Middle Name in Passport, not on Aer Lingus Reservation

As some of our European corespondents have pointed out, most people in Europe do not have middle names. Your only hurdle is the overzealous TSA agents checking your boarding pass and passport in the security line at a US airport. Since Aer Lingus flies from that airport, I would think that they would be aware of that.

We've flown twice on Aer Lingus with only our first and last names on the tickets, while our passports have middle names. No one batted an eye anywhere. If I recall, the airline doesn't ask for middle names on their regular website, either, so it's not a matter of the app being different.

It has never been an issue for me....in fact my passport also has my maiden name so my first/given name shows as FN, MN, MN....

No problem. I have flown numerous airlines across the pond and my middle name has never been on my ticket even though it is on my passport.

As long as your first and last name match you are good to go.

I had this question a few years ago when my middle name was listed on an Alitalia ticket but only the first five of the seven letters. I was worried about all the advice you hear that the ticket must "exactly" match your passport. I called Alitalia and got a customer service rep who told me that she couldn't guarantee that this wouldn't be an issue for me on check-in at the airport. When I told her that I'd provided my full middle name when making the booking, and it was through no fault of my own that it wasn't listed that way on my ticket, and asked them to change it, she refused. All I could do, to be absolutely safe, she said, was to pay a change fee to have the ticket reissued. The ticket had been purchased less than 24 hours earlier so I asked why she couldn't change it for free. She said she couldn't do that because I had used Delta skymiles to book the ticket. I'd need to call Delta. So I did that, but they said the ticket was on Alitlia so I'd need to call them. I was also told that if I did succeed in getting the ticket cancelled, there were no more seats for that date at the reward point level I'd gotten, so a new ticket would cost me tens of thousands more skymiles. The end of the story is that Delta assured me that none of the airlines care about middle names on the ticket. She was sure that the use of five instead of seven letters was simply due to how many letters the system could accommodate for a middle name. And finally, most helpful of all, she agreed to put my full name on my "secure passenger data" attached to that reservation, exactly the way it appeared on my passport. She said that if anyone, at the airport, raised an issue over the mis-match between my passport and ticket, I could tell them to check the secure passenger data, and they'd see the full name. All of this turned out to be a non-issue. No one at any airport on that trip ever questioned it.

This middle name question has come up a lot ever since Wow Airlines denied boarding to people on a flight from Canada to Europe, ostensibly because their middle names were not on the boarding passes. There was speculation that the flight was overbooked and they needed to bump people without paying compensation.

As far as I know, no other airline has denied boarding for lack of a middle name on the boarding pass. Not have I heard of Wow repeating their action after the public outcry over the one incident.

If you look at the Wow online booking form, you will see there is a space for "middle name". But many airline booking forms do not even have a space for that, such as the Aer Lingus app you used. They can hardly deny you boarding for lack of a middle name when there was no place to enter it when you booked.

We fly British Airways to Europe every year, including this past August. We are members of their Executive Club and the booking form fills in our names automatically from our membership profile. No middle names there, so no middle names on the boarding passes. No one has ever questioned this.

I’m pretty sure I’ve never had my middle name on a ticket. I fly many times a year. Never had a problem.

Yes! I can help ! I experienced the very same thing! I was stressed ! We just got home from our trip yesterday. I too, Had spoken with ( the very rude (US based) customer service team. I did find out prior to the trip, the same info you have. I did not quite believe it but it is true and we made our trip without incidence. My reservation was first and last name only. My passport read all three names. My husband had all three names on reservation and passport. Do not pay the money to name change. don't stress and enjoy your trip!

Just for that reason, I rarely if ever use my middle name for any booking. I am also the III on my birth certificate and passport and never use that on anything. I have even had my first name shorten to Fran on the boarding pass and that has not been a problem. You are worrying for no reason. You will have a great trip if this is your worse problem.

They can hardly deny you boarding for lack of a middle name when there was no place to enter it when you booked.

There’s an Italian airline Blue Panorama that does precisely this on all flights, denying boarding to 10-15 people on every flight for not listing their middle names as a second first name.

https://www.change.org/p/victims-of-bluepanoramaairline-s-middle-name-scam-unite-sign-this-petition-to-demand-a-refund-bluepanorama

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g1-d8729037-r585142409-Blue_Panorama_Airlines-World.html

Doesn't matter. But I was warned by TSA when I went for my Global Entry interview to be careful never to book a flight WITH my middle name, because for whatever reason I didn't put it on my passport. So you can have LESS detail on your ticket, but never the other way around.