No sympathy for spelling mistake on airline ticket

Last night while trying to check into my SAA flight to London I had a sickening sinking feeling when I saw that my name was misspelt on my e-ticket. I had swapped two letters around - instead of Marisa I was Mairsa. Yes, it was my fault. I made a typo when I booked my ticket online and despite looking at my ticket many times I did not pick up the mistake until it was in front of me in bold letters on the computer screen. I instantly knew I had a big problem. I’ve travelled enough to know you can’t have a ticket that doesn’t correspond exactly to the name in your passport. A quick Google search confirmed my worst fears that in all likelihood nothing could be done, except cancel the ticket and rebook at whatever fare is available. In my case, this was R8000 more than I originally paid!!! My husband held hope that there must be a way to correct the mistake as his Google search showed some airlines do correct names for a fee such as Delta airlines.

After a sleepless night I phoned the SAA call center as soon as it opened at 6am. Three different consultants confirmed that the only solution was to book another ticket online with the correct name, then cancel the incorrect ticket and submit it for a refund which would happen within 7-21 days. Having already spent a sizable amount of money on my trip I had no choice but to do this and luckily I had the funds available to cover the cost of the new ticket. However, i felt sick to my stomach as I entered my credit card details for a second time.

The whole experience has left me and my husband angry and aggrieved. How can this be right and acceptable? Why can’t a ticket be changed after it is issued? Why will some airlines do it and others not? It’s still the same person traveling- can it be fair to penalize them to that extent?? I can understand charging a meaningful service fee to ensure that people don’t make careless mistakes, but sometimes it just happens without bad intent and the consequences can be huge. Airlines, and in this case SAA seem to just shrug it off and say “too bad” with no sympathy for the customer or effort to help or explain why it is not possible to reissue a ticket.

Unless there is some explanation grounded in international aviation law, this kind of issue would seem to be an opportunity for SAA, a company desperately in need of customer loyalty and goodwill, to take a different approach and do something that actually helps the customer (especially ones in need of reading glasses who sometimes make mistakes!!!)

I don’t plan to ever go through this again, but on behalf of anyone who is unlucky enough to be in this situation I make a plea to SAA and other airlines to think of the huge consequences for people and to find a fairer and more equitable way of dealing with name change issues. It just can’t be right that there are so many stories out there of the same thing happening and airlines just shrugging their shoulders. Explain why or make a change please!