I ordered some domestic flight tickets (in total almost RMB 4000) from Ctrip recently. Their English web form is a bit odd - it asks for First Name/Last Name, which in English would mean Given Name/Family Name. There is no space for a middle name. I called their reservations line while filling in the form and asked them whether they really wanted First Name/Last Name （名姓）or whether it should be Last Name/First Name (Family/Given Name or 姓名) since that is the normal order in China. I asked about four different ways, in English and Chinese, because I was really skeptical, but the agent was absolutely insistent. I also asked about the middle name issue, since it is listed on my passport, but she told me not to include it.

The tickets were delivered to a friend in Hangzhou (because I live quite a ways out from Ctrip's normal delivery cities) and they thought the name looked wrong that way, so they called Ctrip and checked. They were told no problem.

Tickets got to me today and they are obviously wrong - the space where our names are listed First/Last is clearly labeled 姓名 in Chinese. In addition, they cut off the last two letters of my mother's surname because it didn't fit in the form! I don't know what the airport regulations are in China, but I couldn't imagine that they would let us fly on that ticket, since it was in the wrong order and my mother's last name does not match the actual last name in her passport, so I called them again.

After first trying to tell us that it would be ok, they are now saying that it is wrong and will not be ok, but that the biggest problem is not the order or the missing letters but the lack of a middle name! And since they are discounted (nonrefundable) fares, they are refusing to change them! They want us to buy new tickets, at our own expense. There is now some kind of offer to essentially return and reissue two of the tickets (which depart from Kunming) for a change fee and additional airfare (price went up) of something like RMB 400, but I am supposed to travel several hours to Hangzhou to do this. They are claiming that the Hangzhou airport security people will allow us to fly on these ridiculous tickets, and we should just show up at the airport at 5:30 am on the day our flight leaves and hope that one is ok. I am concerned that they are just telling us that because the Hangzhou tickets are the most deeply discounted and therefore completely nonrefundable. Obviously we will be SOL if we show up at the airport and the airport folks (either the airline or security) refuse to let us fly.

Does anyone have any advice? I used Ctrip because they had the best prices and I knew they were a huge, well-known company, so I thought it would be safe. I've used elong (similar website) a couple times with no such problems.

Also, has anyone ever flown in China on tickets that had the name order reversed or letters cut off or middle name left out? I have no idea whether to believe them that it will not be a problem in Hangzhou.

I doubt it will be a problem.

dfoo I disagree, it can be - I have seen on a couple of times people get up to the ticket inspector before security and be refused passage because of a mismatch in ticketed name and documents- not sure what they did to correct the situation

bashful I am very surprised ctrip did not call you after receiving the online order to confirm the spelling of the names- they have done so everytime I have placed an order each time painstakingly spelling phonetically as in "B as in boy, R as in rat... "

the missing letters due to lack of space will not be an issue but the name order and the missing middle name might be- your best bet is to arrive at the airport well in advance to allow time to explain the error or you might try taking the tickets directly to the airline issuing the tickets to have them corrected as you are not asking for a change in flights just a correction of a name error

don't give up on ctrip though

good luck!

Ship, which airport did you see people have problems at? That is exactly what I feared - I know in the US you would certainly not get through security, and I just don't know what their policies are here.

I was also surprised that they didn't call to confirm the names and passport numbers. This is the first time I have used Ctrip, but when I used Elong in the past they always called and did that kind of painstaking checking. I'm wondering if the fact that I called them during the reservation process (although I submitted it online) ended up shooting me in the foot, since the agent gave me a completely wrong answer but perhaps in the process marked the reservation as "checked" or whatever.

If anyone else has any direct experience with this (or recalls seeing others having this problem at the airport), please let me know. It will help me to decide whether to shell out for new tickets/change fees now or take my chances at the airport, in the event that I can't get Ctrip to budge, which is looking more and more likely.

By the way, I should add that for a major travel company with an English reservations service, Ctrip did a piss-poor job of quality control on our reservation. In addition to having a website that erroneously directs you to enter your first name and then last name, and answering the question wrong when phoned for clarification, not calling to double-check the names, etc. they also lacked basic common sense in issuing the tickets under these names.

My English first name is one of the most common given names in the English language (and cannot possibly be used as a last name). Neither my last name nor my mother's (which are different) could ever possibly be construed to be a first name by anyone who has had any exposure to the English language or western culture. Catching any one of these obvious errors should have caused them to call to check on the names further before issuing the tickets, if they were truly unchangeable at that point.

I don't doubt that it would be a problem outside of China. However, in China I doubt it will be a problem. My name was mis-spelled in the past on a ticket and it didn't present a problem.

dfoo, Did they even notice that the name was spelled wrong? Did you ask the airline to change it or otherwise note that it was ok?

I didn't hear anything about it, however, it was a minor mistake. My first name is matthew, and the ticket was spelled mathew. There was no middle name on the ticket either.

*dup*

Was this at one of the Shanghai airports or somewhere else?

pudong.

My opinion is that it's okay*. I've had the same issue flying out of Hongqiao. I had to get airline personnel to escort me through security though. Just go early.




*this is my opinion and does not constitute a guarantee

I've had the same thing. Missing letters at the end, no middle name, etc. It's never even been questioned, much less turned into a problem.

In China? This isn't a problem.

The real problem is the ticket booking system. I've bought tickets in person at Spring Travel a few times now, and the ticketing input system only takes so many characters for each entry. Of course, this isn't a problem for Chinese names (there's redundancy in this system), but for Western names it is more challenging.

The travel agent was concerned about this (like dfoo, I've got a real chokka first name and family name), called the ticketing HQ, and got the go ahead. The main thing to ensure is that you've got your documentation with you, and you can point it out to the boarding staff/customs officials at the airport.


-crikey

Crikey,

What kind of documentation are you referring to? What should I bring?

Documentation = passports, foreign expert certificates, anything official looking from your home country that has your full name on it.

crikey

Out of interest anyone try using their chinese names, along with a chinese identity (like drivers license)?

I've used my China driver's license at a hotel, but not at the airport.

no issue... I carried wrong name on my visa everywhere for a year, just because the stupid staff in the immigration insisted not to change it. Normally the missing letters on the ticket may not be available on the printed ticket but it's on the system. Normally they send sms or email for confirmation before issuing the ticket, which I found annoying at times

dfoo wrote:Out of interest anyone try using their chinese names, along with a chinese identity (like drivers license)?

They do it here in the villages where I work normally... saying that they accepted nothing but chinese letters only. stupid idiot, sometimes I could insist to use my own name, but often they would try to be creative with my chinese name. It's not highly recommended thou, I got very annoyed with that 'coz I feel insecure with its legal bound

I've flown with all sorts of odd variations of my name on the tickets. Last, First Middle - Last Middle First - LastFirst, Middle- MiddleFirst, Last... you get the idea. Never had a problem because it at least somewhat resembles the name on my soon-to-expire passport.

I doubt it'd be a problem. If there is a problem, you only have to explain the situation and it should be fine.

It may not be a problem getting through security and check ins, but it may be a problem is something unfortunate happens. Like, a plane crash (touch wood). The airline company and the insurance company will never recognise you as a valid passenger and your family will not be able to get a single penny on insurance compensation for the unfortunate event.

I find that highly doubtful. Do you have a source for this speculation?

^ agree with dfoo. weird speculation indeed.

I got wrong country on my resident permit, just found it when i collected the passport. Never bother to go and change since I'm staying in small city and have to travel 2hrs to fix the problem. I got my name spelled wrongly on my ticket and another occassion they cut down my surname becuase it is too long. It didnt give me problem when I pass immigration. As long as the ticket has some of your name same as your passport.

yu888 wrote:^ agree with dfoo. weird speculation indeed.

Just a way for them to get away w/o paying any cent?? It does make some sense to me

lilstar wrote:I got wrong country on my resident permit, just found it when i collected the passport. Never bother to go and change since I'm staying in small city and have to travel 2hrs to fix the problem. I got my name spelled wrongly on my ticket and another occassion they cut down my surname becuase it is too long. It didnt give me problem when I pass immigration. As long as the ticket has some of your name same as your passport.

You are truely lucky.

DragonAss wrote:

yu888 wrote:^ agree with dfoo. weird speculation indeed.

Just a way for them to get away w/o paying any cent?? It does make some sense to me

Exactly. After all, it's the insurance industry we're talking about.

As an Travel agent in China, I would like to confirm that the spelling of the name on the ticket must EXACTLY match the name on the passport. However, up to 2 letters can be wrong and you will still be allowed through. The order of the names given name/surname or surname /given name does not seem to matter. Chinese people do not recognize even the most common names as first names, even the ones we think are obvious! The middle name can be omitted if there is lack of space. The security at all Chinese airports are trained to check the names on tickets match passport. They cannnot understand that John on ticket is same person as Jonathon on passport, so be careful when booking domestic air tickets! You may be asked to buy a new ticket if there is any mis match! monica@classictravel.net.cn