I am traveling within the US, but my boarding pass shows my first name and middle name joined as such: Firstmiddle instead of First Middle. How do I correct this, or is this something that shouldn't be a problem with identification? I am already on hold with the airline to bring this to their attention, but I am not sure if there's a better way to correct this.
2 Answers
There's nothing to correct. This is very common with airline reservation systems, and everyone handling your boarding pass should know what it means.
answered Jan 7, 2018 at 19:53
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2To give a better example, if your name was John Walter Smith, it would be Johnwalter if your boarding pass was showing up like mine is right now. Is that still okay? Commented Jan 7, 2018 at 19:59
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20@question2018 Yes, exactly. My United boarding passes are usually of exactly that form (actually, they usually add "Mr" on the end so it's more like "Smith JohnWaltermr", sometimes even truncated) and nobody blinks twice at it. It does have your last name on there somewhere, right? Commented Jan 7, 2018 at 20:01
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14That likely is a technical standard going back many years. They combine it into two fields and the separator in some transfer is a space - so first and middle name must be without space. Most of those system standards are OLD.– TomTomCommented Jan 8, 2018 at 8:26
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12It's also a case study in silly validation assumptions when dealing with real-world identifying information. Think of all those "ZIP Code" forms online that require you to live in just one of almost 200 countries available. Commented Jan 8, 2018 at 15:07
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3Hubert Blaine Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorff = Adolph Blaine Charles David .. plus, of course Some societes have naming rules you wouldn't expect Commented Jan 9, 2018 at 14:42
Having worked on airline reservations software development teams, PNR name records are usually using antiquated systems and the names are limited to 10 characters for first-middle name. They id you by your drivers license or passport numbers (if that) If you think John Smith is a problem, wait until you see some Asian and pacific islander names, and even middle eastern names... ArtsrunHovhannisyan, VohanHovhannisyan, and a million duplicate Zhang Wei Changs, Wang Fang Chungs, etc. The systems were not designed to handle long names so they are often, very often abbreviated. I.A.T.A. and others have been trying for decades to fix things like this.
SMITH,JMRinstead ofSMITH, JOHN; I have no reference to support this though, and the rules have changed a bit, hence the comment rather than an answer.