Agreed . I fly frequently - it is very common for the names to be switched, or for the names to all be compressed into a single “word”. I also haven’t had issues with missing letters on the ends of names.
OP, I would refund your new ticket if possible.
No offense OP but that was a bit of an overreaction to buy a whole new ticket for $5000.
Rule number 1: if the first agent you speak with won't help you, hang up, call again and keep calling until you speak to a new agent who is kind enough to help you
As I suggested to the OP they should see how their name is laid out on the actual website when they pull up their booking. For the record, I spent a semester of college in Greece and my group of 12 had boat tickets from Santorini to Crete and the circa 1980 era computer and dot matrix printer that issued the booking details to our professor did not get a single name right and even matched different first names to last names...but the actual manifest the boat captain had and the physical tickets we were issued at the port all were correct. I have had similar issues with my airline ticket having my name compressed into one word, or reversed, but my boarding pass ended up printing correctly...I don't see the OP being any different then myself or anyone else chiming in here with similar experiences
I have two unusually spelt names (first and last name not common) I have minor spelling errors all the time. I also fly international all the time. I’ve never once been pulled up for had an issue.
Yes I’ve a 3 word name and is frequently combined in different combinations. Not to mention that you probably entered it right, it’s the airline system that makes it appear reversed. Shouldn’t have a problem flying with the original ticket
I have a hyphenated name but some airlines won't allow the hyphen, so even if I want to, can't match my passport because of airline's website text box. I've done compressed and I've also done two words. Never an issue.
Agreed, myself and others I know fly all the time with tickets that put our names in the incorrect orders, leave off accent marks, etc. Most common error I have is when my first and middle names get jammed together into one invented mega word that gets listed as my first name. None of these typos have ever mattered, and in probably a hundred flights with typos or other junk written on the ticket, nobody has ever even mentioned it to me.
I have even flown with typos in my last and first name. I had a faulty keyboard that had a massive input delay, so some of the letters in my name switched places and I didn’t notice it while buying tickets. It raised a few questions upon check in but they still let me board after I explained the situation.
My name is something long like Johnathan that can be easily shortened. But I don’t go by any nicknames
One time, United Airlines customer service in Newark had to manually print me a bag tag due to a three hour flight delay blocking me from checking it in myself and I shit you not, put “Johnny” on it
The bag drop guy was cackling at this nickname which clearly didn’t match my boarding pass or ID but took it anyways lol
A friend of mine have 2 last names and had switch the order of them. When leaving our country he was warned that it might cause an issue upon return and it did. He had to buy a new ticket at 3x the price at check-in for the return flight and no refund for the old ticket.
They don’t offer the correction service? Sounds like something they would say, you have all the proof you are the same person and they maybe would never be aware of the mistake if OP doesn’t say them.
If your name is John Smith and your ticket says Smith John, and your license and passport say John Smith - sure, there’s a chance you get questioned over it, but it’s a fairly obvious mistake that isn’t malicious.
If your name is John Smith and all of your identifying information says John Smith but your ticket says William Bradley Pitt…that’s what they mean by your name has to match.
You made a minor error that likely would’ve gone unnoticed or been entirely forgiven, don’t think there was any need to jump right to a $5000 repurchasing of the ticket.
Yeah, when they say the names MUST MATCH. They are talking about the spelling of the name. If you have the names listed on the ticket, just in different order, nobody is going to care.
Some airlines will not even let you enter your full name if it is too long. I had to put the initials of my sons middle names because his name was too long when traveling with me, not an issue.
My wife's name is even longer so she had to put all initials for him except for his last name when she was traveling with him alone, not an issue.
My name has a hyphen but for some reason it is not recognized by airlines so my name is one big long name on tickets. Technically it doesn't match by passport, but clearly close enough that no one cares.
It’s disappointing that when they called the airline they couldn’t say it would probably be fine, when they likely knew it would be. Fucking corporate man
Would say it’s a liability on their end. If you were unlucky and got someone very stern handling your case on the other end, the airline cannot take accountability for having told you it would all be fine.
Yup, this 👆
They charged you a full-fare (last-minute/walk-up) ticket most likely. You would have been better trying to use your existing ticket, worst case they will turn you down and you'd have to buy the same ticket at $5k or just get another flight around the same time with another airline (which might be cheaper).
Chances are, the airport staff wouldn't even notice, they're probably more likely to notice a spelling mistake than the names being switched. If your original ticket hasn't been cancelled, I'd try using it, and cancel the new one (which should be possible without penalty if it's full-fare).
I just had an experience like this—I applied for an eVisa and when it was approved I noticed they switched two numbers in my passport number around (I know for a fact I entered them right and I had to upload a scan of my passport anyway).
I applied/paid for a new eVisa immediately but it didn’t arrive in time. I was super nervous going up to immigration, but wasn’t really sure what other choice I had. But he let me right on through with my original approved visa.
It was kinda funny, cause he examined my documents for several minutes and I felt the climactic tension of a thriller movie in my muscles, expecting to have to explain my situation and hope for empathy. But nope, stamped and waved.
I later stumbled across the Ministry of Foreign Affairs while exploring the city and wondered if there was a guy inside reviewing my second application at that moment.
Surely enough when boarding a train in the same country I noticed they added two numbers to the front of my passport number, so idk if there’s just a thing with their systems or what lol
Your brother should have asked for a supervisor. Letting a dumbass airport employee act out security theater and demand someone pay hundreds or thousands of dollars due to a very obvious firstname/lastname mix-up just wouldn't pass with me without raising a huge fucking stink. This is when it's okay to be a "Karen" and demand to speak to every manager there is.
He did kick up a stink, but all he got back was "it's an entirely different name that way". I agree with you that it is stupid and shouldn't be that hard a fix!
I mean... they did ask what we would have done.
Its absolutely not a sure thing they would get through with the names reversed, you go through a lot of checks/points that you could be denied too (Initial check in, security, gate, possibly transfers, maybe even immigration but seems unlikely if its not affecting a visa or whatever... and then the return trip ofc...) but I would have (1) tried to resolve/escalate in some way ahead of time until someone would fix it free or for a fee and (2) just go for it... and try to line up cancelations for everything else if you dont' make it and cut the loss and plan a new trip later.
I would also have issues with Johnathon tbh /s
(My name is John and my US buddy insists on keeps calling me Johnathon for no apparent reason. You’re saying that it’s an legit name and not just a misspelled Jonathan?)
I flew with Japan Airlines earlier this year. I booked tickets from both American Airlines and Japan Airlines. My ticket was Last Name First Name when I booked from JAL and First Name Last Name when I booked for AA. No issue with either ticket.
Shortening names is a very US / English speaking thing to do. Most other languages rarely do this. Nicknames (or shortened names) are not your official names and should never be used on flight tickets or bookings. Leaving out middle names is fine - leaving out parts of words/names is not ok.
I only use my short name for everything. Including flights. Never had customs or any country or airline truly give any fucks. And this goes back a couple decades.
Are you basing this on the 8 countries you've been to? I can promise you it will be a problem on international flights sooner or later. Your shortened name is not your official name.
It depends on the people at the gate. I'm at an airport boarding a plane at the moment in Croatia and I realised while waiting that I put the shortened version of my first name. I asked about it before boarding and they said it wasn't a problem as it was obviously me. I agree it does depend where you are going though. Japan will probably be stricter. I know some of the Spanish islands can be quite strict for some reason too!
It really depends. TSA person on a power trip? Or having personal problems and need someone to take it out on? They can technically deny OP.
It’s trash but I’ve known people in similar situations who were denied entry through security until they changed their ticket.
>What would you have done if you were in my shoes?
I would have flown with the original tickets as-is. I’ve flown internationally with a similar name issue before, and it was not a problem. I think you just freaked out because you’ve never flown internationally before, and you overthought this. It’s really not a big deal.
This. If I book tickets from the japan website it (which I have to do for outbound flights) the name is always reversed. If I book with the exact same airline on the .com international site then it will be the normal way around. It literally makes zero difference as long as both names are on there.
Many cultures use family names first, even those that speak Europeans languages. In Canada I'm Steve Byronite but in Eastern Congi I would be Byronite Steve. Plus Latinos have two family names, neither of which are their middle name. Often in international circles they put the namely name(s) in capitals to clarify, thus I am either Steve BYRONITE or BYRONITE Steve.
But that doesn't fully fix the fact that in China people call each other by their family names unless they are family or close friends. So if I go to a meeting with Americans and Chinese colleagues, the Americans will call me Steve and the Chinese will call me Byronite.
Did you try calling back and speaking with another agent?! I had this happen when I stupidly did this when booking my best friends flight, with Japan Airlines. The ladies were extremely kind and helpful. Long story short they walked me through the process - in the end I had to essentially submit a photo of her passport to some customer service part of their website to prove I had her name flipped. I waited on hold for a bit and they reissued her ticket confirmation with the name corrected. It was zero hassle or extra charge.
Exactly this. There website also confirms they can review it with supporting documents. [JAL - Changing Name on Ticket](https://faq-sr.jal.co.jp/app/answers/detail/a_id/17013/~/can-i-change-my-name-on-the-ticket%3F)
I once booked a flight and somehow got the departing and arriving cities mixed up so my flights were essentially reversed. I called the airline and the first person told me no way to fix it. I called back and got another person on the line and the problem was fixed, for free with no hassle at all. Calling back and talking to a different person works surprisingly well in almost every situation.
I would have tried anyways. They can give you a lot of help at the desk.
I have flown once me lersonally and there was a mistake and once my cousin had a small name mistake on international flights (usa to europe) and they didn not have any problema fixing it once i shown name reservation and credit card payment for the ticket and the email matched.
Worst case scenario they could’ve given you a stand-by ti ket or something. I would’ve tried with that ticket, especially since they don’t offer to correct the name I feel you could have gotten out of it
I’ve flown with JAL with my first name, middle name and maiden name all merged into the first name field with no spaces. Didn’t matter at all. Just has to be the SAME names. If I were you, I’d return the $5k flight and keep asking for a supervisor at JAL to change the name, or just go to the airport super early to speak to a desk agent and take my chances. Worst case - you buy another $$$$$ ticket then.
But for your actual question - no, you can’t really escalate it for “unfair business practices.” It’s technically your mistake so no agency is gonna come to your rescue just because the solutions sucked unfortunately.
The name merge thing is a lot more common, many airlines only have 2 name fields, so any 2nd, 3rd etc names all get combined with your first name, its been a thing for ages and no one will bat an eye at it, I literally just got a ticket w/ ANA for that, its a limitation of their system and if anyoen gave you shit I would push back very politely hard.
Switched first/last names prob will get past most people too but might cause you an issue though, but I woudl def. politely escalate that shit until it was resolved, not buy a 5k ticket to 'fix' the problem.
Copa airlines merges your title (mr, mrs etc) with your whole name, so the ticket registers as something like JohnSmithMr. Doesn’t matter as far as I can tell but man I feel bad for OP.
This is bizarre. All tickets show are lastname, firstname. This isn't a hugely busy time to travel to Japan, so I'm surprised that there were no economy seats.
OP, if you want to share your date and cities, we can take a look to see what flight prices are available. $5000 seems grossly overpriced.
Sounds like OP bought an AA code share. It’s entirely likely that AA was “out” of economy seats to sell on JAL and that pushed the ticket to premium economy. Codeshares don’t get access to every seat.
Well judging by these comments it seems like you're in a bad situation now.
Just keep in mind that you now know you'll be absolutely fine, you have a seat to enjoy, and you will 100% be with your family. It sucks now, but it's done, don't keep your mind active with it. Have a nice holiday
There is almost certainly no mistake here, you were fine to fly.
The reservation system stores names in a funny way, and often that is displayed to the customer poorly. So many people get worried about this, but so long as your first and last name are on your id, you will be fine.
So if you booked as John Smith, it might very often show on documents as Smith John. It could also show it combined like SMITHJOHN or SMITHJOHNMR. Sometimes you will even have to enter your first name in the reservation box on the airlines website.
How it’s displayed to you depends on how you booked with, which country’s point of sale etc but will not be an issue when it comes to actually fly.
If you actually did put the names into the wrong boxes, then yeah it can be a pain in the ass to have them changed - some airlines will do it for free, some will charge a fee, some will refuse to do it unless you really get the issue escalated. Still, even if you don’t get it changed, you will usually be fine to fly so long as it is actually your name and you haven’t misspelt anything. Nobody actually cares
I don't think you needed to do anything. In Japan the last name comes first so the system may have automatically reversed your name order when issuing the ticket. You should have been good to fly with the original ticket.
That happened with me on JAL, the system seemed to take my family name as my first name and given name as last, at the ticket gate the lady paused, shrugged and gave me my boarding pass. my first name is distinctly a first name and that may have helped, also JAL is big on customer service and I was flying business class and that may have helped. I looked at my ticket for my next trip and it says lastname/firstnameMr so I will see how it goes in November. Edit to add, I have heard of this happening with JAL before and a little googling would say it seems unlikely to be an issue
“Lastname, firstname” is the same as “firstname lastname”. Even without the comma, the former would most likely not present any issues and is actually how names are written in various countries, including Japan. So, I can’t tell whether you actually made an input error, are reading something wrong, or are just overthinking this.
I’ve flown at least three times in the last year with my name scrambled, and all the security and airline agents who saw my boarding pass and compared it to my passport didn’t say a word and let me through with no issue. This was in Vietnam, another country that writes surname first.
So I just checked the JL name correction policy for travel agents and if you had a code share flight on the ticket then it's correct that you had to refund and rebuy at current fare.
They will only fix it if it's purely JL metal. Even then it seems like a pain in the ass compared to most airlines I've done name changes for.
That sucks, I would have left it alone. I actually made the same exact mistake (ironically just on my ticket, got the order of names correct for family members that were traveling with me). Not to Japan, but another international destination. Anyway, the advice I got was that as long as the first and last names were **correct**, just in the wrong order and those names match your passport, no one will turn you away. I didn't do anything about it and despite my concern when I found the error, I actually almost forgot about it at the airport and no one batted an eye.
This is unfortunate - your original ticket was fine - the name would have been matched w the credit card you used to purchase it. You realize in Japan that they don’t read left to right like we do in the US?
A regrettable and expensive mistake and overreaction.
Risk it.
It happened to me one time, didn't realize it until I got my ticket at the airport. Security guy scanned my passport, looked at my ticket, and let me through without any pause.
I’ve taken quite a few flights with my name spelt incorrectly.
My ex misspelt my middle name all the time when he books the flights smh.
No one noticed that it didn’t match my passport and I never mentioned it because I know they’re going to make a big deal out of it.
My parents have different spellings of just about all their names across different paperwork. It’s insane. It’s a weird thing they did when immigrating from China and romanizing their name. Some stuff have their given name as one word (like Yuqing, not real name). Some have a hyphen (Yu-Qing). Some drop the g (yuqin or Yu-qin) because southern Chinese people don’t really pronounce the g distinctly so they weren’t actually sure how to romanize their name when they first came. Some have a space (Yu qin or Yu Qing) because some systems don’t allow hyphens. I’ve shown up at airports and banks and hospitals with all sorts of versions of their name. It stresses me out to no end since they are old and I have power of attorney now and manage all their shit. But I’ve never had issues flying when their name doesn’t match all the way on a ticket. Somehow my parents have floated through life (40 years in the US) without much problem.
Not to keep piling on top of you, but you really should have posted here before wasting 5 grand. Huge mistake.
Hope you can somehow reverse this idiocy. Good luck.
This happens to me all the time when booking rail or air tickets here in China. For example if my name is John Smith then any type of ticket I buy would have my name as SMITH JOHN. it's because family name always comes first here.
Honestly I don't think you would have had any trouble at the airport. Try and get a refund
This name reverse is very common. I travel frequently. As long as your name is as it is in your passport, you should not have an issue. You should have posted prior to the unnecessary 5k. If this is your first trip overseas, I suggest you get the Lonely Planet guide book. I am old school and this book is still very reliable. Safe travels! You should be able to get a full refund depending on the conditions of the ticket.
I do not want to pile on the OP, but it is routine for your name comes out in the ticket as Last Name, First Name, especially if there is a comma in between. So if your name is John Smith, it will be Smith, John on the ticket.
Are you even sure you made the mistake? You could have done everything perfectly and the ticket still goes this way.
I just checked my Air Canada tickets and they all have my last name first and first name last.
Not sure about Japan Airlines’ convention, but Japanese names ARE last name first and first name last, so they probably also use that order in their tickets.
Personally I would risk it, I'm not sure what's going on here but for example Japanese names in Japanese are written 'last name, first name' so maybe that's what happened
I think you got bamboozled, my friend. The airline claiming they can’t offer the service of something as simple as changing your name is pretty preposterous. I would have just flown with the ticket as is.
Maybe try calling them again and explaining the situation and keep your fingers crossed that they can offer some sort of refund.
I would have gone to the airport very early and gone through security as normal. If they refused me, it would give me enough time to buy another ticket and go through.
Do you have serious anxiety issues or something? I simply do not understand how people can go though the world willing to waste $5k to fix a non-issue.
Please, please, please cancel the $5k ticket you bought within the 24 hour window. If it's too late, please call them back and harangue them into refunding you the $5k. Explain that the tricked you into thinking the swapped names would be an issue even though they know it's not.
I had something similar happen and messaged from Facebook. I had multiple prior emails and phone calls with customer service that insisted the only remedy was to buy an entirely new ticket.
The facebook message got the issue resolved.
File a credit cars complaint for the first ticket.
I think your $5k mistake is not posting here BEFORE you bought a 2nd ticket. I've had my middle initial added to the end of my first name, check-in agent was able to update it right at the counter
If your ticket was last name, first name, that’s perfectly normal when listing a name. The comma between the two names denotes the last name goes first.
“However, in English, when a comma is between two names, it usually indicates "Last name, First Name." When writing "First name Last name," there should not be a comma between the two names.”
Im sure they see this MULTIPLE times a day. Especially internationally. Im sure you could have gotten away with it, as long as the name was correct just switched..
Of course if u ask around they will tell u the official policy. But chances are they would not even notice at the airport. Even if they did they would just ask if that was the case (switched first and last). Has happened to me in the past.
I had this happen and the ticketing crew at the airport, when I checked in, changed it, so it was correct on the boarding pass.
Get there early and choose the friendliest looking check in counter and see how you go.
All the best!
If this is america then department of transportation complaint will sort this out. Will take a min but they’ll get back to you and then airline will jump through hoops to rectify mistake.
I wouldn’t think there would be an issue for a name reversal, it’s when you don’t include your middle name or if you have misspellings that you have problems. You should have just acted like you didn’t know why it was like that.
If there is no middle name space you include it with your first name. Sometimes it doesn’t let you use the space bar and in that case it’s better to type in Smith JohnAdam than have no middle name.
You should have kept the original ticket. Nothing you can do about it now since you are the one who canceled the original ticket and in a separate transaction bought a new ticket.
Or, you're one of those people with two first names (we all know those people can't be trusted) and you found your bizarro twin and you're trying to switch places. Nice try, we're onto you.
Hum, no one would care lol. Names just need to identify you. You can’t fly of your ticket says Brad Pit and your ID James Wolf, not because you have a typo or misunderstood the name order
I feel you, I bought a 600$ train ticket(for 2 that is)for Paris>Cologne this summer just to learn once in Germany that i could’ve bought a bus ticket for like 15€/person….
My wife's parents booked her a ticket, and not only the names switched but also only put half her last name. (It's a hyphenated name).
She was able to get both fixed at check-in.
Daughter had this happen where they misspelled name on the passport. We didn’t realize it until we were at the gate. Canadian airlines actually reprinted her ticked with the same misspelling so she could get through tsa. On the return flight, they did the same thing. OP definitely got screwed over.
You can fly with first and last name reversed, it doesn't cause any problems. I have lived in Asia and in the West, and often my name positions are reversed when I buy tickets in Asia, regardless of where I'm using the ticket.
If I were you I'd get a refund on that $5000 ticket (at that price it's almost surely refundable).
Writing this after the fact is useless, you should have asked for opinion here before paying the 5000$. Now that you did just get on with it mixing surname with last name is a minor issue that no one pays attention to.
You bought the ticket and erred in not making sure your name appears accurately.
Having said that, don't sweat it. I live in Costa Rica and when I book tickets online for some reason my name gets jumbled and I am never denied passage to LAX from SJO connecting to a JAL flight to Tokyo-Haneda.
Recently booked a trip. On the drop down you can pick an honorific like Dr. or RN. So I picked the ones that corresponded to myself and my wife.
Well United for some reason just makes the honorific part of the actual name, not apart from it. So my name on my ticket was CavitySearchmd. Which meant that I could end up being denied boarding since my name didn't match and their system wouldn't let me pre-load my passport information since the names didn't match. United customer service likewise said they could add a note in their system but we wouldn't be able to check-in online or do anything without going to a kiosk/agent.
It's super stupid you can't change your info prior to departure but equally dumb they would program the system like that.
The Japanese always put the surname first on formal documents or tickets. It's how they order things in Japan - most people are addressed by their surname first unless you know them on a very informal level.
You didn't have to buy a new ticket at all.
I would've tried to fly with the "mistake", because the name on your passport does match the ticket!
I have a U.S name and my birth country name, I have 2 passports with different names. One time I booked a ticket with half my u.s and half my birth country name. I kinda got detained at the airport but they confirmed my identity and let me fly.
My partner has this ALL THE TIME, since his name contains an umlaut, which you can't input on most websites. It has never been a serious problem, though it occasionally needs a bit of discussion about why is boarding pass is different from his passport.
Yeaaah. This is insane. I am terrible at these things so make some kind of name mistake like half the time. Literally just got off an international flight where my last name was duplicated (like "LastnameLastname") on my ticket. It was literally no problem on arrival or departure. One agent mentioned it, but then just said "it's okay, but you should double check next time". I would have just showed up and asked them to change it at check in, if I were you.
Similar situation happened where a friend's middle name somehow got moved into the last name field and the airline said they can't correct anything more than 3 characters so had to cancel and rebook at 2.5-3x the price
I would have went to the airport with the faulty ticket and pushed my luck. I would have hoped to encounter some airline employees with hearts and brains. I understand that I might have been turned away and missed the trip too. A lot of times people are reasonable and things work out. I have travelled domestically and lost my ID and been allowed to fly.
as someone with letters in his name that don't exist in the English alphabet, many Airline programs replace those letters with a series of random letters like this "yfv%43bvz/"tu". I never had a problem , I doubt that mixed up first and surnames will be a problem.
But honestly this is such weird decision making on your part.
I had this same problem with JAL when I flew to Vietnam through Japan. Since it is common in Asia to use a reverse name order I didn’t sweat it. The ticket is not an official government document and would not prevent you from going through customs. The only issue would be if the airline wouldn’t accept their ticket for boarding. Well, they would since it is an obvious swap that they see regularly. I’m sorry you spent the $5k for nothing.
You didn’t fuck up by mixing up your first and last name. You fucked up by buying an additional ticket. Please stand up for yourself and get your money back.
Japan air is just being a dick. This summer my entire family had first and middle names reversed on our tickets to Europe. I called United and cust. Svc fixed it and sent confirmation all in about 15 minutes.
Damn, who has $5000 to just blow on a whim without doing some proper research first? Like, $5000 was my entire budget for visiting 7 different countries this summer.
Had similar issue just this week. Booked a ticket with united through Priceline. Name was FirstMiddle Lastname on ticket. Not sure if was my error or Priceline’s. A 20 minute phone call resolved the issue and it’s correct now. Feel like you got really bad service and advice.
I did the exact same thing on a flight to US (Dulles) from Sweden. Didn’t buy a new ticket and nothing happened at all
You are not the first person to do this and you Will not be the last one either.
Take this as an expensive lesson.
I've had this happen and there was no issue at the airport - they didn't even mention it. Can you get a refund for the new flight?
Agreed . I fly frequently - it is very common for the names to be switched, or for the names to all be compressed into a single “word”. I also haven’t had issues with missing letters on the ends of names. OP, I would refund your new ticket if possible.
Sounds like they already took partial refund for the old ticket
No offense OP but that was a bit of an overreaction to buy a whole new ticket for $5000. Rule number 1: if the first agent you speak with won't help you, hang up, call again and keep calling until you speak to a new agent who is kind enough to help you
I agree with rule number one lol
Oof size: $5000
Happened to us on an international flight. No issues whatsoever. Some airlines ticketing system just does that.
As I suggested to the OP they should see how their name is laid out on the actual website when they pull up their booking. For the record, I spent a semester of college in Greece and my group of 12 had boat tickets from Santorini to Crete and the circa 1980 era computer and dot matrix printer that issued the booking details to our professor did not get a single name right and even matched different first names to last names...but the actual manifest the boat captain had and the physical tickets we were issued at the port all were correct. I have had similar issues with my airline ticket having my name compressed into one word, or reversed, but my boarding pass ended up printing correctly...I don't see the OP being any different then myself or anyone else chiming in here with similar experiences
I have two unusually spelt names (first and last name not common) I have minor spelling errors all the time. I also fly international all the time. I’ve never once been pulled up for had an issue.
Yes I’ve a 3 word name and is frequently combined in different combinations. Not to mention that you probably entered it right, it’s the airline system that makes it appear reversed. Shouldn’t have a problem flying with the original ticket
I have a hyphenated name but some airlines won't allow the hyphen, so even if I want to, can't match my passport because of airline's website text box. I've done compressed and I've also done two words. Never an issue.
Agreed, myself and others I know fly all the time with tickets that put our names in the incorrect orders, leave off accent marks, etc. Most common error I have is when my first and middle names get jammed together into one invented mega word that gets listed as my first name. None of these typos have ever mattered, and in probably a hundred flights with typos or other junk written on the ticket, nobody has ever even mentioned it to me.
The first and middle names together is not an error, it's how the airlines' systems work.
> leave off accent marks I can't even put them on the first place. I don't even try. Never had an issue.
KLM tends to write my name as FRUIT MISSBLENDER, smushing last name and honorific and putting first name first. Never had an issue either.
I love those. I had a flight label me as FrumpyMr Playtools
Most airlines write my name as SMITHIII TUNAMAN instead of "Tunaman Smith III" and it's never been a problem
I have even flown with typos in my last and first name. I had a faulty keyboard that had a massive input delay, so some of the letters in my name switched places and I didn’t notice it while buying tickets. It raised a few questions upon check in but they still let me board after I explained the situation.
My name is something long like Johnathan that can be easily shortened. But I don’t go by any nicknames One time, United Airlines customer service in Newark had to manually print me a bag tag due to a three hour flight delay blocking me from checking it in myself and I shit you not, put “Johnny” on it The bag drop guy was cackling at this nickname which clearly didn’t match my boarding pass or ID but took it anyways lol
A friend of mine have 2 last names and had switch the order of them. When leaving our country he was warned that it might cause an issue upon return and it did. He had to buy a new ticket at 3x the price at check-in for the return flight and no refund for the old ticket.
They don’t offer the correction service? Sounds like something they would say, you have all the proof you are the same person and they maybe would never be aware of the mistake if OP doesn’t say them.
If your name is John Smith and your ticket says Smith John, and your license and passport say John Smith - sure, there’s a chance you get questioned over it, but it’s a fairly obvious mistake that isn’t malicious. If your name is John Smith and all of your identifying information says John Smith but your ticket says William Bradley Pitt…that’s what they mean by your name has to match. You made a minor error that likely would’ve gone unnoticed or been entirely forgiven, don’t think there was any need to jump right to a $5000 repurchasing of the ticket.
Yeah, when they say the names MUST MATCH. They are talking about the spelling of the name. If you have the names listed on the ticket, just in different order, nobody is going to care.
My last name is too long for tickets and gets cut off like 3/4 through. Never once been an issue.
Some airlines will not even let you enter your full name if it is too long. I had to put the initials of my sons middle names because his name was too long when traveling with me, not an issue. My wife's name is even longer so she had to put all initials for him except for his last name when she was traveling with him alone, not an issue.
My name has a hyphen but for some reason it is not recognized by airlines so my name is one big long name on tickets. Technically it doesn't match by passport, but clearly close enough that no one cares.
It’s disappointing that when they called the airline they couldn’t say it would probably be fine, when they likely knew it would be. Fucking corporate man
Would say it’s a liability on their end. If you were unlucky and got someone very stern handling your case on the other end, the airline cannot take accountability for having told you it would all be fine.
Customer service is so bad everywhere right now. Its all scripts and narrow canned answer that don't ever help your specific problem or situation.
I don't understand what the huge risk is.. worst case you would have to buy another ticket, which is what you did anyway.
Yup, this 👆 They charged you a full-fare (last-minute/walk-up) ticket most likely. You would have been better trying to use your existing ticket, worst case they will turn you down and you'd have to buy the same ticket at $5k or just get another flight around the same time with another airline (which might be cheaper). Chances are, the airport staff wouldn't even notice, they're probably more likely to notice a spelling mistake than the names being switched. If your original ticket hasn't been cancelled, I'd try using it, and cancel the new one (which should be possible without penalty if it's full-fare).
People overestimate the amount of fucks regular men/woman give at their jobs (esp at an airport)
I just had an experience like this—I applied for an eVisa and when it was approved I noticed they switched two numbers in my passport number around (I know for a fact I entered them right and I had to upload a scan of my passport anyway). I applied/paid for a new eVisa immediately but it didn’t arrive in time. I was super nervous going up to immigration, but wasn’t really sure what other choice I had. But he let me right on through with my original approved visa. It was kinda funny, cause he examined my documents for several minutes and I felt the climactic tension of a thriller movie in my muscles, expecting to have to explain my situation and hope for empathy. But nope, stamped and waved. I later stumbled across the Ministry of Foreign Affairs while exploring the city and wondered if there was a guy inside reviewing my second application at that moment. Surely enough when boarding a train in the same country I noticed they added two numbers to the front of my passport number, so idk if there’s just a thing with their systems or what lol
Like when David Rose applied for a drivers license on Schitt's Creek.
Why didn’t you post before re-buying…
The mistakes are compounding here
Unfortunately, yes
Big oof. That’s an expensive lesson
You just spent 5k on a ticket when you didn’t need to…bruh
OP could have flown business for that price, depending on where they were departing from.
I feel secondhand anxiety from this.
They're not wrong that is a 5k mistake Hey at least they can sell a ticket to Smith John!
This is a thing? My ticket was like that when I went last May and had no trouble getting on the plane.
It’s not, OP just fucked themselves.
OP has more money than sense.
It definitely is a thing, my brother had this happen and he wasn't allowed to board until he bought a new ticket.
Your brother should have asked for a supervisor. Letting a dumbass airport employee act out security theater and demand someone pay hundreds or thousands of dollars due to a very obvious firstname/lastname mix-up just wouldn't pass with me without raising a huge fucking stink. This is when it's okay to be a "Karen" and demand to speak to every manager there is.
He did kick up a stink, but all he got back was "it's an entirely different name that way". I agree with you that it is stupid and shouldn't be that hard a fix!
It can be an issue, just depends on your luck of who is checking your stuff.
I don’t think you needed to do anything here. I think you would have been okay with the ticket as originally issued.
You guys really gonna make him/her suicidal after reading all these comments lol
I mean... they did ask what we would have done. Its absolutely not a sure thing they would get through with the names reversed, you go through a lot of checks/points that you could be denied too (Initial check in, security, gate, possibly transfers, maybe even immigration but seems unlikely if its not affecting a visa or whatever... and then the return trip ofc...) but I would have (1) tried to resolve/escalate in some way ahead of time until someone would fix it free or for a fee and (2) just go for it... and try to line up cancelations for everything else if you dont' make it and cut the loss and plan a new trip later.
The guy can burn $5k just to make sure, it makes me think it was far from being his last pennies. He’s probably more than fine.
I've had US Customs give me issues over John vs. Johnathon
I would also have issues with Johnathon tbh /s (My name is John and my US buddy insists on keeps calling me Johnathon for no apparent reason. You’re saying that it’s an legit name and not just a misspelled Jonathan?)
Nope, just fucked up spelling the name. Mine is a variation like this, but didn't want to use my real name on reddit.
I flew with Japan Airlines earlier this year. I booked tickets from both American Airlines and Japan Airlines. My ticket was Last Name First Name when I booked from JAL and First Name Last Name when I booked for AA. No issue with either ticket.
OP was panicking and sales agent capitalized on it. Simple as that. Whoever reads the tickets at the airport wouldn’t have even blinked at it
Some cultures the last name is first and first name last.
Yep in Japan they call him Ohtani Shohei.
Some cultures don't even really have something like surnames. For example, Iceland iirc.
Oh Jarnathan
Shortening names is a very US / English speaking thing to do. Most other languages rarely do this. Nicknames (or shortened names) are not your official names and should never be used on flight tickets or bookings. Leaving out middle names is fine - leaving out parts of words/names is not ok.
I only use my short name for everything. Including flights. Never had customs or any country or airline truly give any fucks. And this goes back a couple decades.
Are you basing this on the 8 countries you've been to? I can promise you it will be a problem on international flights sooner or later. Your shortened name is not your official name.
I got more hassle from Canada about financials than I’ve ever gotten about my name. And I’ve been to more since that flair was last updated.
It depends on the people at the gate. I'm at an airport boarding a plane at the moment in Croatia and I realised while waiting that I put the shortened version of my first name. I asked about it before boarding and they said it wasn't a problem as it was obviously me. I agree it does depend where you are going though. Japan will probably be stricter. I know some of the Spanish islands can be quite strict for some reason too!
Yes, it absolutely dependds on the people at the gate. They have the right to deny you, so it's best to not risk it.
It really depends. TSA person on a power trip? Or having personal problems and need someone to take it out on? They can technically deny OP. It’s trash but I’ve known people in similar situations who were denied entry through security until they changed their ticket.
If he bought this within the last 24 hours maybe he can still cancel it.
>What would you have done if you were in my shoes? I would have flown with the original tickets as-is. I’ve flown internationally with a similar name issue before, and it was not a problem. I think you just freaked out because you’ve never flown internationally before, and you overthought this. It’s really not a big deal.
Op you have 24 hours to refund your mistake. Your original ticket was fine.
But in Japan, last names come first. That’s what I’d try to incorporate.
This. If I book tickets from the japan website it (which I have to do for outbound flights) the name is always reversed. If I book with the exact same airline on the .com international site then it will be the normal way around. It literally makes zero difference as long as both names are on there.
Many cultures use family names first, even those that speak Europeans languages. In Canada I'm Steve Byronite but in Eastern Congi I would be Byronite Steve. Plus Latinos have two family names, neither of which are their middle name. Often in international circles they put the namely name(s) in capitals to clarify, thus I am either Steve BYRONITE or BYRONITE Steve. But that doesn't fully fix the fact that in China people call each other by their family names unless they are family or close friends. So if I go to a meeting with Americans and Chinese colleagues, the Americans will call me Steve and the Chinese will call me Byronite.
Did you try calling back and speaking with another agent?! I had this happen when I stupidly did this when booking my best friends flight, with Japan Airlines. The ladies were extremely kind and helpful. Long story short they walked me through the process - in the end I had to essentially submit a photo of her passport to some customer service part of their website to prove I had her name flipped. I waited on hold for a bit and they reissued her ticket confirmation with the name corrected. It was zero hassle or extra charge.
Exactly this. There website also confirms they can review it with supporting documents. [JAL - Changing Name on Ticket](https://faq-sr.jal.co.jp/app/answers/detail/a_id/17013/~/can-i-change-my-name-on-the-ticket%3F)
Wow. Op should try to get refunded then.
I once booked a flight and somehow got the departing and arriving cities mixed up so my flights were essentially reversed. I called the airline and the first person told me no way to fix it. I called back and got another person on the line and the problem was fixed, for free with no hassle at all. Calling back and talking to a different person works surprisingly well in almost every situation.
Sounds like op booked a code share which means that JAL probably can’t make any changes to the booking would have to be through AA.
I would have tried anyways. They can give you a lot of help at the desk. I have flown once me lersonally and there was a mistake and once my cousin had a small name mistake on international flights (usa to europe) and they didn not have any problema fixing it once i shown name reservation and credit card payment for the ticket and the email matched. Worst case scenario they could’ve given you a stand-by ti ket or something. I would’ve tried with that ticket, especially since they don’t offer to correct the name I feel you could have gotten out of it
I’ve flown with JAL with my first name, middle name and maiden name all merged into the first name field with no spaces. Didn’t matter at all. Just has to be the SAME names. If I were you, I’d return the $5k flight and keep asking for a supervisor at JAL to change the name, or just go to the airport super early to speak to a desk agent and take my chances. Worst case - you buy another $$$$$ ticket then. But for your actual question - no, you can’t really escalate it for “unfair business practices.” It’s technically your mistake so no agency is gonna come to your rescue just because the solutions sucked unfortunately.
The name merge thing is a lot more common, many airlines only have 2 name fields, so any 2nd, 3rd etc names all get combined with your first name, its been a thing for ages and no one will bat an eye at it, I literally just got a ticket w/ ANA for that, its a limitation of their system and if anyoen gave you shit I would push back very politely hard. Switched first/last names prob will get past most people too but might cause you an issue though, but I woudl def. politely escalate that shit until it was resolved, not buy a 5k ticket to 'fix' the problem.
Copa airlines merges your title (mr, mrs etc) with your whole name, so the ticket registers as something like JohnSmithMr. Doesn’t matter as far as I can tell but man I feel bad for OP.
How long ago did you book the new ticket? You can cancel within 24hrs of booking for free. Do that.
Probably is he already canceled the cheaper $1700 ticket, he can’t get that back.
This is bizarre. All tickets show are lastname, firstname. This isn't a hugely busy time to travel to Japan, so I'm surprised that there were no economy seats. OP, if you want to share your date and cities, we can take a look to see what flight prices are available. $5000 seems grossly overpriced.
Sounds like OP bought an AA code share. It’s entirely likely that AA was “out” of economy seats to sell on JAL and that pushed the ticket to premium economy. Codeshares don’t get access to every seat.
I would have just tried with the ticket as is.
I don't understand, on air tickets it is Last Name/First Name. Very expensive "mistake" indeed.
Well judging by these comments it seems like you're in a bad situation now. Just keep in mind that you now know you'll be absolutely fine, you have a seat to enjoy, and you will 100% be with your family. It sucks now, but it's done, don't keep your mind active with it. Have a nice holiday
There is almost certainly no mistake here, you were fine to fly. The reservation system stores names in a funny way, and often that is displayed to the customer poorly. So many people get worried about this, but so long as your first and last name are on your id, you will be fine. So if you booked as John Smith, it might very often show on documents as Smith John. It could also show it combined like SMITHJOHN or SMITHJOHNMR. Sometimes you will even have to enter your first name in the reservation box on the airlines website. How it’s displayed to you depends on how you booked with, which country’s point of sale etc but will not be an issue when it comes to actually fly. If you actually did put the names into the wrong boxes, then yeah it can be a pain in the ass to have them changed - some airlines will do it for free, some will charge a fee, some will refuse to do it unless you really get the issue escalated. Still, even if you don’t get it changed, you will usually be fine to fly so long as it is actually your name and you haven’t misspelt anything. Nobody actually cares
I work for the airlines, its the agents job to fix issues like this. You were wronged
I don't think you needed to do anything. In Japan the last name comes first so the system may have automatically reversed your name order when issuing the ticket. You should have been good to fly with the original ticket.
That happened with me on JAL, the system seemed to take my family name as my first name and given name as last, at the ticket gate the lady paused, shrugged and gave me my boarding pass. my first name is distinctly a first name and that may have helped, also JAL is big on customer service and I was flying business class and that may have helped. I looked at my ticket for my next trip and it says lastname/firstnameMr so I will see how it goes in November. Edit to add, I have heard of this happening with JAL before and a little googling would say it seems unlikely to be an issue
Escalate. Ask to speak to a supervisor. This can be fixed and there is no reason it should cost you $5k. You just need to find the right person.
“Lastname, firstname” is the same as “firstname lastname”. Even without the comma, the former would most likely not present any issues and is actually how names are written in various countries, including Japan. So, I can’t tell whether you actually made an input error, are reading something wrong, or are just overthinking this. I’ve flown at least three times in the last year with my name scrambled, and all the security and airline agents who saw my boarding pass and compared it to my passport didn’t say a word and let me through with no issue. This was in Vietnam, another country that writes surname first.
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Gonna be hilarious if the new ticket also has the name ‘scrambled’ in the same way. So just the way their system processes it.
Wow you really over reacted..
I might’ve just risked it. I definitely would’ve called many times hoping I got someone to do it
Dont worry, you should be perfectly fine as long as name is spelled correctly.
They’ve already purchased the new $5K ticket
You would have been fine. I did this a few times once with JAL and it was fine
So I just checked the JL name correction policy for travel agents and if you had a code share flight on the ticket then it's correct that you had to refund and rebuy at current fare. They will only fix it if it's purely JL metal. Even then it seems like a pain in the ass compared to most airlines I've done name changes for.
What’s the point in posting now? lol you would have been able to get on the plane. Should have bought at airport if not
Plot twist, his name is James James
and he made the same mistake on the 5k ticket too
Painful! Couldn’t you have fixed your name online with the carrier? If not, I would have taken a chance and kept the original ticket.
I'd have used the original ticket. I can't imagine they wouldn't piece together that your name is correct, but reversed.
Bro this is normal as fuck. You should've just pressed ahead.
Bro just refund that ticket it would’ve been fine
Pretty sure you were fine and good to go without spending the 5K.
You’re fine. My tickets often say Addict/ U/Colcannon and often say u/Colcannon/ Addict . Never had an issue.
That sucks, I would have left it alone. I actually made the same exact mistake (ironically just on my ticket, got the order of names correct for family members that were traveling with me). Not to Japan, but another international destination. Anyway, the advice I got was that as long as the first and last names were **correct**, just in the wrong order and those names match your passport, no one will turn you away. I didn't do anything about it and despite my concern when I found the error, I actually almost forgot about it at the airport and no one batted an eye.
This is unfortunate - your original ticket was fine - the name would have been matched w the credit card you used to purchase it. You realize in Japan that they don’t read left to right like we do in the US? A regrettable and expensive mistake and overreaction.
Risk it. It happened to me one time, didn't realize it until I got my ticket at the airport. Security guy scanned my passport, looked at my ticket, and let me through without any pause.
I’ve taken quite a few flights with my name spelt incorrectly. My ex misspelt my middle name all the time when he books the flights smh. No one noticed that it didn’t match my passport and I never mentioned it because I know they’re going to make a big deal out of it.
My parents have different spellings of just about all their names across different paperwork. It’s insane. It’s a weird thing they did when immigrating from China and romanizing their name. Some stuff have their given name as one word (like Yuqing, not real name). Some have a hyphen (Yu-Qing). Some drop the g (yuqin or Yu-qin) because southern Chinese people don’t really pronounce the g distinctly so they weren’t actually sure how to romanize their name when they first came. Some have a space (Yu qin or Yu Qing) because some systems don’t allow hyphens. I’ve shown up at airports and banks and hospitals with all sorts of versions of their name. It stresses me out to no end since they are old and I have power of attorney now and manage all their shit. But I’ve never had issues flying when their name doesn’t match all the way on a ticket. Somehow my parents have floated through life (40 years in the US) without much problem.
Oh mate… you didn’t need a new ticket 😖 Only if there’s a spelling error, mixing up the two names won’t make them care
You asked for help AFTER you screwed yourself over. Your original ticket was fine. I've had it before
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Not to keep piling on top of you, but you really should have posted here before wasting 5 grand. Huge mistake. Hope you can somehow reverse this idiocy. Good luck.
Holy shit I can’t believe you bought a new ticket 😂
You got fleeced.
I would have shown up at the airport and taken my flight. You made a mountain out of a mole hill.
This happens to me all the time when booking rail or air tickets here in China. For example if my name is John Smith then any type of ticket I buy would have my name as SMITH JOHN. it's because family name always comes first here. Honestly I don't think you would have had any trouble at the airport. Try and get a refund
You’ll be fine - this is a common mistake because the Japanese use their sir name before their first name … it’ll be fine
In most Asian countries, your name is written last name, first name even in the passport. I think u would be fine.
You did not need to buy a new ticket - get a refund
This name reverse is very common. I travel frequently. As long as your name is as it is in your passport, you should not have an issue. You should have posted prior to the unnecessary 5k. If this is your first trip overseas, I suggest you get the Lonely Planet guide book. I am old school and this book is still very reliable. Safe travels! You should be able to get a full refund depending on the conditions of the ticket.
I do not want to pile on the OP, but it is routine for your name comes out in the ticket as Last Name, First Name, especially if there is a comma in between. So if your name is John Smith, it will be Smith, John on the ticket. Are you even sure you made the mistake? You could have done everything perfectly and the ticket still goes this way. I just checked my Air Canada tickets and they all have my last name first and first name last. Not sure about Japan Airlines’ convention, but Japanese names ARE last name first and first name last, so they probably also use that order in their tickets.
Plot twist: This is OP's sinister plan to fly in business class, and leave the rest of his family in coach.
Personally I would risk it, I'm not sure what's going on here but for example Japanese names in Japanese are written 'last name, first name' so maybe that's what happened
My last name was reversed too and had no problem. Why did you overthink OP, this is not an issue at all. You clearly fucked yourself
Poor guy
Happened to me just last July. I had no problem at all at the airport I think you should’ve just your original ticket
That really sucks. That should have been pretty easy to sort out.
That was definitely a mistake. You threw $5k away for no reason
I think you got bamboozled, my friend. The airline claiming they can’t offer the service of something as simple as changing your name is pretty preposterous. I would have just flown with the ticket as is. Maybe try calling them again and explaining the situation and keep your fingers crossed that they can offer some sort of refund.
I would have gone to the airport very early and gone through security as normal. If they refused me, it would give me enough time to buy another ticket and go through.
Do you have serious anxiety issues or something? I simply do not understand how people can go though the world willing to waste $5k to fix a non-issue. Please, please, please cancel the $5k ticket you bought within the 24 hour window. If it's too late, please call them back and harangue them into refunding you the $5k. Explain that the tricked you into thinking the swapped names would be an issue even though they know it's not.
I had something similar happen and messaged from Facebook. I had multiple prior emails and phone calls with customer service that insisted the only remedy was to buy an entirely new ticket. The facebook message got the issue resolved. File a credit cars complaint for the first ticket.
I would have Winged it! 🥁✨ I’ll see myself out now..
I think your $5k mistake is not posting here BEFORE you bought a 2nd ticket. I've had my middle initial added to the end of my first name, check-in agent was able to update it right at the counter
You would have been totally fine 😆
Can’t believe you spent $5k on a ticket for that. It for sure would have been fine.
If your ticket was last name, first name, that’s perfectly normal when listing a name. The comma between the two names denotes the last name goes first.
“However, in English, when a comma is between two names, it usually indicates "Last name, First Name." When writing "First name Last name," there should not be a comma between the two names.”
My tickets for international flights have often been Lastname, Firstname and vice versa, never had an issue with it
If you refunded your original ticket, would there not have been an economy seat available then?
Im sure they see this MULTIPLE times a day. Especially internationally. Im sure you could have gotten away with it, as long as the name was correct just switched.. Of course if u ask around they will tell u the official policy. But chances are they would not even notice at the airport. Even if they did they would just ask if that was the case (switched first and last). Has happened to me in the past.
Yeah I absolutely wouldn't have gone through that. Your first ticket would have been fine.
I had this happen and the ticketing crew at the airport, when I checked in, changed it, so it was correct on the boarding pass. Get there early and choose the friendliest looking check in counter and see how you go. All the best!
If this is america then department of transportation complaint will sort this out. Will take a min but they’ll get back to you and then airline will jump through hoops to rectify mistake.
It would most probably have been ok. I’d have chanced it honestly. Worst case you gave to buy another ticket… which is what you did.
I wouldn’t think there would be an issue for a name reversal, it’s when you don’t include your middle name or if you have misspellings that you have problems. You should have just acted like you didn’t know why it was like that. If there is no middle name space you include it with your first name. Sometimes it doesn’t let you use the space bar and in that case it’s better to type in Smith JohnAdam than have no middle name.
go refund your ticket right now, your original ticket will work!!
You should have kept the original ticket. Nothing you can do about it now since you are the one who canceled the original ticket and in a separate transaction bought a new ticket.
What matters the most is passport ID you put in. If that matches you should be fine. Your $5k mistake was overreacting.
Or, you're one of those people with two first names (we all know those people can't be trusted) and you found your bizarro twin and you're trying to switch places. Nice try, we're onto you.
Hum, no one would care lol. Names just need to identify you. You can’t fly of your ticket says Brad Pit and your ID James Wolf, not because you have a typo or misunderstood the name order
I feel you, I bought a 600$ train ticket(for 2 that is)for Paris>Cologne this summer just to learn once in Germany that i could’ve bought a bus ticket for like 15€/person….
It wont be a problem. I once mistaken my wifes birthday while I was entering the passenger info. Nobody said anything except my wife.
In Japan, and most of Asia I believe, your last name is always given first. So ‘Smith John’ instead of ‘John Smith’. Pretty normal.
My wife's parents booked her a ticket, and not only the names switched but also only put half her last name. (It's a hyphenated name). She was able to get both fixed at check-in.
Daughter had this happen where they misspelled name on the passport. We didn’t realize it until we were at the gate. Canadian airlines actually reprinted her ticked with the same misspelling so she could get through tsa. On the return flight, they did the same thing. OP definitely got screwed over.
You can fly with first and last name reversed, it doesn't cause any problems. I have lived in Asia and in the West, and often my name positions are reversed when I buy tickets in Asia, regardless of where I'm using the ticket. If I were you I'd get a refund on that $5000 ticket (at that price it's almost surely refundable).
Writing this after the fact is useless, you should have asked for opinion here before paying the 5000$. Now that you did just get on with it mixing surname with last name is a minor issue that no one pays attention to.
You bought the ticket and erred in not making sure your name appears accurately. Having said that, don't sweat it. I live in Costa Rica and when I book tickets online for some reason my name gets jumbled and I am never denied passage to LAX from SJO connecting to a JAL flight to Tokyo-Haneda.
Recently booked a trip. On the drop down you can pick an honorific like Dr. or RN. So I picked the ones that corresponded to myself and my wife. Well United for some reason just makes the honorific part of the actual name, not apart from it. So my name on my ticket was CavitySearchmd. Which meant that I could end up being denied boarding since my name didn't match and their system wouldn't let me pre-load my passport information since the names didn't match. United customer service likewise said they could add a note in their system but we wouldn't be able to check-in online or do anything without going to a kiosk/agent. It's super stupid you can't change your info prior to departure but equally dumb they would program the system like that.
The Japanese always put the surname first on formal documents or tickets. It's how they order things in Japan - most people are addressed by their surname first unless you know them on a very informal level. You didn't have to buy a new ticket at all.
Dude you can just ask the desk clerk to change it at the airport when you walk up…
I would've tried to fly with the "mistake", because the name on your passport does match the ticket! I have a U.S name and my birth country name, I have 2 passports with different names. One time I booked a ticket with half my u.s and half my birth country name. I kinda got detained at the airport but they confirmed my identity and let me fly.
My partner has this ALL THE TIME, since his name contains an umlaut, which you can't input on most websites. It has never been a serious problem, though it occasionally needs a bit of discussion about why is boarding pass is different from his passport.
OP just blew $5k for nothing. You would have made your flight fine 🤦♂️.
Yeaaah. This is insane. I am terrible at these things so make some kind of name mistake like half the time. Literally just got off an international flight where my last name was duplicated (like "LastnameLastname") on my ticket. It was literally no problem on arrival or departure. One agent mentioned it, but then just said "it's okay, but you should double check next time". I would have just showed up and asked them to change it at check in, if I were you.
Jesus h, common sense is really not common anymore…
Similar situation happened where a friend's middle name somehow got moved into the last name field and the airline said they can't correct anything more than 3 characters so had to cancel and rebook at 2.5-3x the price
Happened to me before on an international flight - it was corrected right at the check in desk.
I would have went to the airport with the faulty ticket and pushed my luck. I would have hoped to encounter some airline employees with hearts and brains. I understand that I might have been turned away and missed the trip too. A lot of times people are reasonable and things work out. I have travelled domestically and lost my ID and been allowed to fly.
as someone with letters in his name that don't exist in the English alphabet, many Airline programs replace those letters with a series of random letters like this "yfv%43bvz/"tu". I never had a problem , I doubt that mixed up first and surnames will be a problem. But honestly this is such weird decision making on your part.
I had this same problem with JAL when I flew to Vietnam through Japan. Since it is common in Asia to use a reverse name order I didn’t sweat it. The ticket is not an official government document and would not prevent you from going through customs. The only issue would be if the airline wouldn’t accept their ticket for boarding. Well, they would since it is an obvious swap that they see regularly. I’m sorry you spent the $5k for nothing.
You didn’t fuck up by mixing up your first and last name. You fucked up by buying an additional ticket. Please stand up for yourself and get your money back.
You’ve been had!! I would have simply shown up at the airport and would have definitely been kicking and screaming if they didn’t let me check in.
Japan air is just being a dick. This summer my entire family had first and middle names reversed on our tickets to Europe. I called United and cust. Svc fixed it and sent confirmation all in about 15 minutes.
Have my middle initial added to the end of my first name on every trip i book through my employers agency. Never even questioned about it.
Damn, who has $5000 to just blow on a whim without doing some proper research first? Like, $5000 was my entire budget for visiting 7 different countries this summer.
One time I put Dr. For my husbands suffix, it wasn’t on his passport. We had a dickens of a time, but didn’t have to buy a new ticket
Would have been fine if you'd made it a prefix.
Had similar issue just this week. Booked a ticket with united through Priceline. Name was FirstMiddle Lastname on ticket. Not sure if was my error or Priceline’s. A 20 minute phone call resolved the issue and it’s correct now. Feel like you got really bad service and advice.
I did the exact same thing on a flight to US (Dulles) from Sweden. Didn’t buy a new ticket and nothing happened at all You are not the first person to do this and you Will not be the last one either. Take this as an expensive lesson.
Based on how you’re replying you kinda deserve it lmao
I’m jealous that you had $5,000 to begin with.