With most airlines, the passenger’s name on the electronic ticket confirmation displays exactly as provided. However, this is not the case with Air Canada, Delta and United Airlines. On these carriers’ websites, the passenger’s middle name or initial is squeezed together with the first name. For example, Michael J Fox would then become Michaelj Fox. The computer print-out shows the same. For passengers who are not used to this, the seemingly incorrect spelling of their name can be very disturbing, which is why we have to explain the discrepancy every time. To further assure the passenger, we always encourage them to call the airline directly for verification.
We have brought the issue to the attention of these airlines but nobody can give us a convincing answer as to why such a simple glitch cannot be fixed. The sample shows Air Canada; with United, the error is the same.
