Help!

I live in the UK and have travelled quite a bit using my first name of Ann and not Anne as stipulated in my passport. However, I have heard that security has got really tight now and we are travelling to Orlando for Christmas and I am scared that I will be refused boarding! I can just see my childrens faces!

What do you think?

Thanks

The stated/written policies that tickets must match ID have gotten stricter, but there isn't a lot or (or any?) evidence that new ID rules are actually kicking in or even will be interpreted in a way that keeps you from flying.

Have you called your airline to see if it's possible to add the "e"?

Thanks - yes have contacted Virgin who insist on the amendment and will charge £25 admin fee even though the tickets are not yet issued!

I am just back from Paris and had no problems, and have booked to travel to Nice next year without the "e" but as we are all Euro, I don't think I have to amend?

I would suggest from this point on that you book tickets in the name that is in your passport; this is not going to get easier, or go back to the old system.

Since you're traveling to the US, how much hassle you will get when you try to go through security in the US will depend entirely on which TSA agent you faces - you may be lucky, or you may be "lucky". Who knows.

My experience with TSA agents is that there's simply no rule. Some want tooth powder in zip-lock bags, some don't. Some want shoes in the plastic buckets, some don't. Some check the names extremely carefully, some don't. You never know.

Recently I was distracted and in a hurry when approaching the security check so I had my documents ready plus my plastic bag of liquids already in hand, etc. I pulled out my ID and preprinted boarding pass, got slowly checked and then on through, shoes off etc. It was not until I was repackaging my items and putting my documents in my purse to scurry to my gate that I saw that I had handed the TSA agent my itinerary, not my boarding pass. That was why he was looking at it slowly, but in the end he marked it OK. You never know.

The TSA has said very clearly that while passenger names on tickets must match passports exactly, obvious and unexceptional misspellings should be no problem.

However, in this day, it's kind of silly to keep booking airlines tickets carelessly with a misspelled name, particularly on an international flight. In this case, I'd probably bite the bullet and pay the change fee so you don't have to worry. And take it as a lesson learned (and not a particularly expensive one at that. In the U.S., you'd be charged about $150 to make this changes (3 x what you're paying in the UK). And please start spelling your name so that it matches your passport. Frankly, it's just silly to be careless like that in this day and age.

Doug - I hardly think you can call it careless not to use a spelling of your name that you have never used in 45 years!

Anneen, I'm not trying to criticize you, but since September 11, 2001, it's pretty careless to do this. Almost every airline in the world has become more stringent in matching the name on your passport to the name in your passenger airline record. I just don't think it's too much to ask for people to enter their legal name on their airline ticket. My mother has always gone by her middle name, but when she travels internationally, she always always uses her legal first name for her airline ticket. And she's been doing that for decades.

In the U.S., it's now the law that you must use your legal and full name when booking airline tickets (though as I said, the TSA still claims that simple misspellings aren't going to be an issue). However, immigration and TSA agents in the U.S. are overly zealous in some places and not at all consistent in how they apply exceptions to rules.

It's really for your own good that you need to start getting in the habit. It's not a criticism of you, and I"m not trying to offend or chastise you. But it's simply a fact that you are going to have to learn to live with, for better or for worse.