Aer Lingus - Hyphenated Surname

[superfast808]

Hi All,

One of my traveling party has a hyphenated surname - one which I would not have signed up for if I had known the issues of stress it would cause now!

Anyway, on booking with Aer Lingus (GLA-DUB-MCO) it has removed the hyphen as is standard practice I believe.

However, on his ESTA application, his name has to show exactly as shown on his passport, or to be more specific, the machine readable zone.

So, say his surname is Apple-Orange, on Aer Lingus this shows as Appleorange

Aer Lingus confirm this is how their system works, and I need not worry, but I do.

On the ESTA however, it will most likely show as Apple Orange (the machine readable zone does not have a hyphen, even though the informational part does). Confusing!

Does anyone have past experience of this? It's causing us massive concern, as - unlike many other airlines - I cannot enter the surname differently on the API page for Aer Lingus - no such field!

My worry is that the details won't match up properly.

[Pinkie1983]

I have a hyphenated surname. Never had a problem when airlines have changed it to either one word or missed out the hyphen. Don't worry.

[Buzz242]

We're hyphenated and I remember the first time we went I couldn't sleep for days because I was convinced that they wouldn't let us go on the plane even though Id phoned the airline and checked multiple times 😂😂😂

[N52939]

Don't have a hypenated name, but do have a hyphen in our email address that Aer Lingus continually change from "-" to "/" which means we never get email updates from them.

Their marketing system doesn't seem to have any problem with our email address though!

[Pookie3101]

My daughter has a hyphenated first name which they removed and it never caused any problems when we flew to USA on Aer Lingus.

[carolmc]

Originally Posted by Pookie3101

My daughter has a hyphenated first name which they removed and it never caused any problems when we flew to USA on Aer Lingus.

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Same for me... always have my name on airline docs run together in one name and all my US doc have the hyphenated surname . Never had any probs ever.

[deek72]

That's a very unusual name.

[landandword17]

That's standard practice on airline tickets. My SIL has a hyphenated name and can't recall her name ever not being written Appleorange on the boarding card when we've travelled together. It's also quite normal for your name to look like Smith Johhmr on a boarding card, you can even get the mister if you're female!

[superfast808]

Thanks all, this really helps put our mind at rest.

For the ESTA part, I was advised by CBP that it doesn't matter whether there was a hyphen or not, as long as the order and spelling was correct, so a further weight off our mind.

PS, if the surname really was Apple-Orange it'd be far more exciting than what it actually is!

[lossieglen]

It's going to get really complicated when Apple-Orange marries Banana-Pear and they become Apple-Orange-Banana-Pear