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Theshoveller · Joined: 08 Jun 2005 Posts: 11

I accidentally put my middle name on my plane ticket and its not on my passport.

I'm flying in two days with United Airlines to Canada via United States.

I talked to the Travel agency and they said that they can't get a hold of the airlines sales counter until the day of my flight.

I have a drivers license with the middle initial and another piece of government id with the midle name but no picture.

What are the chances of the airline telling me no dice?

Zzonkmiles · Joined: 05 Apr 2003 Posts: 309

I cannot answer your question, but I can give you a bit of advice for after you actually arrive here.

When you start applying for services and taking care of administrative stuff, such as opening a bank account, applying for your gaijin registration card, establishing mobile phone service, etc., MAKE SURE that the name on your passport is the name you use on all of those applications. Keep your names consistent. Seemingly minor problems, such as having a middle initial vs. a middle name on an application, are HUGE problems in Japan and often require a lot of paperwork to rectify.

Theshoveller · Joined: 08 Jun 2005 Posts: 11

Yeah, I was pretty careful about getting to Japan, but now I had to leave quick because of a family emergency and I neglected to check my passport before buying the ticket.

Please, if anyone else has experienced this or knows someone that has and came though it alright your advice would be most appreciated.

madeira · Joined: 13 Jun 2004 Posts: 182 Location: Oppama

You should be OK. Bring along your supplementary ID, though.

Heck, I'm impressed that you could get your middle name on a plane ticket. (And anyhow, agents usually ask to see your passport to make sure the names are the same.) Um... usually? No, always.

I had one agent refuse to book me a ticket because her form didn't have a space for middle names, and my middle name is in my passport... so she couldn't just omit it... so I lost out on the discount ticket... and paid an extra 20,000 yen just for having a middle name... yep, still fuming about that one!

(Yes, middle names are a problem here. Some of my bank accounts have it as my last name, as they didn't know what to do with it. Which leads to other problems, as I can never remember that my last name is 'Lee'.)

Theshoveller · Joined: 08 Jun 2005 Posts: 11

Thanks for replying madeira,

My travel agents were trying to get me to buy another plane ticket since they couldn't guarantee I would be alright. They've got me in a good panic. Last thing I want to do is lose 50% of the ticket, stay two more days at a hotel, and pay for a more expensive plane ticket.

My problem is a bit different though having decided to leave off my middle name on the passport and stupidly put it on my plane ticket.

I think and hope your right though with the supplementary i.d.

Celeste · Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2005 2:40 pm Post subject:

You may find that the airline personnel are more accustomed to seeing foreign names than the local travel agents are. I have always found that the airport staff is usually much easier to deal with regarding strange things that I need to do.I have had totally wrong middle initials on tickets before and still been allowed to fly. (For some reason, people were so thrown by the fact that my husband and I don't use the same surname, that they kept putting his middle initial into my name whenever both our names had to appear on any documents. Strange, because it isn't on my passport, and yet...)