A long time reader has sent us this complaint letter and hopes Wataniya Airways gets notice:
Dear Wataniya Airways,
I did not e-mail you this complaint because i know you will give me the run around for a couple of days. My mother booked a ticket to Cairo which left today (April 28, 2010) and was stopped at the check in counter. The spelling on the ticket was different from that in her passport. The solution after a 30 minute wait was to purchase a new ticket. The original ticket cost 105 KD, the new ticket 133 KD. Believe me money is not the issue as long as she arrives safely, and we all know that we cant travel when the spelling is different. But really, how difficult is it for you to change the spelling on the ticket? You can manage to set up a successful system to book reservations online but you cant modify ticket info at the counter/airport?
Honestly, we all expected something like this from Kuwait Airways; not you. To make a long story short, if its really “impossible” for you to tweak the name on a ticket, purchased over 3 weeks ago might i add, then you have a serious problem that needs to be solved ASAP.
Sincerely,
Ex-loyal customer
His contact details are available if someone from Wataniya Airways is interested.
thats why u should check spelling mistakes before u submit.
if this issue happened with lufthansa or BA your friend wouldn’t even ask for spelling modification. how the hell the counter guy will change the spelling if he has the access to change names then this is a serious security breach!
Weird.
I’ve travelled with misspelled name tens of times between Kuwait and Dubai. With Kuwait Airways that is.
And I’ve done it at least twice with Lufthansa. I don’t think it’s a big deal having a letter or 2 off as long as the whole name looks right. They tend to overlook such things.
I don’t know what happened this time.
ya ive travelled with my ticket not matching my passport as well, so has my dad and we never had any problems! but i agree with hamad, its a huge security breach. The person behind the counter prob doesnt have the permission to change any names, other wise he could do it for the wrong reasons!
oh and p.s. the article says “(which is located in gal3at wadreen…yousef u dont have to add this heheh)?” haha little fyi 😛
Aside from the misspelling part, Wataniya airways has the worst customer service / call center i`ever seeen. ive cancelled one of my trips to sharm el sheikh during 2009 and had the refund as credit to the same destination in 1 year period of time. i just decided to go to sharm el sheikh and i`ve been calling 3 days in a row with 25 minutes waiting on phone and no answers. on the 3rd day they answered and promised to book my new ticket using the credit and i will pay the difference in prices at the airport, the lady got my mobile number and never called me back. when i went to their head office at discovered mall the guy just told me that i have no reservation made by any of their staff and instead of paying the difference which was was 45KD at that time when i spoke to the lady, i have to pay 70KD now. but you know me yousef lool … few words managed to get my the new ticket with the original price…
Not a very professionally written e-mail. Whats with the “hehe” and “3rabic” writing.
Don’t blame Wataniya for not taking him serious!
Alia ops 🙂 edited thanks!
Bo9ale7 words can be a powerful tool, especially outta your mouth 😛
James that was a mistake from my side and it’s edited out now.
I can’t see the issue frankly. The name inserted must have been very different from the actual name of the traveller. For example I once was flying on BA and my travel agent added two letters to my family name in that it resembled another family name so the ticket was obviously not accepted.
Otherwise anyone could come to the ticket counter with the reservation number and claim to be the traveller.
i made a reservation for my cousin on BA recently, and spelt her name with an O instead of a U…. when i called them and told them i want to change the spelling they told me i have to pay a penalty,, but when we went to the airport nobody said anything about the mismatch
No offense to the guy who wrote this but with an attitude like this my friend “you have a serious problem that needs to be solved ASAP” no one is going take you seriously so don’t expect a reply from Wataniya anytime soon……
Some people are taking this way too personal, its just a complaint from a customer to a service provider, i dont see why people have to make a big deal.