Christopher Elliott Travel columnist • Profile • E-mail

As far as mistakes go, the one Janet Gordon recently made didn’t seem like a big deal. She booked an airline from ticket Toronto to London under the name “Jan.”

But what happened next could only be summed up in one word — “chaos” — says her husband, David.

“It was a major hassle,” remembers Gordon, a human resources director for a college in Swansea, England. At almost every turn, the couple had to explain why the name on Jan’s ticket didn’t match her passport. “The computers wouldn’t allow us to check in and issue a boarding card,” he says.

In a business where slip-ups are almost as common as surcharges, the wrong-name-on-my-ticket error is a standout. You don’t have to look far for ticketing mistakes in an age of do-it-yourself booking. Take it from me: not only do I write the Travel Troubleshooter column, a question-and-answer feature that helps people solve real-world problems, but I’m also a an expert on errors.

I’ll get to my own shortcomings in a minute. But right now, let’s review the five biggest booking blunders — and how they could have been prevented:

Wrong name on my ticket
Before 9/11, airlines and security personnel — and I use the term “security personnel” loosely — might have let a nickname or even a maiden name on a ticket slide. No longer. If you have the wrong name on your ticket, you’re probably grounded. And there are two reasons for this: security and greed. The Transportation Security Administration wants to be sure the same person who bought the ticket, and who was screened, is boarding the plane. But when there’s an inexact match, the airline can either charge a $100 “change” fee or even force you to buy a new ticket. In an industry where every dollar counts, the exact-name rule is the government’s gift to cash-starved air carriers.

That’s the situation Gordon was confronted with, even when it was obvious that “Jan” and “Janet” were one and the same. There were suggestions that a new ticket might need to be purchased. “We didn’t let it get to that,” he recalls. Instead, he asked to speak with a supervisor who could finally fix the codes so that the ticket and passport matched up. How did all of this happen in the first place? Turns out Jan Gordon had signed up for a frequent flier account under her informal name, so when she booked an award ticket, it also used her informal — and inaccurate — name.

How to avoid it? Triple-check the name on your ticket. Make sure your computer doesn’t autofill another name and that the name on your passport or driver’s license matches up with your ticket. Here’s a recent videocast I did on dealing with a wrong-name scenario.

Booking a ticket on the wrong airline
Believe it or not, people board the wrong flight every day. I’m not even talking about codeshare flights, which is industry-speak for booking a ticket on one airline but then flying on a “partner” airline with different rules and maybe lower service standards. I’m talking about simply making the wrong choice of airline.

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For example, the elite-level business traveler who is accustomed to being treated like royalty when he flies on his preferred carrier might want to stay away from a budget airline. “I gave Southwest a try and I hated it,” they’ll write to me. “I’m never flying with them again.” Of course not. If you don’t like flight attendants with a sense of humor, peanut snacks and on-time flights, you’ll probably hate Southwest, too. On the flip side, I hear from travelers who book tickets on full-service network airlines and then complain about the price. Which is silly. How else do you think an airline is going to pay for all of that service?

How to avoid it? Watch for the codeshare designation when you book online and do a little research before buying an airline ticket. That way, your expectations won’t be too high. Or too low. Also, consider using an experienced travel agent.

The city switcheroo
Selecting the wrong city pairs — going from point ‘B’ to point ‘A’ instead of from ‘A’ to ‘B’ — is another common error. Jennifer Hyde bought four tickets on Delta Air Lines through Orbitz. But instead of booking them from Boston to Baltimore she inadvertently switched cities, rendering the tickets completely useless. “Needless to say, neither Orbitz nor Delta is doing anything to help,” she says. Hyde, a homemaker from Newton, Mass., would have to pay a change fee for each ticket, plus any fare differential, to make things right. Not good.

How could someone switch cities? It’s easy. To an inexperienced Web user — and OK, let’s be completely honest here, even to some experienced users — those pull-down menus on travel sites can be utterly confusing. When you’re typing in airport city codes like BWI and BOS, it’s easy to forget which airport goes where. (But it could be worse — Hyde might have ended up with a ticket to the familiar-looking BAL city code, which would have taken her to Batman, Turkey.) Point is, if you’re not paying attention, of if you’re dyslexic, you could click “accept” all the way through the reservation process and you wouldn’t know you messed up until it was too late.

How to avoid it? Pay attention! If you’re easily distracted maybe you should be working with a qualified travel agent instead of booking yourself. And read your confirmation immediately. If you spot a mistake, your agent might be able to undo it at no charge.

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