Qantas Name Stuff-up

[Craig O'Brien]

Hi all,
Here is an interesting one I thought I would share with you.
I booked a flight from Melb to Syd via the American Express sites, to take advantage of the $450 travel credit you receive with there Credit Card.
So I logon, selected flights for me, my wife and 1 year old, and confirmed everything and purchased.

Later logon to Qantas FF site to check the booking. The book was there, but here is a strange thing, They managed to stuff up my daughters name. For my name and my wife's name, it was Mr <firstname> <lastname> Mrs <firstname> <lastname>. However for my daughter, they have <firstname>ms <lastname>

I went back to the itinerary which I got via email and they have the name in the correct order and spelled correctly.
So my thoughts are that it is Qantas who has stuff up, The code on the web site isn't working for infants.

I am not sure If I should chase it up, or not worry about it, cause they don't usually ask for I.D for infants. However since the government wants us to be like america's TSA, they might start enforcing it soon. (BTW traveling in Oct 2018)

Any thoughts from the good people at AFF

 

[AisleSeat]

It's worth making sure that it's correct. You may wish to bring along your child's original birth certificate or certified copy in case proof of identity is requested. The flight is a long way off, why not minimise any risk well ahead of time?

 

[TheInsider]

Don't bother bringing any paperwork, it won't make any different for domestic flights.

 

[oz_mark]

Amex use Sabre. Qantas use Amadeus. I've seen plenty of strange stuff when one messages the other. never been a problem though....

 

[juddles]

I have a weird name and am used to various programs joining the multi-part surname, or inserting first name after last name. Never had a problem. Domestically noone cvares who is travelling, internationally there is a checkin stage where names and travel docs (passports) are required to be verified. So no problem. But as per Aisleseat, no harm in talking to the airline. Just no need to use the word "stuff-up" to open the conversation

 

[mannej]

IMHO you are overthinking the importance of the prefix here.

 

[flying_duck]

This has happened to me in the past (firstnameMS lastname) and I didn't have any issues. I did call the airline first to verify though.

 

[PJF]

Yes IMHO leave it alone go with the flow. If you bring it up with QF and knowing their history they will want to sting you with a fee to change it.

 

[Stevo.1702]

Agree there is no need to worry. Often when work books my flights it's a random combination of first, last and often middle name and the prefix (also random sometimes) all mixed together.

 

[Isochronous]

It won't be a problem.

 

[Ausbt]

A week ago I booked some flights with Hong Kong Airlines, being HKG-CTU. Warning pops up "your name must be exactly as per passport". Indeed. HKA's booking site however refuses to allow a space between Christian name and Middle Name, so ticket reads TomRichard Harry not Tom Richard Harry. Querying the HKA chat line left me nonethewiser why the space could not be inserted, but with the claim "this won't be a problem". But you know, China... border control... yeah. No idea but apparently HKA can't/won't change it.

 

[dajop]

A week ago I booked some flights with Hong Kong Airlines, being HKG-CTU. Warning pops up "your name must be exactly as per passport". Indeed. HKA's booking site however refuses to allow a space between Christian name and Middle Name, so ticket reads TomRichard Harry not Tom Richard Harry. Querying the HKA chat line left me nonethewiser why the space could not be inserted, but with the claim "this won't be a problem". But you know, China... border control... yeah. No idea but apparently HKA can't/won't change it.

Probably 2/3 of the boarding passes I have sitting in front of me as a type this have no space between first name and middle name - including several for flights to, from and within China. Never been a problem. Ever. And have had boarding passes like this for years.

 

[mannej]

How many booking sites have an actual field for middle name?

 

[JohnK]

You don't pay for children under 2 so I would call and get it fixed.

I don't include my 20 month old daughter in my bookings and prefer to add her at the airport in case she won't be flying with me. Forgot her passport on the weekend and I only had Medicare card. OOL check-in wanted to see birth certificate but added her anyway and SYD checkin was OK.

The risk leaving daughter off booking is the quota of infants may have been reached on my flights.

 

[Ausbt]

Many thanks for the responses. In terms of fields, HKA had a combined Christian/Middle name field that was resistant to the insertion of a space.

 

[Craig O'Brien]

Thanks for all the comments. I have flown with my daughter before and they haven't asked for any I.D, I was just thinking of these new rules for security. But as everyone has said, a domestic flight isn't too much of an issue. One thing which is annoying about flying with an infant, is that you can't check in on the app/kiosk if you want to check oversize items. So you go to the person and show your I.d but they haven't asked for my infants I.D. Either way, if they start complaining I will show then the original booking and say that it is your systems fault.

 

[Rourke]

However for my daughter, they have <firstname>ms <lastname>

This is a very common rendering, even on boarding passes. The title (MR, MRS, MS, MISS, MSTR) gets appended to the first name. Not sure why it happens, but I've seen it with many airlines and multiple times on Qantas. The name is correct in the database, don't worry about it.

 

[Rourke]

Also — wild theory — it may be connected to your apostrophe. I have one in my (real) surname. Once when leaving China, two border agents had a ten-minute debate whether the little inverted comma in my passport meant my ticket had the wrong name on it.

 

[Craig O'Brien]

HI all.. Just an FYI about what happened. As many people mentioned, there was no issue. I showed my I.D at check in, got all the boarding passes (which did have the correct name of everyone) and was on my way.

I did have my first experience of my daughter been sick on the flight (she was starting to come down with a bug the night before)
which wasn't fun, but at least it was only a 1 hour flight.. I did actually forget about the boarding pass issue until after we had gotten through security...