Middle name shown on passport but not flight tickets

[Yoga teacher]

Thank you everyone for your input.
When I contacted Cathay Pacific through their Customer WhatsApp service they said it was fine as long as the first and last name are accurate.
Screen shot below for those interested.
As an FYI, this contradicted the advice given by their customer service rep on the phone and also the advice given by Qantas who both told me to cancel and rebook.
Don’t always trust what they tell you first time!
Thanks again!
View attachment 285761

 

[Yoga teacher]

Thank you everyone for your input.
When I contacted Cathay Pacific through their Customer WhatsApp service they said it was fine as long as the first and last name are accurate.
Screen shot below for those interested.
As an FYI, this contradicted the advice given by their customer service rep on the phone and also the advice given by Qantas who both told me to cancel and rebook.
Don’t always trust what they tell you first time!
Thanks again!
View attachment 285761

Good to see this. I am in a similar situation. I didn’t put middle names of my children’s on CX reservation via Expedia.

When you put your passport details on their website/online check in (API), did you put both first name and middle name as in the passport? There is only one box for ‘first and middle names’? Or did you put your first name and initial as you booked the Flight?

Many thanks. I’m suddenly panicking.

 

[RooFlyer]

Welcome to AFF @Yoga teacher . Don’t panic. Whether or not you put a middle name in doesn’t matter. In fact not putting it in makes one less avenue for someone making a mistake somewhere later on.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Very very rare for the [lack of a] middle name to be an issue.

Passports are scanned at check-in and the full details are transmitted to the receiving country. That contains your full details which are used for any security checks or vetting.

Airlines would love you to pay to change your ticket, but reservations agents aren’t the ones on the ground handling check-in, nor are they customs and immigrations specialists.

I have heard of some rare instances where not having a middle name has caused a problem. On analysis it was a low cost carrier who had overbooked the flight and were using lack of a full name as an excuse to deny boarding.

Even the TSA doesn’t care when checking boarding passes!

 

[Warragul]

Very very rare for the [lack of a] middle name to be an issue.

Passports are scanned at check-in and the full details are transmitted to the receiving country. That contains your full details which are used for any security checks or vetting.

Airlines would love you to pay to change your ticket, but reservations agents aren’t the ones on the ground handling check-in, nor are they customs and immigrations specialists.

I have heard of some rare instances where not having a middle name has caused a problem. On analysis it was a low cost carrier who had overbooked the flight and were using lack of a full name as an excuse to deny boarding.

Even the TSA doesn’t care when checking boarding passes!

Government's who receive and use PNR information also understand the differences that can occur with names in airline bookings.

Things like differences between name on booking and FF profile and name provided at check in (passport). The check in swipe reads the data from the machine readable zone, which in some cases is not big enough to contain the full name of the person - Brazil, Portugal and Sri Lanka names are ones that come to mind. In their cases the booking usually doesn't have the full name either so systems do what they can with what's available.

Many booking systems will store the salutation with the name, a few of my bookings have had MR added to the end of my given name(s).

 

[Yoga teacher]

Welcome to AFF @Yoga teacher . Don’t panic. Whether or not you put a middle name in doesn’t matter. In fact not putting it in makes one less avenue for someone making a mistake somewhere later on.

Thank you so much for the reassurance. Doing my very best to not to think about it.

Very very rare for the [lack of a] middle name to be an issue.

Passports are scanned at check-in and the full details are transmitted to the receiving country. That contains your full details which are used for any security checks or vetting.

Airlines would love you to pay to change your ticket, but reservations agents aren’t the ones on the ground handling check-in, nor are they customs and immigrations specialists.

I have heard of some rare instances where not having a middle name has caused a problem. On analysis it was a low cost carrier who had overbooked the flight and were using lack of a full name as an excuse to deny boarding.

Even the TSA doesn’t care when checking boarding passes!

Thank you for reassuring me. I think I have read about it online somewhere. It must be such a rare case, as I read about the incident a few times.
4 more days before flying. Trying not to think.

 

[Yoga teacher]

Government's who receive and use PNR information also understand the differences that can occur with names in airline bookings.

Things like differences between name on booking and FF profile and name provided at check in (passport). The check in swipe reads the data from the machine readable zone, which in some cases is not big enough to contain the full name of the person - Brazil, Portugal and Sri Lanka names are ones that come to mind. In their cases the booking usually doesn't have the full name either so systems do what they can with what's available.

Many booking systems will store the salutation with the name, a few of my bookings have had MR added to the end of my given name(s).

Thank you for this.

I’m planning to do online check in . I am worried the only time they swipe the passport is at the boarding gate in the last minute. Then they would have no time to sort the problem if there is one.
I have a luggage to check in.

 

[prozac]

Welcome to AFF @Yoga teacher .

 

[Duffa]

I have looked at my most recent tickets with emirates and Cathay.
Both tickets have only my first name.
My passport has middle name.
Both flights went off without a hitch.
And FWIW, my current trip on Singapore.
First name only on ticket.
My personal experience is that I have ZERO issues.
I think you can relax!

 

[Suesue]

Hello all Has anyone flown with Air Asia and not put their middle name on the flight booking? If so, what was the outcome? I booked tickets the other day and had a brain freeze and for whatever reason only put our first and last names on the booking. Now mildy worried that it may cause a hassle at the airport as we all have middle names. I have tried contacting Air Asia, but still awaiting their reply. thanks in advance

 

[kpc]

Hello all Has anyone flown with Air Asia and not put their middle name on the flight booking? If so, what was the outcome? I booked tickets the other day and had a brain freeze and for whatever reason only put our first and last names on the booking. Now mildy worried that it may cause a hassle at the airport as we all have middle names. I have tried contacting Air Asia, but still awaiting their reply. thanks in advance

Don't worry! The lack of middle name on Air Asia is not an issue. I flew Kul to Sin in June without my middle name without issue...they did weigh my carryon and it was 8kg....they didn't say anything even though 7 kg is the stated maximum

 

[Suesue]

Thanks KPC! I figured that it would be all good, just wanted to hear someone else experience with Air Asia Cheers

 

[SydneySwan]

A different take on the middle name issue. One of the cygnets has booked a ticket with an OTA and when checking the ticket on the airlines website his 3 first names have been merged together into one long first name. They are all spelt correctly.

Anyone know if this could be problematic? The airline is GOL and it is an internal Brazil flight.

 

[Pushka]

A different take on the middle name issue. One of the cygnets has booked a ticket with an OTA and when checking the ticket on the airlines website his 3 first names have been merged together into one long first name. They are all spelt correctly.

Anyone know if this could be problematic? The airline is GOL and it is an internal Brazil flight.

From memory I think EK does this as well. Something to do with not recognising spaces.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

This is generally why I don’t have my middle name on my passport. There is no legal requirement to do so and some airline systems get confused by it.

-RooFlyer88

 

[Harryd12]

I also have the same issue, my middle name have been doubled up. I booked through Qantas Frequent Flyer website which have all my travel details in there however the ticket was still issued incorrectly. Qantas want to charge me cancellation fees even if this is initially not my error and re book the trip with under different price (more expensive). They said that they are not able to change the name because part of the trip are with other airlines. So frustrated dealing with them, how can they sell the ticket with their partner airlines but not able to help us change anything.
Their call center was not very helpful. While waiting, Qantas have said that we have to be respectful with their employees but this should also goes both ways. A little sympathy to our issue will be appreciated.
I understand from the previous post it seem that Middle name are not that important, but I am travelling through the States and they can be difficult sometimes so just want to have everything in order.
Do you guys have any suggestion? I am thinking to try to go to the airport and see if the Qantas help desk can help me a bit more....

Hi @YintSJ - wondering how this worked out for you, as I have the exact same issue with my middle initial doubling up.

 

[AIRwin]

Hi @YintSJ - wondering how this worked out for you, as I have the exact same issue with my middle initial doubling up.

I didn't have an issue recently on a LATAM flight booked using QF points with both my middle initial (from my QF profile) and middle name (which I manually added when booking not knowing about the middle initial automatically being populated)

 

[Harryd12]

I didn't have an issue recently on a LATAM flight booked using QF points with both my middle initial (from my QF profile) and middle name (which I manually added when booking not knowing about the middle initial automatically being populated)

Thanks AIRwin, that seems very similar to my situation! Did you check in at a Qantas desk or LATAM?

 

[clifford]

I've deleted my middle name/initial from my Qantas profile and the problem goes away.

Better experience than a friend of mine who flew QF to HKG a few weeks. ago. She was silly enough to put her married name on the booking but omitted to change her passport.

Qantas check in staff licked their lips and made her purchase a new ticket (you can imagine how much that might have cost). Interesting that a couple of months prior to that the same thing happened with a Scoot flight to SIN (some people can be slow learners) and the kind Scoot supervisor fixed it up for her at no charge.

Make what you will of that.

 

[Warragul]

From memory I think EK does this as well. Something to do with not recognising spaces.

It harks back to old RES/DCS systems where memory was at a premium and any chance to save a few bytes was taken. EK's is an example of this. Many of this systems are still around eg Air NZ's Carina which dates back to the days of NAC, but has been updated and kept alive many times. Not sure on the whether it concatenates names these days.