Andrew McLeish, who identified himself as an aviation manager, explained: 'When buying your ticket, don’t give your middle name(s). The name fields on the ticket are first/last. Including your middle name increases the chance of error and incurring a change fee.
'Just ensure that if you are double barelled, the other name is officially part of your surname.'
Mr McLeish went on to explain that you don't technically need a title either, as it isn't recorded on your passport. However, if a company does require a title, McLeish says to always ensure you are choosing it from the drop-down box rather than manually typing it.
'If they have a drop down field, use it. I kid you not, a month or two ago we had customers booking through the website who manually typed in the title and also used the drop down. So we had MR DOCTOR JOHN SMITH and MRS DOCTOR JANE SMITH,' he wrote.
'They were embarrassed when we called but less happy when they incurred a name change fee of £60 ($A106) per person.'
McLeish offered one more piece of advice. He claims that when it comes to booking flights - always, always confirm.
'If you are phone booking and have an unusual name, spell it, even if the agent says they have already. This means if the name comes up incorrect, it is on the phone recording that you spelled it and they got it wrong. Liability no longer yours,' he explained.
'When you get your confirmation through, for Pete’s sake, check it. Carefully. It only takes a moment but if you don’t it can be expensive. We had a customer last week who didn’t check [and] was denied boarding. His wife and child flew on, but he had to buy a new ticket for almost £1900 ($A3300) — the family were flying business class London to Phuket — and fly 10 hours later.'
There you have it - some wise words of advice from someone who has experienced it all!
