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A reader got in touch to say that, since the BA IT upgrade in November, he is now unable to book Avios flights.
This appears to be because he has an apostrophe in his name (eg O’Brien) and the BA system no recognises non-alphanumeric characters.
Anyone else got any experience of this?!
I have a hyphen in my name (double barrelled surname).
I can book online, but, I cannot book using any 2-4-1 voucher as it moans that the cardholder name (which you cannot edit) doesn’t match the passenger record (which never contains the hyphen).
I always have to ring up to book using a 2-4-1. My most recent was on 17th January.
Several people (including me) can no longer change the genders of our co-travellers – they all seem to be stuck on the gender of the lead passenger! Another reader said they managed to change this via the “extra information” requirement, post-booking.
Are they sure it was an “upgrade”?!
I have a hyphen in my name (double barrelled surname).
I can book online, but, I cannot book using any 2-4-1 voucher as it moans that the cardholder name (which you cannot edit) doesn’t match the passenger record (which never contains the hyphen).
I always have to ring up to book using a 2-4-1. My most recent was on 17th January.
Which card do you mean? If Amex, the card holder name doesn’t have to match any of the passengers anyway.
I have a hyphen in my name (double barrelled surname).
I can book online, but, I cannot book using any 2-4-1 voucher as it moans that the cardholder name (which you cannot edit) doesn’t match the passenger record (which never contains the hyphen).
I always have to ring up to book using a 2-4-1. My most recent was on 17th January.
Which card do you mean? If Amex, the card holder name doesn’t have to match any of the passengers anyway.
Correct, normally. This isn’t the Amex name “verification” though.
When booking a 2-4-1 the cardholder name is set to my name (as that’s required). You cannot change it.
Long story short: The cardholder name contains a hyphen, but, the booking doesn’t (because it always removed the hyphen – you cannot get it added and the cardholder name is not writable), it won’t let me book online as the names don’t match (they are doing some verification that the cardholder name matches the booking name and complaining that it doesn’t)! It just throws an error and there’s no way to correct it myself.
Ah yes, I’ve never noticed that but our cardholder names are the same as our BAEC ones so I guess it will never have been an issue.
Would Amex send you a new card without the hyphen? Just out of interest, do both surnames appear in your passport and boarding cards, and has this ever caused a problem?!
Ah yes, I’ve never noticed that but our cardholder names are the same as our BAEC ones so I guess it will never have been an issue.
Would Amex send you a new card without the hyphen? Just out of interest, do both surnames appear in your passport and boarding cards, and has this ever caused a problem?!
Nothing to do with Amex verification.
This is purely to do with BA checking the cardholder is flying! I am, but the names don’t match. My BAEC has the hyphen (because it’s my name), but the passenger record for the booking doesn’t as BA removes it… The cardholder field is not writable when you’re using a 2-4-1 to enforce the fact the passenger is paying for it. Its just BA checking, despite pre-filling the field themselves, that the cardholder name entered matches the passenger name for the 2-4-1 voucher. Amex don’t come into the equation.
Surname always appears on boarding cards without the hyphen. My passport has the hyphen. Never a problem with flying, just booking using a 2-4-1.
I get what you’re saying about the Amex verification! That is weird, because you’d think the system would know who you are due to having the same BAEC number, which the 241 is obviously linked to as well.
I have a hyphen in my name (double barrelled surname).
I can book online, but, I cannot book using any 2-4-1 voucher as it moans that the cardholder name (which you cannot edit) doesn’t match the passenger record (which never contains the hyphen).
I always have to ring up to book using a 2-4-1. My most recent was on 17th January.
Interesting. I also have a double barrelled surname with a hyphen, and have never had a problem booking and using my 2-4-1. Including my most recent booking a couple of weeks ago.
Ah yes, I’ve never noticed that but our cardholder names are the same as our BAEC ones so I guess it will never have been an issue.
Would Amex send you a new card without the hyphen? Just out of interest, do both surnames appear in your passport and boarding cards, and has this ever caused a problem?!
Nothing to do with Amex verification.
This is purely to do with BA checking the cardholder is flying! I am, but the names don’t match. My BAEC has the hyphen (because it’s my name), but the passenger record for the booking doesn’t as BA removes it… The cardholder field is not writable when you’re using a 2-4-1 to enforce the fact the passenger is paying for it. Its just BA checking, despite pre-filling the field themselves, that the cardholder name entered matches the passenger name for the 2-4-1 voucher. Amex don’t come into the equation.
Surname always appears on boarding cards without the hyphen. My passport has the hyphen. Never a problem with flying, just booking using a 2-4-1.
Fellow double-barrelled last name human here. Check-in staff seem to be okay with no hyphen on ticketing documentation (if hyphen present in passport, e.g. “ALPHA-BRAVO”); ones I have encountered understand that the system back-end does not permit hyphens, so always let this slide at check-in and boarding gate (e.g. boarding pass will be issued as (“ALPHABRAVO”).
A question leading from this discussion, if I may: my (US) Chase BA credit card carries the simplified version of my last name (“BRAVO”) as does all my US banking info. However, my BAEC account is as”ALPHA-BRAVO”, and my (200k+) Avios are “stuck” somewhere between Chase and BAEC, presumably because the last names do not match (all other info, address, email etc match).
[As an aside, I don’t wish to change my US banking info as have linked to my Curve and a name change would result in new card details (yes I am aware of the imminent decrease to Curve-fronted transactions), and I wish to try to earn Companion vouchers both in US *and* UK (via Amex BAPP)]
I created a new BAEC account with simply “BRAVO”, added this to my HH account, but weeks later it was de-linked and I cannot re-add it. So even if I were able to have Chase send the BAEC points across, presumably the resulting merge of accounts would end up as either “ALPHA-BRAVO” or “BRAVO”, I’m not sure which…(I am aware BAEC only allows 1 account per person, but to my surprise this ‘solution’ was suggesteed by a BAEC phone agent!)
So, issues seem to be:
-how to get the (US Chase-earned) Avios to actually appear in my BAEC account;
-whether a US-earned companion voucher under “Bravo” would work (given the name on the voucher must match the travelling pax); or if a name-change once the voucher has been issued is even possible;
-what (if any) effects having the different parts of the last name in the US/UK have on my ability to earn 2-4-1 VouchersThought I would ask here amongst fellow double-barrelled members before creating a new thread, as the wider community presumably has minimal experience with the irritating hiccups/exceptions that we experience. Any suggestions much appreciated – TIA
As a geek, I feel the need to share the tale of Little Bobby Tables.
My other half has an apostrophe in her surname. It’s fair to say that it doesn’t work on 90% of IT systems – including BA flight booking and checkin.
It’s never been an issue to just omit it so it’s best to put principles aside and do that.
It sounds like the issue here is that BA changed their validation without considering existing data.
Tbh, it’s a miracle if any of their IT systems are working on a given day. I write this in a taxi on the way to LHR. My colleague was completely unable to check in on BA website yesterday. Finally downloaded the IOS app and could check in. Their systems are a joke
Not the same issue but from birth for reasons my parents could never explain I have and are still known by my middle name. My first passport did not show my first name and until 9/11 all documents and cards just used my middle and surname. No one cared. Then everything changed and I had to correct everything. That said, my second and unused other than for offers, Amex card (A/C) still only shows my middle name.
I think of my first name as my official and medical name, when once coming around from anaesthesia and being encouraged to wake up with my first name, I remember thinking I wish that bloke would wake up so they would be quiet, I am enjoying some sleep here!
As a geek, I feel the need to share the tale of Little Bobby Tables.
I see Bobby Tables and raise you Falsehoods Developers Believe About Names:
https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names/
Whilst I’m very happy to be irked by BA’s unforgivably bad IT, this problem is by no means confined to BA.
As the owner of a double barrelled surname and a software developer of over 40 years, there are few things that wind me up more than sloppy name validation.
So many systems are written by lazy developers who don’t even think about possible unusual characters in names. Come on guys, its not rocket science.
And its not limited to peoples names. The Heathrow Express WiFi insists that my email address is invalid (it has a hyphen in the company name) and despite pointing this out to them about 10 years ago, I still couldn’t login a few weeks ago.For the last few years my partner has not been able to transfer his HSBC premier points to Avios as he has a hyphen in his name. We’ve tried and tried and spoken to people and they always shift the blame to the other. Has there been a workaround for this? If yes, please advise the procedure.
I wonder what would happen if a user who’s name was encoded missing some information (hyphen, apostrophe, etc) insisted, as is their right in law, that the erroneous backend system is corrected?
I don’t think the DPA has an exemption for “we simplify names”. If a record is identifiably me, it must be correct (or be corrected on request).
I’m blessed with a simple name but have three family members who could take issue with BA (and doubtless many other firms) on this basis.
OH has a triple-barrelled (Latino) surname that doesn’t fit on many forms.
BA tends to miss out the spaces to squidge it together.
Amex cards just show the surname, but no first names
or initials.
We’ve even had boarding cards with the last half of the last name simply
lopped off, which was a bit concerning!@Michael C, we have no issues with any airlines; it’s just HSBC to Avios. It used to be fine till about 2-3 years ago and we used to avail 25% bonus transfer etc., but no success at all in the last couple of years. I just thought someone might have a contact or way to get around it as we can’t be the only ones with the issue.
@S879 I am familiar with the non matching name issue albeit usually for different reasons. The concept of getting HSBC to change a name is not really an enterprise you want to contemplate embarking upon, whereas you should relatively easily be able to persuade BAEC to do so if the name format to match HSBC is the one in your ID or alternatively BA will allow a space in lieu of a hyphen or apostrophe.
i have this issue just leave the apostrophe out. It’s a huge bug bear of mine. Barclays made an app that we couldn’t use because of this a few years back. i made a complaint and i was asked if i could just change my name. Cue further complaint £200 compensation and a hamper lol
In 2007 I changed my name with HSBC UK by handwriting a ‘deed poll’ in a branch. No further documentation was requested. A few months after I received a cheque in the old name and brought my old card along as proof (because I stupidly did not keep a copy of that ‘deed poll’), but the cashier didn’t want to know and said they only checked that the last name matched.
@John – I take it that was a passing comment rather than advice for the OP’s situation. HSBC reached a deferred prosecution agreement in 2012 and was subject to external global compliance oversight for some years so if they were always more conservative/stricter than other banks, they are now totally compliance crazy. They can turn what seems like a relatively minor issue, eg an apostrophe and turn it into a bureaucracy fest.
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