Comments on: 5 most common ticketing mistakes — and how to avoid them

By: Pepper

Pepper — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 03:46:29 +0000

I did talk to my son and he said that he had booked the ticket for her in her maiden name. Guess he’s smarter than I gave him credit for. When they get back she has a lot of name changing to do for various things; drivers license, voter registration, bank accounts and probably many more that I don’t remember doing 30 years ago when I got married. I’m assuming as a new dutiful husband he will at least accompany her as she makes the rounds to the various places.
Now if our flight to the wedding several states away will go smoothly we’ll all be happy (leaving nothing to chance we are flying in a day earlier than needed).
Thanks again for all the great advice!

By: C

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 19:22:41 +0000

For newlyweds, NO, do not attempt to use your married name! And do not bring your marriage certificate as verification of your name being different than what’s on your ID card. This will not work! The marriage certificate is not proof enough, you must update your ID before you book your travel.
If you are honeymooning immediately following your wedding, book your flights and honeymoon in advance using your maiden name, because you can’t update your name change with the government until you AFTER you are legally married. If you are leaving for your honeymoon the day after you get married, your Identification will NOT be updated with your new name and you will not be allowed to travel with un-matching names. (as this article states)

By: Pepper

Pepper — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 02:25:55 +0000

Thanks for the info B! I’ll pass it on. I got stopped with all 5 of my kids when they were younger going to visit friends in Canada. Had to get all the kids out of the car, pull out the birth certificates to prove they were mine and then they wanted to know if my Hubby was aware of our trip. I wanted to say “you think I’m crazy enough to travel cross country by myself” but they were so serious I calmly explained he was flying in the next day. Then they wanted to search the car for weapons. I opened the back door (of a suburban) and said “have at it” at which point my oldest held up a squirt gun and showed the poor lady who was going to do the searching. Thank goodness she laughed and said “that’s okay honey, just go on across”.

That was way before 9/11, I can’t even imagine the hassles that stepchildren or traveling to enemy countries could cause now.
Good idea on the new passport!

By: B Helenbart

B Helenbart — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 00:56:10 +0000

newlyweds? She has to travel under the government issued ID the TSA anti-terrorist squad matches to her face to pass security. To get into the hotel in the same room, show the htoel clerk the wedding license.
You think this is bad, wait until you bring a step child with a different last name. You’ll be treated like kidnappers unless you have a court certified document stating that you are the legal guardian or have the witnessed document saying you have permission to take the minor out of the country.

I got another one for you, not a ticketing problem as a big costly one with travel documents like above.
You visit Israel. You try to visit an Arab country later. You end up deported on an expensive ticket out of that country because your passport is stamped as having been to Israel–yesterday or 5 years ago, it doesn’t matter. Any country that states that Israel has no right to exist will not let you enter it–end of vacation or whatever.
Get a new or second passport.

By: Pepper

Pepper — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 19:56:09 +0000

So how does a newlywed couple book the tickets to their honeymoon? My son and his fiance leave the morning after their wedding. Should he put the ticket for her in her maiden name, take the wedding certificate? I don’t want to be an interfering Mom but would hate for them not to be able to fly because of the wrong info.

By: B Helenbart

B Helenbart — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 19:30:07 +0000

Here’s a different mistake that doesn’t cause too much loss. Booking tickets for non-FF spouse and FF self. One is FFB, other is paid ticket. Spouse should get the FFB ticket and paid ticket for self–to get Frequent Flyer miles for the flight.

By: Elisa

Elisa — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 18:08:52 +0000

I agree with Jlawrence1: I worked in a company which had its own travel agency – I booked a flight to San Josè, CA, but I ended up in San Josè, Mexico. Point is, I didn’t have any idea of where I was, people was waiting for me at the Californian airport, and the Mexican airport was so small that it didn’t even had an information point or Police office. I had to get out of the airport, catch a taxi, arrive to a Police station in order to understand what had happened……..And this from a travel agent which booked around three flights per day!

By: Kath

Kath — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:43:14 +0000

Nicely put, Chris. I pay attention to detail almost to the point of paranoia when booking my trips but it’s ever so easy to slip up with those confusing websites – especially if you click a ‘back’ button and the system changes the details you’d selected.

Might I request one small correction to your article, though? Swansea is not in England, it’s in Wales. Suggesting that a Welsh city is in England is likely to cause offence to the Welsh.

By: John F

John F — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 21:28:10 +0000

I will defend the agents a little–not a lot. But when you are booking itineraries for thirty to forty clients in a day, mistakes do happen for sure.

However, if you are booking your own travel, one would think those kinds of oopsies would be a little less frequent

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 31 May 2008 15:35:24 +0000

I have booked tickets incorrectly before–wrong dates once and wrong destination once. When you book tickets often, you can get a little complacent. One airline allowed me to change the dates for no charge; the other airline said I would have to pay the change fee to fix the incorrect city.