Whenever I fly, my boarding passes always have my full first and last names printed on them, but my middle name is partially cut off (middle name is 'Jameson' but only shows up as 'James'). It has never been an issue at the TSA checkpoints when flying domestically here in the U.S. I'm flying to Germany later this year for the first time. Should there be any issue with this when going through the checkpoint in Frankfurt for the flight back to the U.S.? Will by flying with Delta.
Posted by
Basel, Switzerland
8889 posts
Should also be no issue.
This has been posted before, middle names are not common in many countries in Europe (I don't have one), and many European airlines and other websites just don't bother to collect them, or put them on printouts.
Posted by
Sapulpa, OK, USA
6333 posts
Not a problem. My middle name (which is actually Jane) is often truncated. My brother has problems in the States, because he doesn't have a middle name. When he got his first driver's license, it actually said "David (no middle name) N....."
Posted by
midwest- Michigan
489 posts
Funny you brought up names.
On our last flight on Iberia Air from Toulouse, we had a heck of a time with the fact that in their system our names had problems and did not match our passports. The first issue was my husband's middle initial was in the computer as G (not the J it should have been). Then my name had no space between my first and middle name.
We had no problem leaving Chicago at all on the outgoing trip.
It took a supervisor over an hour to get this so we could even go thru security, then we had to move quick as the plane was boarding.
We are not sure what was the issue. We booked with AA code share and the Iberia Air people told us that they have so many problems with American Airlines code share. Well, why can't they get this fixed if they have multiple problems? I don't know who to contact at AA.
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area
5697 posts
Our boarding passes routinely run first and middle names together with no space -- hasn't been a problem (United, Lufthansa, Austrian, AirFrance) Truncation to fit the boarding pass character size is also common and airlines know about it.
Posted by
4548 posts
We are not sure what was the issue.
Middle name issues seem to be rare and random events that cannot be prepared for in advance. Seems to be capricious actions by gate agents or security staff. There's no pattern as to airline or issue, you will just have to deal with what comes up.
I am almost always a member of the loyalty club so if there is anything you can do to prevent problems, joining then buying through the airline website when logged in should prevent any rare issues. This wouldn't work for codeshares like AA/Iberia, though.