A frequent traveler wondered if she was overcharged after shelling out more than $2,300 after using her nickname to book a flight.
An anonymous husband took to Reddit to reveal that his wife tends to use her nickname, Cathy, and booked the flight under that name.
However, because her full name, Catherine, is listed on her passport, the couple had problems traveling.
He revealed that his wife had to spend a whopping $2,389 to change the name on her ticket.
In a thread titled, DeltaThe lovebirds asked people online for advice, as he claimed the airline initially tried to charge them $18,000 to change the name on his wife’s ticket.
A frequent traveler has wondered if she was overcharged after shelling out more than $2,300 after using her nickname to book a flight (file image)
The post was titled: ‘Should it have been this expensive?’
The passenger explained: ‘We were flying internationally for the first time. My spouse has a name that has a common diminutive form; We’ll use “Cathy” for “Catherine” as an example.
‘”Cathy” is the name she uses on all her IDs, including her driver’s license, and is also the name she has flown under and is on her Delta Skymiles account.
‘When we made our plans to fly, she had to get a passport, and on her birth certificate, her name is “Catherine.” So the passport is in that name.
However, when she booked her ticket, the information in her Delta account was automatically populated and the name on her boarding pass was Cathy.
‘When we made our flight reservations, her Skymiles account information was automatically populated and tickets were issued for “Cathy”.
“When we went to do the pre-international check-in part (I don’t know what the real name is) where you have to enter your passport information, hers was flagged because the names were different,” he revealed.
After contacting the airline, the woman was told she had to purchase a new flight.
An anonymous husband took to Reddit to reveal that his wife tends to use her nickname, Cathy, and booked the flight under this name.
The Reddit user added: “When we called, they told us they would have to cancel our tickets and rebook them under the correct name at the current price (which, by the way, would have cost $18,000 more than we had paid; we were flying Delta One: it was a retirement trip we had saved for years).
‘After contacting a supervisor (because our trip wouldn’t have happened if they needed $18,000), they said they could change the name, but there would still be a fee to do so: $2,389.32.
“We didn’t see we had any other option, so we paid the fee and the tickets, with the exact same confirmation number, now appeared under the correct name.”
Although the issue was eventually resolved, the couple revealed that they were shocked when they discovered that they may have been overcharged.
At the end of the post, the passenger said: “When we were at the airport, we had the opportunity to speak with the representative at the Delta One check-in counter and when we told her the story, she frowned and said that was not So”. Sounds good and we suggest we look into it when we get back. You are all Delta experts. Is it reasonable to change a name?
‘Did they really do us a big favor by not charging us $18,000 for new tickets? Should I just chalk it up to our naivety/stupidity in not making sure the passport and Skymiles name matched?
‘Or would there be a way to dispute this charge, either through our Delta-branded Platinum AMex, where we collect it, or by appealing directly to Delta?’
People across the web flooded the comments section and shared their thoughts, with many of them revealing that they had the same ticket fix done for them for free.
People across the web flooded the comments section and shared their thoughts, with many of them revealing that they had the same ticket fix done for them for free.
One person said: ‘Fix your driver’s license. I can’t emphasize this enough. I’ve been through this. The state will allow it. Your incorrect name becomes a legal alias and your license is updated with your real name.
Another user commented: ‘I had to do this last summer and it was absolutely free. I have no idea why it would cost so much. The agent took care of it in five minutes on the Platinum line.
Someone else wrote: ‘My ex-husband had a similar situation – he had to cancel and rebook a new ticket. Fortunately, it was detected about six weeks before an international trip and cost about $600 to remedy (flights to Mexico from the southern United States).’
‘Looks like you got scammed. Earlier this year, my wife became a US citizen and changed her last name to mine. Her US passport was issued under her new surname, but her maiden name is still listed on her EU passport. When we flew Delta to and from the EU over the summer, I booked the tickets in her maiden name (EU passport) and we flew there without a problem. Upon returning to the US, when we checked in at the airport, there was a problem because the name on the ticket did not match his US passport. The ticket agent called and they reissued the ticket to match his US passport within 20 minutes and there were no further problems.
DailyMail.com has contacted Delta for comment.
