Buying two tickets for one person; taxes?

[Katamarino]

Hi all,

My girlfriend recently booked two tickets through Opodo for her and a friend, both with the same first name. The confirmation that she received, however, had her name on it twice, instead of her and her friend. She immediately called Opodo who claim that it is not their mistake, and that if she wants to change it, she needs to cancel the 600 pound tickets for no refund, and rebook.

She will contact them again today to try and get the name changed, but assuming they refuse, I was wondering about another option. I have seen posts on here from some people who like to buy two tickets for themselves so they have more room; can she use both tickets for herself, and insist that they be adjacent? Secondly, as only one person is travelling, can she reclaim the taxes (and even surcharges) on the second seat, as it would be just the one person in those two seats?

[man friday]

Try contacting the airline direct, and see how much theyll charge for a name change.

Had an experience with expedia with regards to a flight for our honeymoon. I jumped the gun and booked the wifes ticket in her married name.We couldnt get the passport sorted in time due to a snag with the marriage cert. When i contacted expedia i was given the option of rebooking like your good self.

As a last resort i contacted BA who changed the name for £40

Good luck with it

[Capetonian]

Taxes and surcharges are per person, therefore an extra seat for personal comfort (EXST) would attract two fares but only one set of taxes/charges.

if you PM me with details of the booking I may be able to give you further helpful information.

[Katamarino]

Unfortunately the airline say that they will not change the name, and that the contract is with Opodo and should be dealt with through them. Opodo are similarly unhelpful.

At least the taxes and charges should be rescueable...we shall see.

[Capetonian]

Unfortunately the airline say that they will not change the name, and that the contract is with Opodo and should be dealt with through them.

Unfortunately this is correct. Before travel has commenced the airline is not supposed to change a third party's booking, and after commencement there are guidelines to be follwoed in this regard.

[Capetonian]

I've PM'd you with my reply.

What the agent has told you is technically correct but highly inflexible and to be honest piss poor public relations where a client is concerned. I would suspect that the airline, if it were their own booking, might have exercised more discretion, even though it is a low yield fare, as it is clearly a genuine error.

[rjkrjk]

£33 to change her name by deed poll, £77.5 to amend a passport - worth thinking about ?

[HXdave]

which airline / route is this based on? sometimes, just speaking to someone differently at the airline / agency can sometimes give a more favourable response.

better still, next time why not book through a travel agency, where staff are specifically trained to book flights like this, and are there to make sure things dont go wrong............

[Anansis]

£33 to change her name by deed poll, £77.5 to amend a passport - worth thinking about ?


If nothing else this would make a great news story, which might in turn shame them into doing something about it...

[Capetonian]

It was booked through a travel agency, Opodo, albeit an online one rather than a bricks and mortar one.

I appreciate that the error came from the customer's side, but the agency have a duty of care to the customer and they have various robotics in place to perform quality control checks to inhibit processing of a booking where there is an error. Whilst it is theoretically perfectly feasible to have two passengers with the same name travelling together, it is a somewhat unlikely scenario, and one which in a correctly run and supervised system should trigger an alert and inhibit further processing until the customer has been contacted.

I know from two personal experiences with Opodo that they do not fulfil their duty of care to clients at all times. In this case, the client has received no extra value by booking through them, in fact the opposite has been the case.

I sincerely hope this customer succeeds in winning this case against Opodo.

[peuce]

Slightly off topic, but my experience in buying 2 seats for one person weren't great. Would have to pay two full ticket prices ... and only get one baggage allowance. I tried two airlines ...Qantas and Singapore Airlines. Decided not to take up their gracious offer.