Double Standards or Profiteering

Eight persons flew return Cape Town to George. One person did all the bookings. For three flyers he used shortened first names with correct ID'S. Two of us were flagged at check in. We had to cancel flight and rebook with a penalty of R690. It took two clerks who were doing nothing at the time 5 minutes to do this. The third flyer were allowed to board. This flyer incidentally had exactly the same shortened first name. I engaged with Airlink and were given a lot of small.print. The question is: do Airlink have *********** check in staff? Are they selective? Is it a type of profiteering? The strange thing is that their policy states that the names must exactly match the FULL DETAILS as per the form of identity used. I happened to see the ID and name of another flyer where they allowed the person to fly on the first name only. If it compromises safety to such a degree, how do some people "slip" through their strict policy. Makes you wonder.