I don't see what's hard about it either. The name either matches the passport or it doesn't. In this case, David Smith matches just as well as John Smith. Why should the airline care which is used? There is no greater assurance of correct identity by insisting on one or the other.
Maybe the booking form asked for first name, maybe it asked for given name. I'm pretty sure if you booked in French, it asked for "prenom", and in German, for "vorname". "David" in this case would be a perfectly correct response to both. Even in English, maybe the customer interprets "first" as "the part of my name that I write first, before my surname", or maybe as "the first of my given names". Again, why does it matter? What's so hard about it for the airline?
Last edited by Gibon2; 29th Nov 2012 at 14:54.
Reason: Clarity