Can our Tokyo ticket disaster be averted?

Have a question? Ask our expert Simon Calder

What’s in a name? One solution, at least, will save Kate from a gouging (Getty)

Q I have booked for my family of five plus my daughter’s boyfriend to go to Tokyo in October for the Rugby World Cup. We have booked via a travel agent with Japan Airlines economy class. Unfortunately my daughter’s boyfriend has been booked on with our surname, not his. I have phoned the travel agent to be told I can only cancel and rebook the flight but at the cost of the original flight plus the new one!

The agent acknowledged that it could have been an error on their part but it still wouldn’t make a difference to the outcome. I am devastated as I am a nurse, I work really hard to do these things and now I am faced with losing £908 if I cancel all together or £1,816 if I rebook assuming the price is the same. This cannot be right or fair. Is there anything I can do about this?

Kate W

A I presume you booked this trip through an online travel agent which you found through an internet search. There is plenty of evidence that such companies prosper from mistakes on bookings – typically saying “nothing can be done, you will need to rebook and pay again”. The reality is often that the airline allows changes at a reasonable price but the travel agent pockets hundreds of pounds of your hard-earned cash. Travellers have asserted that some online travel agents have deliberately introduced errors which they then charge a fortune to “fix”.

Now, even for the excellent service on Japan Airlines at a time of high demand, an air fare of £908 return is at the high end. The higher the fare, the more the likelihood that it allows changes/refund options which are not nearly so draconian as you have been quoted.

However, rather than trying to persuade an online travel agent to behave more reasonably, I suggest an option which will solve the problem. Your daughter’s boyfriend changes his name by deed poll to the name on the ticket, then gets a new passport in this name. Assuming he will change back at the end of the trip, the total cost will be £151. Alternatively, if he is happy to travel under the new name for the remainder of the validity of the passport, it will be only £75.50.

I hope this puts your mind at rest.

Every day our travel correspondent Simon Calder tackles a reader’s question. Just email yours to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder