Mistaken name on Aer Lingus flight ticket

youcancallmeal

A family member booked a flight to the US recently and today they only realised they put there own name in wrong. A very stupid thing to do but there you have it. Anyway has anyone had experience with this situation, when you look at the name and the situation is explained you can see it is clearly a mistake and not an attempt to get somebody else on the ticket. I wonder are they ruthless and charge the €150 (Ridiculous amount!) name change fee regardless? Gonna ring them in the morning anyway and see what they say.

BuffyBot

It depends - normally 1-3 letter mistakes are given some leeway by airlines.

Anything more, and they might charge.

lynchie

The name change fee with Aer lingus is €100

youcancallmeal

I was looking here
I figured €150 for 2x€75 for a return flight to the US

jonny68

It really is outrageous the amount of money they charge to change someones name which can be done at the drop of a hat simply by calling their customer services team, sure you may expect a small administration fee but charging €100 is nothing short of outrageous!!!

efb

You can have cheap flights with expensive changes/extras or expensive flights with free extras but you can't have both.

youcancallmeal

My sister also bought the travel insurance advertised on Aer Lingus so that might help?

jonny68

efb wrote: »

You can have cheap flights with expensive changes/extras or expensive flights with free extras but you can't have both.

In most cases thesedays yes but not necessarily, a few years ago i flew with Iberia and had to change a name on the flight and it was about €20 as far as i remember, a big change from €100, i think the flight was under €100 Dub >Madrid which was pretty good as well,although airlines (with swineair leading the way)are getting more and more greedy thesedays and charging for everything.

I find myself getting the ferry to and from the UK more often thesedays, it may take a lot longer but at least your not getting shafted for everything like on swineair,i bet that smug bas**rd O Leary will get his way and people will have to pay to go to the toilet next:mad:

youcancallme>al

youcancallme>al wrote: »

My sister also bought the travel insurance advertised on Aer Lingus so that might help?

did she spell her name wrong or did she use the wrong name?

alpha2zulu

Forget about any chnge fees for the moment...just find one of the Aer Lingus call centre numbers on thier website,highly unlikely they will charge aslong as its reasonable obvious its a mistake.

Similar thread here a while back regarding Ethiad and Aer Arann and both airlines fixed up the name without any hassle.

youcancallmeal

Deleted User wrote: »

did she spell her name wrong or did she use the wrong name?

Wrong surname but it was the same one as the other person on the flight so its clear it was just a mental fudge when she putting in the details. I've done it myself before but I always check and correct it before I hit submit.

youcancallme>al

youcancallme>al wrote: »

Wrong surname but it was the same one as the other person on the flight so its clear it was just a mental fudge when she putting in the details. I've done it myself before but I always check and correct it before I hit submit.

They'll definitely charge the full name change fee then I would imagine

youcancallmeal

Well they were having none of it so in the end my sister just had to pay the money. It was in fact only €100 (return) as lynchie pointed out.

Dave147

I'd simply ask for a supervisor/manager and say that I'd never fly with the company again, and that you would be advising everyone you know to do likewise. 100 euro to change a name is ridiculous, 10 euro administration fee I'd get over but there's no excuse to charge someone 100 euro except pure greed. Never fly with them again tbh.

BuffyBot

What absolute nonsense. A supervisor or manager is unlikely to go against what is stated policy - and €100 is no more than many airlines out there charge for a ticket change. Some won't let you do it *at* all.

The reasoning behind having a substantial penalty is because people would snap up all the cheap fares are re-sell them. At €10 a name change there is no incentive not to do that. At €100 it becomes less attractive to try doing stuff like that.

As pointed out a couple of letters is a mistake (Typing Smithh instead of Smith or Annie instead of Anne). An entire name - well how are they to tell a "genuine" case from someone trying to pull a fast one?

Dave147

BuffyBot wrote: »

What absolute nonsense. A supervisor or manager is unlikely to go against what is stated policy - and €100 is no more than many airlines out there charge for a ticket change. Some won't let you do it *at* all.

The reasoning behind having a substantial penalty is because people would snap up all the cheap fares are re-sell them. At €10 a name change there is no incentive not to do that. At €100 it becomes less attractive to try doing stuff like that.

As pointed out a couple of letters is a mistake (Typing Smithh instead of Smith or Annie instead of Anne). An entire name - well how are they to tell a "genuine" case from someone trying to pull a fast one?

I'd suspect it wouldn't be that hard to figure out. If you're after putting in your maiden name instead of your married name and could prove it then the penalty should be waived. Even if it's blatantly obvious that it's a human error they're still not going to let you off, that's my point. And I agree with most of your point.

efb

AFAIK maiden names are allowed if you have docs to prove it

LiamMc

I think youcancallmeal's sister was unlucky with her mistake.

But is this another reason to use travel agents as the extra security against admin. errors?

Quint

I rang them once to get a name change, they did it over the phone without charge when I told them it was a mistake

jamas

I just logged in to my Aer Lingus account to book my daughter home for Christmas, and it never asked me for the passenger names - just put mine in instead. And now they are closed and I'll have to ring them in the morning and probably pay the 100. And the flight was already expensive as she didnt know what day she was finishing work, and so we couldnt book sooner. Any advice