person. So Jon->John is ok, but Franny->Frank might not, as the gender could be different.

Franky might not as well...

 

[Scarlett]

Franky might not as well...

Can s/he change it to Frankie though?

Sorry OP, I don’t think there’s any way other than sheer doggedness to get through this one. You could of course book another seat direct through the airline if Flight Centre have given you back all your money, if there’s any available at decent price.

And never use Flight Centre again of course, which is good advice for anyone, anywhere.

 

[DrGStar]

I think you have to keep pursuing Flight Centre for a resolution. Be clear with what you want (seat on same flight as spouse, costs as agreed only).

Be prepared for a battle……

In the past my understanding was an error of ?2 letters in a name were acceptable, but 4 may be a problem.

Thanks Doc. I've been advised that Singapore and Virgin are both fine with changing names if there are more than 3 characters involved. However, Singapore won't allow the change because there is one leg that's codeshared with Virgin. I've requested that my original flight be reinstated as it shouldn't have been cancelled in the first place. Still working on this. I've been calling every 24hrs but so far, only the domestic Virgin flight has been resolved.

 

[YSSY]

As an aside, whilst I can't say it's a rule, I have found that airlines are pretty good at handling spelling errors at check in. When I worked in the Middle East they always misspelled my name, yet airlines seemed to accept it. The only issue was trying to attach a frequent flyer number or status to the booking...