Help!..Name change on aerlingus flight?!

up-&-at-dem

A few months ago I booked flights for me & two of my mates for 3 one way flights. I only realised now that I amazingly booked my own name on 2 of the flights leaving out 1 of my buddies. I rang aerlingus & i was told it would cost €100 to do a name change & I said that surely it should only be €50 cos its one way, but he replied its 100 for all name changes. Is this right/fair? any way other around this? I deserve to be charged some money for my stupidity but €100 is harsh!! the flights were only €51 each originally. they r €126 to book now so the option of just buying a new flight is more expensive than the name change.

...any help would be appreciated!

Random

There's not a lot you can do. it's clearly there in green and white.

Change Booking Fee
Change Fees - Name

* Low Fare
o Name changes are permitted for €100/£80/$157 per person, and may be changed up to 2 hours prior to commencement of journey.
o The name must be changed for all flights in the itinerary.
* FlexiFare
o Name changes are permitted for €100/£80/$157 per person, and may be changed up to 2 hours prior to commencement of journey.
o The name must be changed for all flights in the itinerary.
* Business
o Name changes are permitted for €100/£80/$157 per person, and may be changed up to 2 hours prior to commencement of journey.
o The name must be changed for all flights in the itinerary.

Payment

Payment is required at the time of making the change. If the passenger has a paper ticket payment is required at the ticket desk as the ticket will need to be updated.

For name changes please contact the Aer Lingus Reservations Department. For contact details click here: Reservations Department.

Corruptedmorals

Why is it so much though..same as Ryanair, they charge €100 as well.

Random

It's "so much" because they can charge that. My thoughts on it anyway.

jor el

Random wrote: »

It's "so much" because they can charge that. My thoughts on it anyway.

Yep, it's whatever they want it to be, and they want it to be €100. Basically, they don't want you changing details, they want you to get it right the first time.

up-&-at-dem

ya they are in the right so. any ideas of a sob story I could give them??

Paulw

up-&-at-dem wrote: »

ya they are in the right so. any ideas of a sob story I could give them??

You mean one they haven't heard before?

Probably just cheaper to book a new flight.

Random

Probably just cheaper to book a new flight.

Have another read of the OP.

up-&-at-dem

I know dey hav prob heard it all! I have to at least give it a try tho. I dont know wheter to be polite or demanding! maybe if I convinced them that there was nothing sinister when bookin the flight- that it was just an honest mistake.

a new flight would cost €126 so the name change is cheaper

Toots

Be polite, demanding will get you nowhere. It's very hard to get around this charge, as it's per booking, not per flight AFAIK. It happened my Dad booking hols this year, he'd literally only booked the flights, then realised he'd put in the details wrong and he had to pay it, even though he'd only booked the flights 5 mins previously.

LiamD

Random wrote: »

It's "so much" because they can charge that. My thoughts on it anyway.

The original purpose of charging so much for a name change with a budget airline was to stop travel agents or other booking agents from buying up a load of the cheap seats as soon as they are released thus pushing up the price of the seat when booking with the airline. This would leave the agent free to resell their seats at a profit and simply change the name on the seat. It removes the initial cheap fares from consumers and the only ones that profit are the agents. This is the same reason that Ryanair recently restricted screenscrapers from displaying Ryanair flight prices (some agents were charging comission).

It's unfortunate to hear the OP's story but I would just pay it and put it down to experience this time.

Slice

Have you checked the cost of booking the same flight again in the correct name? It could work out cheaper than the name change.

chavezychavez

Happened to me 2 weeks ago on Ryanair.com. Booked a flight for a mate of mine, but when I entered my credit card details, I made a mistake on the expiry date.
The webpage showed the error when processing and threw me back to the previous page to correct the expiry date. What I hadn't noticed was that it had put my credit card name into the Passenger Name as opposed to my friends name.
€100 later, the name was finally correct.

After speaking to a few people after the event, it transpires that I'm not the only one that this has happened to.

jor el

up-&-at-dem wrote: »

a new flight would cost €126 so the name change is cheaper

Then pay for the name change. There's no point in trying any sob stories, it won't work, and you'll be wasting your time.

craichoe

Usually its cheaper to book another flight

rubadub

LiamD wrote: »

The original purpose of charging so much for a name change with a budget airline was to stop travel agents or other booking agents from buying up a load of the cheap seats as soon as they are released thus pushing up the price of the seat when booking with the airline. This would leave the agent free to resell their seats at a profit and simply change the name on the seat. It removes the initial cheap fares from consumers and the only ones that profit are the agents. This is the same reason that Ryanair recently restricted screenscrapers from displaying Ryanair flight prices (some agents were charging comission).

Cheers for that, always wondered why, it makes sense.

I always wondered why they needed a name at all, don't remember needed to give my name on a ferry donkeys years ago. Also if the name is really needed for passport/legal purposes you should have the option of leaving it blank until check in time.

I suppose if this was the case then there would be far less cheaper tickets available to early bookers, as the travel agents would snap them up as you describe.

Do check as mentioned, a new one could be cheaper.

ShoulderChip

This has just happened to my dad!

Has anyone heard of a way around paying the 100euro?

dudara

Zombie thread - closed

dudara