It was a week before a family holiday in Lanzarote that Raluca Hamilton realised there was an error on her two-year-old son’s ticket for the flight: instead of his first name, it was her own that had been entered.
But what she thought was a simple error ended up costing her more than £730 to fix, and left her feeling like a “cash cow” for British Airways.
She believes the mistake happened when the autofill feature on her laptop filled in her name instead of her son’s. When she contacted the airline to try to correct it, she found the only way to remedy the situation was to have the tickets refunded, and then for her to buy them again, but at a higher price.
Hamilton, who lives in London, later found that the same problem had happened with another flight booking, this time involving a trip to Crete, and again she was forced to get a refund and book again.
The minor changes to the two flights added £731 to her bill for the two holidays. She has criticised the airline for its inflexibility in charging her for what she says was a small mistake.
“I have flown for decades – on my own, with my husband, with my children and as part of wider groups. Getting a name wrong on a booking has never happened,” she says.
“Despite being a loyal customer of BA for years, this is clearly not enough, and hundreds of pounds more were charged for the coffers of BA in the name of a policy which is, at best, obscure and, at worst, a cash cow for BA’s benefit.”
Last November, Hamilton booked flights for herself, her husband, her mother and her two young children for a holiday in Lanzarote at the end of March. When she went to select her seats a week before departure, she discovered that her son’s ticket was for “Mstr Raluca Hamilton” instead of “Mstr Adrian Hamilton”.
The airline told her it could not change the first name, but that she could get a refund for the ticket and then buy the seat again at that day’s price. “During that customer services call, I effectively gave them back a ticket for £463.87 and they sold it back to me for £969.07 – plus £19 for a seat,” she says.
After the call, she found the same problem had happened on the second booking: a holiday to Crete at the end of last month. To correct this ticket, she was refunded £790.08 and then charged £996.99 for the new one.
Hamilton asked customer services whether having to buy the ticket again was the only solution, as she was just changing the first name. She says she was told that the airline could change three letters, but not six.
“My understanding was that if my son had been called Max or Rex or Kay, then this update could be done for free but, since he is called Adrian, they couldn’t go ahead.”
The only explanation for the problem that she can think of is that the computer’s autofill function put the wrong name in.
She says: “Why are there no inbuilt checks at BA to raise red flags and prevent customers from finalising their booking when the same name is listed twice, which is very clearly a human error?”
British Airways says the airline has a “24-hour cooling-off period” after the flight is booked when passengers can make changes or correct mistakes, such as the wrong route or an incorrect name. After that, “minor changes” are allowed, such as changing a name from Sean to Shaun or Lindsay to Lynsey.
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“It is the customer’s responsibility to ensure they book a ticket in the correct name,” it says. It did not respond to suggestions of unfairness, or whether there are any internal checks to highlight such problems.
Hamilton’s mistake is a cautionary tale for travellers to check their details after booking. Other airlines have similar policies, while some are more lenient.
EasyJet has a similar 24-hour cooling-off period during which passengers can make changes without any fee. After that, they have to pay £55 to change a single name (£60 if it is done through customer services) for each flight, as well as, like BA, the difference in fare. Spelling mistakes are free to amend, it says, and it uses discretion on how many characters can be changed.
Ryanair charges £115 for name changes online up to one day before departure, and £160 if it is done through a customer service agent up to two hours before flying. Up to three characters per name can be changed for free once.
Virgin Atlantic says passengers who make a mistake similar to Hamilton’s can change the name for free without any time limit.
“We would accept name amendments for obvious errors, such as spelling mistakes or customers accidentally booking under their maiden/married name which isn’t on their passport. This would be free of charge,” it says.
Coby Benson, a solicitor at the law firm Bott and Co, says the problem of accidentally putting down the wrong name is frustrating and happens frequently.
“We understand BA’s stance – if passengers could readily change names, then companies could book flights at the cheapest prices with a holding name like ‘John Doe’ and then sell those flights to somebody else for a profit,” he says.
“It’s a cautionary tale in checking and double-checking both before finalising the booking, and then immediately after.”
