Just gone on ryanair to check in and noticed that the holiday company I booked through has misspelt my name. Or rather added a space between ‘mac’ and the last bit of my surname. Can’t get hold of anyone at the holiday company until tomorrow but don’t really want to check in if the name is wrong.

Any thoughts if the additional space would actually count as a mis spelling of my name.

Airlines can get quite awkward about such things as name changes are not normally allowed on bookings/tickets as they are non-transferable to stop brokering. I was at work the other day when one of my colleagues was talking about up to 3 character name changes – really I have a very exciting life 😆

If it were me I would just check in, if you can, and don’t draw too much attention to the fact.

I assume you are justing checking in online, if you need to authenticate your booking reference by adding your name then just try both spellings to see what happens

Yeh it was online check-in but the ‘name’ field is already populated. I’ve taken a screen grab of the ryanair check in page so might pop into the airport tomorrow and ask.

I’m a touch stressed about it at the moment but then think will anyone really notice a space.

Gary M – What name / spelling is given on any travel documents you have been given either from the Holiday Company or Ryan Air. Email Receipts, itineraries etc.

If you received “documents” upon booking, or on paying if you did not pay at the same time that you booked, then generally an airline would have expected you to check that all the names were correct etc. You would then have a few days grace to call them if some of the spellings were wrong etc. The airline would then make the amendments without any charge. Perhaps a bit more complicated when the travel company may have made the airline bookings on your behalf, but the principle still applies. Beyond that they would charge you a fee, and not necessarily a simple low admin fee.

There is reasonable probability that RyanAir will try and charge you for correcting the name now, but clearly this is so obviously a mistake and an easy one to make at that, they should just sort it out without any hassle. But they are RyanAir, with a business model centered on product de-bundling and increasing margins by charging extra for EVERYTHING.

EDIT sorry the stuff above is certainly not trying or intending to cause you any further stress. As you say it is only a space, this is why I said if you can check in then do so, transfer the problem to them and don’t worry about it.

We did check the documentation but thought the space was just showing on the PDF. We didn’t think there was any way it would be on our booking.

Had similar with Ryanair, albeit a bigger mistake than just a space. Charged £150 for a name change at the airport. Would have been cheaper to go home and book another ticket online. In my defence it was a group booking and only met up with the others and got my ticket from them the morning of the flight.
My advice is get it sorted prior to departure day as they will sting you for £150 at the airport.

Charged £150 for a name change at the airport.

Wouldn’t it have been cheaper to change your passport? 😯

If you’ve bought the ticket in the last 7 days I think you can have the corrections done gratis thanks to the distance selling regulations (you’re still in your “Cooling off” period, so you can claim a full refund and book new tickets, I know Jet 2 have to allow name changes for this reason.

If not I’d just ask the agent to have it corrected – group bookers can normally do name changes for free. If you have to pay to change it and claim against the agent – hmm tough one, you have a valid case, but can you prove they were uncontactable?

I wouldn’t worry too much
We use travel agents to book flights at work including ryanair but for me mostly BMI baby
They are always spelling my name Ian layland instead of Iain Leyland
That’s errors in both names and never been questioned
The wife has also flown under her married name despite passport still being in her maiden name (she brought a Copy of our 3 yr old marriage cert to airport just in case but it wasn’t questioned)

Girl at work booked me onto a flight, and beforehand I wrote down my passport ‘name’ – she paid no attention…

When the e-ticket came through in the wrong name, she had to re-book it – extra £200

monarch tickets you cannot change a name or a spelling not one letter.

Friend of mine was stung for ryan air name change (accidentally duplicated surnames in a ctrl-v frenzy due to their site timing out several times I think) – cost him a fortune despite calling 30 seconds after booking.

It’s not a name

change

though, is it. The name is spelt correctly, if anything it’s a punctuation issue. “Are you Mr Mac Donald?” – “yes, I am Mr MacDonald.”

Whether that would bear out with the Brianair check-in nazis, I wouldn’t like to speculate; but I think I’d be arguing very loudly and vociferously if they pulled me up on something like that.

I don’t think they’ll notice or even care about a space
on a couple of occasions we’ve had spelling mistakes and they’ve not even noticed

Has Gary_M checked in yet?

All sorted now thanks. Phoned ryanair and the changed the booking without question or any attempt to charge me.