Airline tickets and middle names

"The important distinction here is that my middle name is on my passport."

It doesn't matter - it's in my passport too, and I don't always use it in bookings, even when there is a field for it, and I've never had an issue.

Same as Simon. Some airlines includes it, some don't.

My experience often amuses me. On my passport, there is my full first, middle and last name. When making air reservations, I fill in all the spaces for name as provided on the airlines webpage. More times than not, I find my first name (James) and the first letter of my middle name (I) compressed into one word. Thus, the reservation is for Jamesi (last name). Initially this concerned me. Not so any longer. Dozens of flights into foreign airports and back into the USA, never once has it been questioned - by TSA, by US border agents, by foreign passport control agents, or by airline agents. No worry!

I fly often into Europe and within Europe. My passport has my middle name. None of my airline tickets has this. I've never had a problem.

Middle names are not that important as long as your first and last names match.

There are (at least) two separate issues here around naming conventions with passports and airline tickets.

One issue is "matching" and how strict various authorities are/may be about how closely things match (generally your passport and the name on your ticket). The other issue is what various airline systems do with (what they think is) your name and how it's displayed in their systems. With some foreign airlines, you may encounter surprises.

Personally, I've never really had any major issue with the "matching" issue between name and passport (my name follows fairly standard conventions). But I have friends who have been denied boarding because of a name mismatch. One was unable to fly (Seattle to Mexico), had to return home from his departure airport and spent 24 hours sorting it before he was allowed to fly the following day.

Be careful about shortened versions of given names (eg Chuck versus Charles, Bob versus Robert, etc.), and also if your name includes both patronymic and maternal surnames (in Spain and Spanish-speaking countries, many people typically have both their father's and mother's surnames, eg Gabriel Garcia Marquez; and these days there are also many hyphenated family names).

Even if your family heritage has nothing to do with Spain, it's still possible to end up with a more complex name than many of us have: I have a friend (whose heritage is definitely Scottish - he's a Macdonald!) but his mom (I think) remarried when he was a child, and he ended up with a complex name on his passport with either his mom's "maiden name" or his mom's original (first) husband's name - plus a first, last and middle name. This apparently plays havoc with some (but not all) airline ticketing systems.

And names can be quite long - too long for systems designed for Smiths and Joneses. My wife's family name is 14 digits long (her first name is also somewhat long); many airline systems simply truncate her name, usually in a predictable way (fortunately she does not have a middle name).

Something everyone should be aware of: There's a very common "conflation" of first + middle names when traveling internationally, especially (but not only) in Asia. For example, if your name was John Quincy Adams, in many airline systems, it shows as: ADAMS, JOHNQUINCY where the first and middle names are combined. (TAP and Ryanair are both foreign airlines so probably follow this convention.) I believe many airlines just lump together ALL "given" names other than the surname (often labeled as "family name"). So when that happens, my Scottish friend with 4 names appears as MACDONALD, COLINSMITHBRIAN (not his real name, his is even more messy). Airline staff should be able to suss this out but sometimes it can cause friction, and computers - being stubborn - won't let you login unless you get your name "right" (in its judgement). Even with my plain vanilla name, this has stymied me more than once when trying to access a flight via an airline website.

In my experience the key to be able to log in to many (most?) non-US airlines, to access your flight details, choose seats, order a meal, etc) you must conflate first+middle name or their computer system shrugs and fails. So if you are John Q Adams, when you log in for your flight to Tokyo or Bangkok, use ADAMS, JOHNQUINCY (no space between "John" and "Quincy" or it won't work).

There's another potential issue on some passports for some people: On some, there's also a "title": MR, MRS, MISS, MASTER and maybe others (I've seen "Dr. and options like "Ambassador" and other honorifics). I'm looking at passports for some foreign family members right now, they all have "titles" based on gender and age. This can be a large potential can of worms here for some folks.

Names can be complex stuff!

The more information you give, the more things can go wrong

My passport has my middle name. I never use it with airline reservations. Just my first and last name. US airlines, European airlines, Asian airlines.

I've never had a problem...except one.

One airline, Delta, does have and uses my middle name and it is the only airline in which I have had a problem. (I log in via their FF program so the middle name is included.)

I'll give some examples. Four weeks ago I flew from NY to London on American. No middle name on ticket. No problems anywhere.

Three weeks ago I flew from London to Frankfurt on British Airways. They have my passport information. I did not include my middle name on my reservation. I had no problems.

Last week I flew Lufthansa between Germany and the Czech Republic. The ID used was my passport. It has my middle name. My Lufthansa ticket only had my first and last names. No problems.

As someone who flies a lot, let me give you a little secret that will be of help.

Once you have your ticket purchased, you will get a six digit locater. Use that to log into your flight to check in, choose seats, etc. You don't have to fiddle with how you put your name on the reservation or salutations or anything. Just locater and last name.

Once you have your ticket purchased, you will get a six digit locater. Use that to log into your flight to check in, choose seats, etc. You don't have to fiddle with how you put your name on the reservation or salutations or anything. Just locator and last name.

Frank, that may be true on many airlines, but not all of them. Some require the locator number + surname + firstname (or at least they have in the not-so-distant past). Some require other bits (for example Turkish Airlines - the largest airline in the world by many measures - may require their 16-digit "e-ticket number" too, a major annoyance). Lots of variations exist.

I do agree that one generally should only give the minimal information that's required (just like when answering questions from a police officer...).

I fly a lot too (on many different airlines, including some pretty obscure and far-flung ones), and I have run into the firstname requirement in the past. Now when asked for my first name, I typically just use the conflated first+middle and it usually goes right through. YMMV.

@David - I have also noticed this "conflation" of the first and middle names with no spaces, particularly when I used to travel for work and I would have to book through an agent.

@Frank - "The more information you give, the more things can go wrong" -- Usually I err on the side of caution but in this case, I'm starting to think more along the same lines as you. When I fly overseas, the airlines I fly with generally ask for the middle name as a separate field so I include it during the booking and have not had any issues so far. Flying within the Schengen area, however, it seems a lot of the airlines don't have a space for it in the booking form so maybe I should just get in the habit of leaving it out unless it's specifically asked for? I'm worried that if I tack it onto the first name, I could wind up having issues with some airlines.

At the end of the day, it's just frustrating that there doesn't seem to be any consensus within the airline industry, even within the same airline sometimes. You would think that an online booking form would have a tooltip or a note that is clear and specifies "please include all given names" or "enter your first name only, do not include middle names". I'm not the first person to be confused about this, and I won't be the last so it's odd that the industry doesn't make an effort to standardize or clarify this.

"There's a very common "conflation" of first + middle names when traveling internationally, especially (but not only) in Asia."

I'm not saying you're wrong, but I live in Asia and regularly fly Singapore Airlines, Malaysian, Philippines, Thai Airways etc and have never had this issue.

My bank account has my name in Last First Middle name order, and people here do sometimes have trouble working out which is my first name, but never had that problem with airlines.

Full first name, Middle name, and Last name, that’s how it is now for my husband and me. Actually, I never had a middle name, but my Maiden name is now my middle name, as far as British Airways and its VISA card are concerned.

This all may vary by airline, but we primarily fly British Airways. We also have British Airways VISA cards, for earning essential frequent flyer points. Middle names and initials weren’t any concern until several years ago, when they became mandatory. Now both our BA Club (frequent flyer) account and the BA VISA have our full (first/middle or maiden/last) names, and flight bookings need all of them, in full. Better too much, name wise, than not enough.

I would also just like to clarify that checking in or viewing the details of a flight, for me anyway, is usually a non-issue. If you create an account with the airline before booking, then you can simply log into that later and access the flight information that way without worrying about the PNR or names.

The issue is what to specify during the booking process in the case where there are only two fields: first name and last name. So far it seems there still isn't really a consensus on that, but judging by the anecdotes here, some people seem to have success adding the middle to the first and others omitting it altogether. But having said that, I'm gathering (or hoping) that European airlines don't much care about the presence of the middle name.

To be clear: If an airline asks for your "first" name (or "given name") then just give them your first name, as it appears on your passport. Don't try to overthink it and conflate your first+middle name.

The only case where I would do that (try the "FirstMiddle" name) is where I have booked a flight already, the ticket has been issued, and I want/need to access my booking on the operating flight's website, and just providing my simple first name doesn't work.

Many times I have booked a flight from a major airline that has a codeshare partner who will be the one actually operating the flight. In that case, I always access my flight record from the operating airline (not necessarily the one that issued the ticket). Often, that's an airline that I may never have interacted with previously. I get the "record locator number" (or "confirmation code" or whatever term the airline uses) from the airline that issued my ticket - almost always a six digit code - and using that code, go to the operating airline's website and look for "manage my booking" or something similar. There you enter the six-digit code and whatever else they ask for - maybe it's surname, maybe it's first and last name.

Always start by giving their computer what it's asking for and expecting. If the sign-in fails (and you're sure you've entered your details correctly), only then would I try the first+middle name conflation trick. Keep it simple. The trick (such as it is) is usually not necessary, but it can work if what you've been trying isn't working.

It may also be the case that the booking form has fewer fields for a name than the travel documents form that most airlines require that you complete before departing on an international flight. I just looked at my profile in the Lufthansa app - for travel documents, there are fields for First name, middle name and surname. Lufthansa also has a notice that your data are transmitted via the Advanced Passenger Information System on the day of departure, so one would think that info that exactly matches what's on your passport would be preferable.

Middle names and initials weren’t any concern until several years ago, when they became mandatory

Really? I fly BA and have a BA frequent flyer account and a BA Visa. My middle name is on none of them.

I last flew BA three weeks ago and used my BA Visa. The only hassle I had was with their poor performing app. But doing everything through the website worked fine.

Another question, this one regarding title. I have an upcoming Lufthansa booking in the fall. All my name information is correct (first, middle, last), but when making the booking it looks like I must have selected Mr from the dropdown list for title. I didn't think anything of it, as I don't recall any airline asking for a title before. I didn't realize that title could appear on a passport, which mine does not.

I called the Lufthansa service line and the agent indicated that titles are essentially ignored and that this should not be a problem as long as the names match, which they do.

@David - I see you mentioned earlier there can be an issue with titles. I'm assuming you meant in the cases where the title actually appears in the name on the passport and not cases like mine where it does not, but could you provide any insight there?

@David - I see you mentioned earlier there can be an issue with titles. I'm assuming you meant in the cases where the title actually appears in the name on the passport and not cases like mine where it does not, but could you provide any insight there?

You are correct. Any issues with a "title" mismatch – a mismatch between the "title" on your passport and on your ticket (or more likely, the lack of any title at all on your passport or ticket) should probably never cause any problems at all (one potential exception noted below).

I recall vaguely that years ago, some airline system offered me the option to select a "title" including things like "doctor", "ambassador", "sir" (as in "knighted") or even wilder things (like high military ranks). I laughed and was tempted to assign myself something like "supreme commander" but thought better of it.

I believe the best practice for this field (if you ever see it) is to simply ignore it and leave it blank. (If you can't leave it blank, make your best guess at what you think will provide you the smoothest bureaucratic experience (don't choose "generalissimo" or "honorable" or other nonsense). Very, very unlikely to be an issue these days.

I have a handful of family passports in front of me right now (extended family members from Thailand who are visiting). All their passports include the titles Mr/Mrs/Miss/Master which align with their gender, ages and/or marital status (the kids are young, their titles are either "Miss" or "Master"; I don't know if they are derived from age or marital status or both or were simply chosen by mom or dad). Their flight tickets do not display any "titles" at all (though I can't see into their airline's ticketing system).

Note: The only case I can imagine where the "title" might be significant would be for someone who does not strictly align with (pardon the expression) traditional/conventional/binary gender identities: if the only choices a computer system has been programmed to accept are M or F and that field is a technical requirement, folks who do not identify as simply male or female might have issues (and typically only in places where those same people might expect other challenges from an authoritarian government) - but that's (I think) outside the scope of this thread (and those who might face difficulties around bureaucratic enforcement of gender expectations already know a lot more about those challenges than me, so I would not presume to offer them advice).

I wonder at what point (if any) my nieces and nephews' passport titles of 'Master' and 'Miss' might age-out or otherwise cause issues for them. I'll ask their mom later, but bottom line: I'm pretty sure that the "Title" field (if it's present or visible) is ignored for all practical purposes (unless you put something unconventional or noteworthy there, Nobel Laureate...).

Passports nowadays are simply database entries. I would imagine that there probably are a variety of fields or designations in there that are not visible to us end-users (it's easy to imagine fields for things like security clearances, concerns – red flags, if you will, like government or airline-specific "no fly list" info, probably other things, too) – things most of us will never see or know about.

Bottom line: If your "title" is blank, I wouldn't worry about it.

@David - Thank you for your reply. I'm guessing the answer is the same, but my situation is actually the opposite -- there is a title on my booking (Mr) but no title at all on my passport.

In that case I'd expect no trouble at all.

My current USA passport does not have a "title", but it does list my "sex" as M. I've seen boarding passes with "Mr." prepended to my name, probably automatically based on my passport (we so rarely see actual tickets nowadays), and my name has appeared in various ways in airline websites. Never any issues around that stuff.

I'd guess that Canadian passports are similar to US passports (though being Canadian, perhaps a bit more reasonable and kind...).

As long as there's no evident and obvious disconnect between what's on your ticket and what's on your passport, I would expect smooth sailing.