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A pair from Australia had to shell out over £2,500 for airfare to London due to their accidental use of a nickname on one of their flight tickets.
Two people named Phil and Kate, who are from Brisbane, purchased two round-trip tickets to London for a total of 4,800 Australian dollars on a travel website called StudentUniverse.
However, when they attempted to get on the plane, they were stopped and scolded because Phil had reserved his wife’s ticket under “Kate,” even though her passport says “Katherine,” according to Australia’s Nine Network.
“I made an administrative mistake – I believe I wed Kate in the church instead of Katherine,” Phil stated.
At first, Virgin informed the displeased pair that they could make changes to their reservation for a nominal charge for administrative purposes.
However, shortly before departure, booking agency StudentUniverse informed them that they would have to cancel Katherine’s ticket and purchase a new one with the correct name for a total of AU$4,700 (£2,468).
Phil explained to the program that their excuse for not changing the name on the ticket was lack of time. However, he noted that they somehow found the time to sell him a new ticket, which he felt was unfair and took advantage of him due to the added fee.
Katherine pleaded with them over the phone, saying “Please, you cannot take that action. It would use up all of our holiday funds in an instant.”
According to a representative from StudentUniverse, they are only able to adhere to cancellation policies set by the airlines.
The customer was unable to change the name on their ticket, so they had to cancel and book a new one. The customer informed us of their mistake only three hours before the flight, resulting in additional charges from the airline that could have been avoided if they had notified us earlier.
Source: independent.co.uk
