Misspelled name on ticket - not our fault?

[bum]

It's a bit weird one here.

I'm going to fly with Virgin Atlantic to HongKong tomorrow with my baby daughter after a short visit to London. She was not on the flight with me from Hongkong to London, so tomorrow is her first flight with Virgin. I found out they misspelled my daughter's name and demand me pay for an amendment fee, however I did not made such booking offically, and no I do not want to pay for such stupid error made on their end.

Full info:

1. Before my flight to London, I have called Virgin UK from HK to request an infant seat on my return flight (LHR to HK), however despite multiple confirmation made by the staff himself, he still managed to book an infant basket on my way out flight (HK to LHR)
2. When I have landed at LHR last week, I enquired about the infant basket at the airport. Due to early landing hour, the ticket office was not yet open. A member of Virgin staff at the kiosk checked my ticket info on the computer and informed me he could not be much help, but put a request for me, so an infant basket will be automatically assigned on the day before my return flight. So all I need to do was call and confirm on the day before my departure. (At this point, my daughter's information was not offically given to any Virgin staff for booking)
3. I have called today for confirmation, on the online booking page I realised they misspelled the first letter of both first and last name of my daughter. The guy on the otherside of the phone said they'll charge me 30 quid for amendment.

I'm not best pleased with this, have anyone ever come across similar situation before? Did you get away without paying?

 

[paulh]

Have you had any written confirmation of the name before hand?

If yes, you should have checked it better and its your fault, if not then Virgin should pay it as it is their fault!

 

[bum]

Have you had any written confirmation of the name before hand?

If yes, you should have checked it better and its your fault, if not then Virgin should pay it as it is their fault!

There's no written confirmation and even if there are information exchanged, it was done over the phone.

For example, my surname starts with "Z" and now my daughter's surname has been put down as "X", which is right next to each other on the keyboard. I have even mentioned that "her surname is the same as mine" over the phone.

 

[DB_SamX]

My mum has been allowed on 2 Air France flights whilst having the wrong title of Mr. on the e-tickets. On the phone, they said it wouldn't be a problem and indeed they didn't give it a second glance.

I wouldn't pay for the amendment and play it casual at the airport.

 

[Aod]

My mum has been allowed on 2 Air France flights whilst having the wrong title of Mr. on the e-tickets. On the phone, they said it wouldn't be a problem and indeed they didn't give it a second glance.

I wouldn't pay for the amendment and play it casual at the airport.

incorrect title is one thing, but a different first letter of the surname is a completely different matter.

 

[bum]

My mum has been allowed on 2 Air France flights whilst having the wrong title of Mr. on the e-tickets. On the phone, they said it wouldn't be a problem and indeed they didn't give it a second glance.

I wouldn't pay for the amendment and play it casual at the airport.

I can't stop but feel it's some sort of scam scheme run by Virgin.

I flight quite often, and I would usually enter my detail on the "my booking" page after booking confirmation. This time, just before my flight from HK to LHR, I was notified by Virgin staff that somehow I've managed to mix my first name and surname wrong. On the booking page, all the personal details entered previous has mysteriously disappeared. Thinking I probably did make a mistake there, I've already paid 30GBP for name amendament, as now whenever you log into "my bookings" page, a huge text says: "you must make sure your name match your passport otherwise you will not be allowed to board your flight"

I had some pretty bad experience with Virgin from the past. My mom was taking a flight from Shanghai to LHR last year, on her return flight the ground staff at Shanghai decided to cancel her seat and give it to someone else after she arrived at check in! Then, after this particular experience, my dad was picking up a friend's son who took a Virgin flight at the LHR, the guy was bragging about how he got "connections" with the crew and managed to get himself on board last minute by taking someone else's seat at a very busy travel season.