Bob wants the flight miles credited to his frequent flier account.

Lets assume for a moment that getting on the flight is the goal. Having worked in both security & law enforcement I can promise you that arguing contract semantics with the security agent screening IDs is not a viable way of accomplishing anything. Especially if you plan on accomplishing it right now (like getting on an airplane). As right as you may be, arguments are for a court room, but they just make my job harder. Making my job harder will not gain you any sympathy. And if it is at all within my power to help you in accomplishing your goal, my sympathy is what you want. All I’m required to do is follow policy, pulling the “I’m a Lawyer” card may cause headaches for someone higher in the food chain 6 months from now, but for now I’m covered. Do you want to wait 6 months for resolution, or get on that plane.

This principle applies to anybody you encounter in the execution of their job. Whether it is a VA State Trooper knocking a 15mph reckless down to 14mph over and saving you a thousand bucks, or a ticket agent waiving a hundred dollar fee, your attitude is paramount to a positive outcome for you. Often an honest explanation will get you there, “sorry officer it’s been a long day & I wasn’t paying attention” or ” my brother in law screwed up, he only knows me as Bob”.

When it doesn’t go your way, turning into Captain A-hole won’t get you anywhere, and it’ll probably only make matters worse for you. I know you’re getting bent over by the rules, I’m just not allowed to say it. I don’t like it, but I can’t fix it. I work here for the same reason you bought the cheap ticket, I need this job to pay the bills (and hey I just got a raise to 11 bucks an hour last month). Yelling at me is only going to make me more likely to enjoy it the next time somebody gets screwed over.

On the other hand, perhaps Joe could represent Bob (since he’s not a lawyer) in some sort of court action. That is after all how these things perpetuate, they are not challenged legally because it’d cost me far more to do so than just cough up the 100 bucks. Maybe Joe could file a Class Action lawsuit that get’s each plaintant $5, while Joe pockets half a million. At least it would expose these BS contracts to the mainstream public with the right PR. Then again the airlines would probably just strengthen the legalese in their contracts, to make them harder to understand, and easier to screw you.

So I’ll continue to drive when I can avoid flying, and put my money in the pockets of shady oil companies instead of shady airlines, at least they dont ask me to sign anything at the pump.

There were times that I sympathised alot with people who would be faced with ridiculous change fees in situations that I knew were unfair, or even when the change benefitted us (IE, someone calling in a day in advance of a monster snowstorm to switch their overbooked flight that was 100% sure to be cancelled moving onto a redeye that was 40% full). There was even a ticker in the rez center that would sometimes show a congratulatory message about agents who got a passenger to pay an exorbitant additional collection amount on a reservation.

These types of fees are moneymaking profit for the airlines, pure and simple. Were they within their rights to charge a fee that they said they would charge? Sure. Does it help their customers to do so, in any case? Not even a little bit.

Just so you know, TSA is usually a little lenient about first names. I get all of my tickets issued for “Greg” while my legal name is “Gregory.” I’ve been doing this for the last 5 years and never once got refused (20 flights). One time, the TSA agent actually mumbled, “Greg… Gregory… alright.”

So your main problem is with frequent flyer miles, as you know.

http://www.bob-bennett.com/BennettUnited.jpg

I recently booked 3 tickets for a flight 8 months down the road, online. Friends of ours used an agent to book theirs. When we compared tickets and seats – it turns out we were on a different flight. Their flight was not even listed as valid on the online system. I then proceeded to make a call to inquire, and heard the recording, which basically says “if you have made your booking on-line, you will be charged $20 per person to speak to an agent.” Not “$20 to change your reservation”. $20 to SPEAK to an agent!!!

Is it just me, or is this completely ridiculous?

There is no question that he’ll be able to get through security, on the plane, and through the entire itinerary. But the AIRLINE’s policy requires him to have the name match to get credit, and the AIRLINE wants him to pay $100 to correct it.

What’s ironic is that there’s probably no chance that the airline supervisor’s name is “Denzel.” Indian customer service reps choose “American” names because we couldn’t pronounce their real first names. So in a country where Dhalliwal becomes Denzel, they can’t understand that Robert becomes Bob.

Another point to consider: 18 and under don’t even need to present ID (TSA rules). How they can verify that someone is under 18 without ID, I have no idea. But it sure is a crazy world.

And ya, the simple solution for Lianna would have been kiosk/online check-in (I think they had those in 2001). The way she made it seem was that it happened at the airline counter and not at security (why else the ruckus of rebooking?). I can’t see in a million years _even_ TSA rejecting a Lianna/Leanna discrep. (Let’s not even get into the discussion of how simple it is to mod a printed boarding pass.)

Take home: this whole brohaha was Seinfeld-style nothing.

Lianne was the only person to state that she was denied boarding due to a typographical error. I have to think that’s pretty rare. And she actually got on the flight.

How about this aspect? – Suppose you forgot or lost your driver’s license? The airlines are able to decide whether to board you or not, at their discretion. So, you can possibly board the plane, even without a drivers license.

If anybody has actually been denied boarding due to a name error, post your experience.

Just catching up on Chris’ site, I don’t know how long ago this was.

I find it ironic that, as many problems as I have had with Northwest in other regards, just four months ago they changed ny name on a ticket, for free!

My mother-in-law booked tickets for my husband, my 2 year old and myself to fly from BWI to MSP. She thought she was doing us both a favor given our busy schedules and my husband needed to fly out there for a medical consult. The tickets she said were a gift. But apparently my husband has never fessed up to her in our four years of marriage that I never took his name legally. (I sign things socially with his, which is legal, but all my ID has my ‘maiden’ name).

I phoned Northwest the minute I discovered error, but which happened to be the day before travel. (We had very little notice of the appointment availablity). Maybe it was because we had full fare tickets and not cheaper ones, but they changed the reservations (IE switched last names) within minutes and didn’t charge me. Sorry you had a problem.

laura

So what you have here is an agent in India who is paid by United to blow off their customers as bureaucratically as possible, primarily by quoting boilerplate found buried on United’s website. Bob Bennet has no access to a real person who can actually help him; likewise, Denzel Singh has no access to a real person at United Airlines in the United States. United Airlines is just hoping that Mr. Bennett will give up and go away, which he probably will do, and never fly United again.

One question, that of fairness, has not been considered from an angle that will be important to most people that travel on non-J-class fares.

How long does it take them to earn that AFTER-TAX $100 to pay for this name correction [note, not name change, but correction]? For many people, it will be over a day of their lives, doing odious/stressful or just plain unpleasant work OR it will be a sizable percentage of their old age pension. Often it hurts the unsophisticated and easily intimidated infrequent traveler.

The punishment, while equal, is not equitable.