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I am flying to Japan via United, and their Travel Ready Center is rejecting my vaccine documentation even though I am fully vaccinated. What's wrong?

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    What sort of rejection message did you receive? For example, are they saying that your documentation is illegible? That it is missing required doses? That it is a forgery?
    – Robert Columbia
    Oct 22, 2022 at 20:36
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    @RobertColumbia as far as I remember United doesn't provide an error message. It's basically "yes" and "no". When I had an issue I needed to call them
    – Hilmar
    Oct 22, 2022 at 21:04
  • Can you Post exactly what United said?
    – Robbie Goodwin
    Oct 24, 2022 at 21:26

1 Answer 1

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You may notice that your first and middle name is merged in the name field they've forced upon you. Bad programmers.

This will obviously not match a US COVID-19 Vaccine Record Card, and so your card will be rejected.

To solve this, in the United Airlines app, upload your vaccine documentation in your profile > TSA Precheck®️ and travel documents > COVID-19 Vaccine Documentation

This one does not merge your first and middle name together. Go back to the Travel Ready Center and upload your vaccine documentation again. This time, a pop-up will appear, allowing you to use the documentation you previously uploaded, without uploading a new file. Documentation verification should pass this time, allowing you to check-in using the app.

Failing this, you need to physically go to check-in or the gate with your documentation and they'll sort the mess out for you

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    Very good question and self-answer pair! Welcome to Travel and well done, mate, well done!
    – CGCampbell
    Oct 24, 2022 at 14:59
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    As a programmer I feel mildly insulted. It's less the choice of programmers, and more the issue of decades (probably close to half a century) old legacy systems which did not get updated when people realized they need to handle anything but the most basic of names.
    – jaskij
    Oct 25, 2022 at 15:13
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    Also as a programmer, it's imperative to test various use cases and not ship broken products while requiring their use in a mission critical application
    – I'll Eat My Hat
    Oct 25, 2022 at 15:18
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    @I'llEatMyHat That's why working with names sucks. UUID's for everyone?
    – moonman239
    Oct 25, 2022 at 19:44

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