[Peter]

My son was due to fly with KLM in March, but due to Coronavirus, the flight was cancelled and he was issued with a voucher instead.

Unfortunately the voucher was issued using the last part of his double barrelled surname; the first part missing.

He usually only calls himself by his first name and the latter part of his surname. He has now booked a new flight, using the voucher.

The KLM website didn’t allow him to use the voucher with his full surname, and so he entered his details omitting the first part of his surname.

He now has a booking that does not fully correspond to his surname, only the second part.

Will this be an issue when checking in ? Does your name on a ticket/booking have to correspond exactly with your passport?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

[GivingupBA]

Earlier this year I was in the UK and booked a flight on-line on KLM. However, I stupidly left out my middle name while booking – so of course it didn’t appear on my e-ticket. So I phoned the KLM (London) office. They immediately reissued my ticket with my full name on it. That cost I think 31 pounds – they charged my credit card while I was on the phone with them.

And yes, please check the KLM website, I believe it says your name on a ticket/booking has to correspond exactly with the full name on your passport (please don’t take my word for it – you need to check this).

That’s my story, it worked for me.

[Peter]

Thanks for that that Giving UP BA. Much appreciated. Looks like I will have to pay to change though it was there mistake initially.

[MartynSinclair]

[quote quote=1014658]However, I stupidly left out my middle name while booking – so of course it didn’t appear on my e-ticket.[/quote]

Why was the above a problem?

For the first 50 or so years I booked air tickets using my middle & family name but NOT my given name. All my official documents were issued the same, including, internationally recognized licenses & a singular UK based crew pass, all accepted around the world. My bank accounts and all other UK documents were issued the same way – never had a problem.

Around 2010, on arrival in the USA, I had one of those ‘come with me’ offers at immigration. It was pointed out, that my given name on my air ticket did not match the given name on my passport & travelling on anything other than your GIVEN name, (i.e. first name as it appears on your passport) is a Federal offence. I have a USA social security number, issued in my FULL name and immigration said I had been subject to a spot check. The advice was (actually I was TOLD) for me to change ALL documents to show my given name, otherwise I could have a more serious problem, next time entering the states. Interestingly, immigration stated at that time, not using my middle names would not be an issue. I have since changed all documents and now only travel using my given name and family name, but I certainly don’t bother adding my middle names to any booking.

I even changed my UK driving license to show my full name, result was a new driving license number which had the added benefit of speeding ticket points being dropped after 8 months! Being the honest kind of chappie, I did write to DVLA to point this out as it could be considered as an incorrect disclosure when answering car insurance application questions. Their answer, consider your self lucky. So for subsequent car insurance renewals I would state I did have a speeding ticket, but points expired after 8 months. I made sure the call was recorded…..

[esselle]

Some years ago my wife and I flew in F on a combination of BA/AA LHR-LAX-LAS-LAX-LHR.

On the LAS-LAX sector, we realised that her boarding pass only contained her christian name and middle name (which appeared in the box for her surname).

Nobody spotted it. We then examined all the passes used since we left London, and they were all the same; christian name and middle name only. So for all the security/passport/boarding pass checks etc we went through, none of the officials spotted it.

[tomwjsimpson]

Customer service are generally very good at KLM. At times, it can take a while to get through but I’ve always found them to be very helpful – even when they’ve been working from home!

[Peter]

Was thinking about the point of a ‘middle ‘ name and the writer who said they felt obliged to pay to get their middle name included. I looked at my passport last night and found that my middle name is listed under ‘first names(s)’ but I have never, ever used my middle name when booking a ticket over the last 35 years. If you do not need to list all your first names, found in your passport, why would you need to list all of your surname, i.e. both parts?

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tomwjsimpson

[GivingupBA]

[postquote quote=1014738][/postquote]

“the writer who said they felt obliged to pay to get their middle name included”, that was me. That happened because soon after I booked my ticket on-line, I [1] saw on my e-ticket that I had left out my middle name, and [2] am 99% sure that I saw a KLM message/ email saying all names had to be on the ticket as listed on the passport…. but very unfortunately I no longer have that message/ or email. I looked for it.

It seems I may have been wrong that for KLM all names have to be on the ticket as listed on the passport – if so, I am very sorry for the confusion and any misunderstanding.

Seeing that message caused me to immediately phone the KLM London office and get my ticket reissued, as I said before.

[Peter]

I meant no criticism GivingUp BA. I just thought it interesting that I have two first names on my passport and yet have always only used one and never been questioned about it. I have been contacted by KLM who say a name change is required. They have not told me what the cost is yet but presumably the surname part of a name is viewed as far more important in the grand scheme of things. I guess it was so long ago that I had forgotten but I had a far more scary passport issue many years ago. The same son had just been born and was three months old. My wife and I, along with his sister, the four of us had gone on a short break to Hamburg. No issues flying in. At the check in desk (Lufthansa) on the way out, I showed our passports and the confused looking woman there asked me the age of baby Mike. I said three months. She then took the passport and went off to talk with other colleagues. Something was amiss. Mike’s passport actually had the wrong date and said that he was not three moths old but three years and three months old. To cut a very long story short the nice Lufthansa people believed Mike was our child and that the passport was genuine, with an honest mistake. Their final statement to us was that they would fly us home if we got through immigration. A very shaky half hour later we had got through security with no alarm bells. We got our flight, got home and got a new passport.

1 user thanked author for this post.

GivingupBA

[GivingupBA]

Oh yes Peter, of course I knew that you meant no criticism. Thank you for posting. I was just sorry to everyone on this thread in case I had caused any confusion, and trying to get to the bottom of the actual KLM policy / requirements.

Thanks for telling your story. Any difficulty in the airport is scary (especially with a small child, I’m sure) and upsetting as we go though it, isn’t it. I suppose we’re all living and learning (including me).

[Montysaurus]

To follow up on Peter’s last post, I also had problems 15 years ago with one of my daughter’s passport arriving at Chicago O’Hare. After quickly dealing with my wife’s and my passport the immigration agent took our daughter’s passport and then spent a long time on his computer, an equally long time on the phone and consulted a colleague.
The problem? We didn’t ever find out. The agent didn’t once speak to us. He wouldn’t reply to my questions – in fact he didn’t speak to us at all throughout. Eventually he stamped and handed back the passports and waved at us to move on!
The whole thing was quite unnerving and if there was a problem it would have been helpful to know what it was.
I’ve always found Californian immigration staff very friendly (but thorough) unlike their eastern and mid-west colleagues.

[TupeloKid]

[postquote quote=1014754][/postquote]

I agree re the difference between immigration officials in different parts of the US, specifically Chicago and LA.

[cwoodward]

Thanks everyone to all for the information.
Although I have never experienced any sort of problem my experiences perhaps underscore that immigration checks are everywhere very inconsistent.
My given name is Christopher-for many many years CX issued my tickets as Chris followed my first surname*.I travelled to the USA many times mostly to NY and Chicago. No quiry ever – or anywhere else.
*It happens that I have a hyphenated surname and a middle name – but I have never used ether although I did change my CX profile from Chris to Christopher a few years back responding to news of increased security measures at airport.
Amusingly whenever I travel on Bangkok Airways the ticket is always issued to ‘The Honorable’ Christopher- . Childishly I rather like it and imagine that I get better service….neither is correct of course……

[IanFromHKG]

I have two middle names (meaning my full name, with spaces, has a total of 24 characters) and my experience with most airline systems, boarding cards etc is that they often cap out at 18 characters (but omit spaces) – so it comes out as my surname, then a slash, and then my first name and second name but only the initial of my third given name, leaving out the last four characters – so there is no way for me to have my full passport name on there!

Fortunately most immigration forms are JUST long enough for me to get all of my names in. My brother, however, has three middle names for a total of 34 characters. I wonder how he manages!

I only use my first and family names whenever humanly possible (not because I dislike my middle names, they’re just a nuisance) and it irritates me immensely that some banks, credit cards, etc don’t give me the choice of how to present my names. So I have a mix of “Ian FromHKG”, “Ian * * FromHKG” (ie including my initials) or “I * * FromHKG” (so not showing my first full name, which in itself is annoying, but including my other initials).

The length of my name causes me problems with online forms as well. As does the fact that so many of them require postcodes, and Hong Kong doesn’t have them (sigh).

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cwoodward

[iflypremium]

The first and last name as per Passport is important. A middle name is not important. Personally I would use all names in the Passport,unless you have 5 names,in which case refer to point 1 !

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