Airline passenger charged £500 over spelling mistake

An airline passenger was charged more than £500 after missing a letter from his name when booking a flight. Frederick Hubbard had to pay for a new return flight to Detroit when he left out an ‘e’ in his booking with Lastminute.com. Now a consumer group has warned that some airlines and agencies are continuing to charge hefty fees to change names – or even to correct minor spelling mistakes – on tickets. Which? Travel investigated the costs following complaints from members. It found that asking an airline to change the name on a ticket could cost more than £100. Mr Hubbard was charged an administration fee of £45 and £540 for a new, refundable return ticket, the magazine reported. He received his money back within a week after complaining to Lastminute.com, but Which? noted refunds could take up to 16 weeks. Mr Hubbard said: ‘To wait that long, just to make a small spelling change, is lunacy.’ Lastminute.com insisted 16 weeks was a ‘worst case’ scenario. The European Commission plans to reform consumers’ flight rights and is calling for an end to ‘punitive’ administration fees for spelling errors. by Metro