ESTA, US clarifies given name requirement

[Thorpy]

Originally Posted by grinner82

If it helps Virgin don't have middle names on the flight tickets. It does does not matter. Middle name, no middle name. All will be fine.

See more...

Err...they do sometimes...

I have 2 kids, both have middle names. One has both names on her ticket, the other, and both us parents just have the initial.

My understanding is that the string compare needs to not disagree rather than exactly match. They strip spaces and special characters and squish up initials and names, then compare until the shortest string runs out of characters

Philip John would become PhilipJohn
Philip J would become PhilipJ
Philip (with noithing) remains Philip

And whichever versions they compare they match until the short version runs out of letters...
the "as it appears in the chevrons" is because that bit already has the special characters removed.

[grinner82]

Originally Posted by Thorpy

Err...they do sometimes...

I have 2 kids, both have middle names. One has both names on her ticket, the other, and both us parents just have the initial.

My understanding is that the string compare needs to not disagree rather than exactly match. They strip spaces and special characters and squish up initials and names, then compare until the shortest string runs out of characters

Philip John would become PhilipJohn
Philip J would become PhilipJ
Philip (with noithing) remains Philip

And whichever versions they compare they match until the short version runs out of letters...
the "as it appears in the chevrons" is because that bit already has the special characters removed.

See more...

When we booked with Virgin, when you enter passenger details it specifically says first name then in brackets do not include middle name.Then Family name.

[BucksBugsy]

Originally Posted by Thorpy

Err...they do sometimes...

I have 2 kids, both have middle names. One has both names on her ticket, the other, and both us parents just have the initial.

My understanding is that the string compare needs to not disagree rather than exactly match. They strip spaces and special characters and squish up initials and names, then compare until the shortest string runs out of characters

Philip John would become PhilipJohn
Philip J would become PhilipJ
Philip (with noithing) remains Philip

And whichever versions they compare they match until the short version runs out of letters...
the "as it appears in the chevrons" is because that bit already has the special characters removed.

See more...

When I booked our latest break (august 2019) I mistakenly put in my first name as Dave and not David. Realising the error of my ways when the wine wore off I rang them to get it corrected (there was no charge which surprised me). I asked if they needed my middle name name and they said no.

I've just checked on both the VH and VA websites and there is no mention of our middle names. I guess that may change when we do the API stuff I don't know .

I've just checked our e-tickets from last August (2018) and they only have first and last name on them.

So we shall see what happens on the 2nd August this year!

[Burgmeister]

I spoke to VA last year about tickets and passport not matching (Tickets had no middle name). They told me its fine to have no middle name on ticket if your passport does have one BUT you mustn't have a middle name on the ticket if your passport doesn't have one

[Thorpy]

Ours was booked over the phone with flying club...and the one that includes the name is a pair of names often merged into one. Like for instance Billie-Jo, Amelia-Rose, or Lily-May to pick the first ones that appeared on google. So maybe that's what they've assumed.

Dave and david wouldn't match as above... Elizabeth, Robert and the various shortenings of those are the ones I remember catching me out in the distant managing a large IT system which used initials !

[ChrisS]

Hi Thorpy - can't remember if I fill in hubs middle name flight tickets, I believe not, it's on his B2 visa and bar the 2012 blip, to date we've been granted permission to winter in the US.

[Thorpy]

I'm not worried, I'm sure we've done it all ways up in the past. We've got a mix this time. My understanding is that they strip out the spaces and merge the first and middle names and then look for discrepancies. We've got 3 of one and one of the other this time
Last year we had 2 adults with the same name and initial in the party which confused the baggage system, one had to be moved onto his own booking.

[ELLENUT]

Just a heads up. Here now, travelled last weekend I didn't have my middle name on ESTA and all was fine. I too did briefly consider doing another ESTA but I would be really surprised if anyone is refused entry over this until it's made clearer on their site(which I think will be done at some point) instead of having to hover over the ?.

[ChrisS]

Originally Posted by ELLENUT

Just a heads up. Here now, travelled last weekend I didn't have my middle name on ESTA and all was fine. I too did briefly consider doing another ESTA but I would be really surprised if anyone is refused entry over this until it's made clearer on their site(which I think will be done at some point) instead of having to hover over the ?.

See more...

Nobody should currently face issues Ellen as the US have yet to enforce name update/travel doc match. Lack of an enforcement date is one reason why there's so much update irritation, if the US placed a date in a big red banner across the ESTA application page travellers would be aware, then again there's bound to be thousands who fail to see the big red banner, as is happening with the 'sample pp' diagram.

Have a smashing holiday Ellen

[Thorpy]

Originally Posted by ChrisS

If the US placed a date in a big red banner across the ESTA application page travellers would be aware, then again there's bound to be thousands who fail to see the big red banner, as is happening with the 'sample pp' diagram.

See more...

Yep...scientific name for it ...The invisible Gorilla !

Basically if you are so focussed on one thing you can miss something as daft as a man in a gorilla suit. The scientists that researched it won an IG nobel prize, which is a parody of the Nobel prize for science which makes you laugh, but then makes you think.