Exact Match on reservations

[gooch47]

I just got a non-cruise related packet for a junket we will be going on soon. There was a note stapled to it that if my name on the airline ticket doesn't match my government issued ID, I won't be allowed to board.

 

Define "match."

 

My name, for instance, on my driver's license is Jane B. Doe.

 

The airline tickets don't show my middle initial, just Jane Doe.

 

Is it still a match?

[6rugrats]

You should be fine. In the meantime, you may want to contact your airline and change the name on your frequent flyer account, if you have one, to include your middle initial, or if you travel internationally, better that it match the name on your passport, and use that for your identification.

 

I know our airline of choice is still not set up to handle long middle names, so our tickets do not exactly match our passports. No problems yet.

[cb at sea]

Agreed---middle names aren't very important.

[Keith1010]

At this point in time don't worry about it. Most airlines right now cannot comply with the new guidelines and there will be a grace period on adding in the middle names, etc.

 

Keith

[tea4ular]

My passport and my driver's license both read "Jane B. Doe" yet all my air and cruise tickets read "Jane Doe" - no issues - ever. Even in China.

[okgirl]

This is a new change in regulations that is suppose to be phased in by the end of the year. My company notified us about it 3 or 4 weeks ago. The airlines will be 1st, but eventually it will be the cruiselines also.

They just urged us to change our names on any frequent traveler memberships that we have and to ensure that future reservations match your passport/drivers license. I'll have to add my full middle name back to mine.

[okgirl]

My passport and my driver's license both read "Jane B. Doe" yet all my air and cruise tickets read "Jane Doe" - no issues - ever. Even in China.

 

These new regulations went into effect in mid-August and as said they realize they will need to be relaxed in phasing them in.

[EGG]

Gosh, 40 something years ago when I got my driver's license it came back with a middle initial. I don't have a middle name and I guess someone decided to use the first letter of my maiden name as a middle initial. I've never bothered to change it and it has never caused a problem even though I usually use my driver's license as my ID at airports.

 

Well I always take my passport when I cruise but not when I fly.

 

Can someone enlighten me as to whether this is a Government regulation or is this an airline regulation. I am wondering if people were trying to have unused tickets used by family members or share frequent flyer programs.

[gooch47]

Nah. It is our government, again.

 

When I started working for AT&T back in the 60's, I had to use my maiden name for my middle name. So when they coughed up the funds for my passport, I had to use that.

 

But my driver's license has and always had my real middle name initial. Not the full name, just the initial.

 

So for domestic, I guess I'm covered either way.

 

I need to get my hubby on-board on this though. He keeps "pooh-poohing" it saying they would NEVER deny boarding for this reason.

[pms4104]

Here's the link to the Secure Flight initiative: http://www.tsa.gov/what_we_do/layers/secureflight/

 

In addition to exact name match, airlines also will be expected to get the gender and birthdate of passengers at time of booking.

 

This initiative is being phased in even as we speak here on these boards. At some point in the near future, airlines will have adapted their systems to be compliant with Secure Flight and I surmise the Feds will expect full compliance from some yet-to-be-determined date forward.

[dkjretired]

I don't mean to scare anyone but I will relate a story having to do with obtaining a drivers license. In New Jersey, us older drivers were required to get the new digital picture licenses and I was at Motor Vehicle getting mine and actually witnessed the following. An elderly gentlemen had a passport without his middle initial and his old license had the middle initial on it. They would not allow him to use the passport as part of the point system they used to get the license because it did not match exactly the old license. There are new laws so be careful..

[darl]

A few years back when checking in for one of our cruises my DH presented his birth certificate, and his name was listed as "Baby Boy"....it caused a few chuckles, but did not cause a problem with checking in at the pier.

[pms4104]

I don't mean to scare anyone but I will relate a story having to do with obtaining a drivers license. In New Jersey, us older drivers were required to get the new digital picture licenses and I was at Motor Vehicle getting mine and actually witnessed the following. An elderly gentlemen had a passport without his middle initial and his old license had the middle initial on it. They would not allow him to use the passport as part of the point system they used to get the license because it did not match exactly the old license. There are new laws so be careful..

When my DL recently was up for renewal ... I took my passport along because I wanted to have the middle initial on my DL changed to full middle name to agree with my passport. No problem ... but had I not been able to verify my full middle name DMV would not have made the change.

 

Sounds like the Jersey DMV people were a bit misguided in their handling of that gentleman. Hopefully he got it cleared up by moving up the food chain.

[jgf]

Gosh, 40 something years ago when I got my driver's license it came back with a middle initial. I don't have a middle name and I guess someone decided to use the first letter of my maiden name as a middle initial. I've never bothered to change it and it has never caused a problem even though I usually use my driver's license as my ID at airports.

 

Nah. It is our government, again.

 

When I started working for AT&T back in the 60's, I had to use my maiden name for my middle name. So when they coughed up the funds for my passport, I had to use that.

 

But my driver's license has and always had my real middle name initial. Not the full name, just the initial.

 

 

When I got married, I dropped the middle name that appears on my birth certificate and use my maiden surname along with my married surname. It never occurred to me that my maiden name isn't a 'real' middle name or that I had to keep the one I was given when I was born! Just made more sense to me to use the surname I was born with along with the surname I acquired by marriage as my legal names.

 

I can appreciate the arbitrary addition of a middle initial, though - my mother had a double-barrelled first name and did not use have or use a middle name so she was eternally annoyed by people wanting to split up her first name into first and middle.

[G'ma]

I just got a non-cruise related packet for a junket we will be going on soon. There was a note stapled to it that if my name on the airline ticket doesn't match my government issued ID, I won't be allowed to board.

 

Define "match."

 

My name, for instance, on my driver's license is Jane B. Doe.

 

The airline tickets don't show my middle initial, just Jane Doe.

 

Is it still a match?

 

You'll be fine. Mostly, they are referring to nicknames or family names. For instance "Betsy" or "Liz" instead of Elizabeth or "Jimmy" instead of James, "Bob" instead of Robert, "Ginny" instead of Virginia...that sort of thing.