Have any married female readers (or anyone else who’s changed their name) had trouble getting through airport security with an airline ticket showing their maiden name, a photo ID showing their married name, and a marriage certificate? (Or the reverse, I suppose.) I ask because, although Becky changed her name with Social Security quite awhile ago, she only got it changed on her photo ID earlier this month, when she got her Tennessee license — and as a result, I’d gotten into the habit of buying plane tickets with her maiden name, so her ticket for our trip to Denver next month will say “Rebecca Zak.” But now, finally, her ID says “Rebecca Loy,” so this presents a problem. I just called Southwest Airlines, and was told they can’t change the name, but that we should be fine if we bring the marriage certificate to the airport. I’m just wondering if anyone has personal experience with doing that, and whether it actually works.
As an aside, why the heck won’t airlines change the name on your ticket in this situation? It can’t plausibly be a security measure, because there is no security protocol implicated by typing your name into a text field when you purchase a ticket online — it’s not as if you have to show ID or something — so changing it after-the-fact wouldn’t somehow breach security. If it were a last-minute change, perhaps that would be different, but this is for a flight that’s more than three weeks away. I understand why they won’t let you change to an entirely different name, because that would open the door to an aftermarket of airline ticket resellers — scalpers, essentially. But how much of a black market could there be if name changes were limited to switching from Firstname X to Firstname Y? It would take an awfully elaborate scalping operation, with extremely well-targeted ads (”Is your name John? We have a ticket for you!”), to turn a profit doing that. So yeah, I don’t get it. What’s the rationale? Is it just blind adherence to policy? Are airline employees just pricks?
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Categories: Travel
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June 28th, 2007 at 12:02:48 am
Some people will buy a new ticket in this situation. Others will pay a $100 charge to change the name (on most airlines, though apparently not SWA).
So what’$ it all about? Can’t quite $ay.
June 28th, 2007 at 12:03:56 am
I don’t think that you will have any problems at the airport. I still have a passport that contains two different names: Jennifer Zak in the front, and then an amended Jennifer Hammerschmidt on one of the pages in the back. Even post 9-11, and moving around extensively in places where English is not the lingua franca, I have never had problems.
June 28th, 2007 at 12:29:06 am
Unless you run into a total a-hole you should have no problems with the marriage cert. I fly often without showing any pic. idea of any kind within the U.S. There is no law on the books that says it is necessary to board an aircraft. I have shown an insurance card, credit card, and even my ABA membership card…sometimes it takes a little longer but I’ve never missed a flight yet.
June 28th, 2007 at 12:40:38 am
The airlines won’t change the name simply because of money. There’s no security reason for it. They basically just say that if you were able to change the name, this would make the ticket transferable (If you can change it to a different spelling or version of your name, why not just change it to someone else’s?), and the airlines claim this would cost them a lot of money.
I often read Chris Elliott’s travel advice columns. He has dealt with this similar problem many times in his Troubleshooter column, but this was one article that offered a rather interesting solution:
http://www.elliott.org/archives/2007/06/heres_a_clever.php
Incidentally, this guy asserts that you can just ask for an additional screening (I’ve heard that elsewhere too), though that’s really a pain in the butt.
http://hasbrouck.org/blog/archives/001065.html
June 28th, 2007 at 1:33:40 am
My United mileage account is still under my maiden name so I always book my tickets under that name (because I just haven’t gotten around to sending a fax to united with my new id and a letter). I bring my old driver’s license with my old name (that expired about 2 years) ago and I have never had a problem. Sometimes someone will ask about it and then I just say that I recently changed my name and show them my other id. You guys are totally fine.
June 28th, 2007 at 2:41:09 am
Actually, my wife just had this problem herself. She recently too a trip that was booked by someone else and they used my last name as hers, even though she has never legally changed it.
She had to show her marriage certificate at the airport when checking in on Saturday. Everything went fine, and you guys should be a-ok.
June 28th, 2007 at 8:02:32 am
You should be fine, particularly if you have the marriage license. I do remember Dean O’Hara saying that right after September 11th she had to get her credit cards and license changed to include an apostrophe in “O’Hara” because airlines weren’t allowing her to board if the ticket said “O’Hara” and her other ID said “OHara.”
June 28th, 2007 at 8:13:29 am
Brendan, how sexist of you to only address the question to married ladies. What about married men who have taken their wives’ name? I realize it’s not very common, but it should be!
June 28th, 2007 at 8:57:13 am
Oops, didn’t see the parenthetical. Must not read blogs before morning coffee.
But it was still fun to call you sexist! :)
June 28th, 2007 at 9:54:32 am
When I flew to your wedding I hadn’t changed my passport yet, and was able to fly to/from Toronto with my changed name on my driver’s license, my marriage certificate and my not changed yet passport with no problems.
June 28th, 2007 at 4:26:18 pm
Brendan, how sexist of you to only address the question to married ladies. What about married men who have taken their wives’ name? I realize it’s not very common, but it should be!
Anonymous, I have no effin’ clue what the heck you are talking about.
June 28th, 2007 at 5:54:53 pm
Andrew, it took me a minute to get that one. Well played, sir.
June 28th, 2007 at 9:05:28 pm
Make sure it is a CERTIFIED COPY of the marriage certificate with the seal on it. I would also bring a copy of old and new social security cards (or some other form of govt issued ID) as well.
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