As long as it's still going to be you traveling, airlines have policies in place to correct any errors.
July 26, 2023
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Can you change the name on an airline ticket? It’s a question that might send you into a panic if you suddenly notice a typo or some other dreaded spelling mistake on a boarding pass after booking.
If you’re in a situation where you need to change the name on an airline ticket, rest assured that every airline has systems in place to help passengers solve these issues. However, factors like how close to the flight you'll be able to make changes—and how much it'll cost—vary by carrier. Here’s what travelers should know.
No, you can’t. TSA rules say the name on the boarding pass must exactly match the passenger's government-issued ID presented at the security checkpoint. When booking, “use the form of your name that is on the photo ID that you will show at the airport,” the Department of Transportation advises.
This is to ensure that all passengers have been screened against the government’s watchlist and are approved to fly. Not only does the TSA have the right to deny you at the security checkpoint, but many airlines also have a cutoff point for making name changes to reservations.
(One exception to the rule is for names with suffixes; according to the agency’s website “TSA accepts variations on suffixes on boarding passes and ID. Suffixes are not required on boarding passes.”)
Even if you feel it's too late to make a correction to your reservation, it's still worth contacting your airline’s customer service, who may be able to note on the reservation that they've been made aware of the issue.
Once you find such an error, contact the airline or agency you booked with immediately. If you're at the airport in a panic, head to the airline's ticket desk. And don't sweat if you've left out a middle initial: airlines and TSA are specifically focused on first and last names.
On any airline, you have 24 hours to cancel a reservation at no charge, according to federal regulations. Because of this rule, some airlines will allow passengers to make name corrections for free within that window—though they’re not legally required to do so. (Several airlines do charge for name changes even within the 24-hour booking window.) For this reason, passengers should always review their reservation confirmations immediately after purchasing airfares.
The fact is that each airline's specific ticket change policy can vary widely. For instance, Southwest and JetBlue both allow travelers to correct typos or misspellings in their names at least one time free of charge (Southwest even allows some customers to do this themselves online or through its app).
Other carriers, however, charge a fee for changing a name, which can range anywhere from $125 to $500. For the most part, no matter how good your reason may be to make a change, expect the airlines to apply all penalties, fees, and increased fares. When airlines say tickets are non-refundable and non-transferable, they mean it.
Almost never. While airline customer services will usually assist you in correcting the name for the original passenger, hardly any allow you to change it to a whole new traveler. Delta, United, Southwest, and JetBlue all have strict policies against this—although Frontier Airlines allows it for $75. Airlines will typically tell you the reason tickets are non-transferable is for security purposes, but in truth, from a government policy perspective, you can change the name on an airline ticket. What's really happening is that airlines want to control their revenue. In the days when you could transfer tickets, consolidators would scoop up the cheap ones and resell them, negating the airline's ability to move the ticket price around as demand ebbed and flowed.
This shouldn’t be a problem, legally, as long as you bring approved documents and budget in enough time at the airport for officials to review them.
Seeing as technically the name on your ticket simply needs to match the passenger's identification on the day of travel, the Department of Transportation on its Fly-Rights page explains: “If your name has recently changed and the name on your ticket and your I.D. are different (or will be different by the time of your trip), bring documentation of the change (e.g., a marriage certificate or court order).” That'll show the necessary authorities that the name on your government ID now corresponds to the one on your ticket, even if your physical ID doesn't reflect it yet. To be safe, we'd encourage you to bring a printout of the Fly-Rights page in case the person you're dealing with isn't aware of this protection.
This article has been updated with new information since its original publish date.