Changing short names to full or formal names with Ryanair and easyJet
It’s free to change your name on a Ryanair or easyJet booking where you have accidentally used a shortened form of your full or formal name.
I recently booked two flights with Ryanair and easyJet. In both cases I lazily let my web browser fill out the booking form for me. Oops. This is a usually a useful time saving tool, but in this case it booked the two flights using my shortened name of Phil instead of the full format of Philip — the official name listed on my passport.
If there’s one thing low-cost airlines like Ryanair and easyJet love, it’s sticking to the rules and charging people for their mistakes. Whether it’s forgetting to print your boarding pass, taking too large a suitcase, accidentally ticking a tiny checbox on their website then being charged to download their app, it seems like they’ll use any chance to make a little bit more money from each order.
After a bit of Googling I couldn’t find anything to reassure me that I wasn’t going to have to pay the high fees quoted when you try to modify the name of a booking through Ryanair or easyJet’s websites. Luckily, this seems to be one area where these airlines show a little bit of leniency!
How to change your name on Ryanair
Ryanair are famous for their attempt to squeeze as much money out of their passengers as they can, so I wasn’t expecting it to be as easy as it was to change my name on this booking.
- Get your confirmation email open so you can quote your booking reference to the call centre. It might be time to brush up on your phonetic alphabet (Bravo Charlie Foxtrot Zulu etc), as I had to repeat my reference number a few times without it.
- Call Ryanair. It’s OK to use their reservations line. This is still going to cost at least 10p a minute, but at least it’s not their £1 a minute option! This could have changed since I wrote this, so always check http://www.saynoto0870.com before you spend money calling a company.
- Explain to the operator that you’ve misspelt your name on your booking and would like to change it.
- Give the details of the name on your passport.
- Ryanair will send you a new email confirmation with the correct first name. That’s it! No having to rebook your flights, or even pay an administration fee!
How to change your name on easyJet
It’s just as easy to change your name on an easyJet booking so that it matches the full name in your passport.
- Get your confirmation email open and be ready to quote your booking number.
- Call easyJet on 0843 104 5000 (5p a minute on top of whatever your phone network charges you)
- Explain to the operator that you’ve misspelt your name on your booking and would like to change it.
- Give the details of the name that appears on your passport.
- easyJet will send you a new email confirmation with the correct first name.
Hope this helps reassure anyone who ends up in the same situation as I did! Note that this worked for me (September 2013), but could change at any time.
Originally published at wolstenhol.me on September 4, 2013.
