On Fri, Apr 24, 2015 at 04:16:28PM -0400, Tony Sebro wrote:
Hi, all.
As you know, the Inkscape Committee approved and Conservancy booked a flight for Jabier from Madrid to attend LGM 2015. His flight is scheduled to depart tomorrow. We're now facing an issue where an inconsistency between his name on the ticket and his name on his passport may prevent him from traveling. There's a possibility that we will need to pay a ticket re-issuing fee or buy another ticket in order for him to travel; to do so, we would need the Inkscape Committee's approval. See below for details.
Jabier's full name (as he provided to us, and as printed on his passport) is "Francisco Javier Arraiza Cenoz". I booked the ticket via Orbitz back in March; the Orbitz reservation displays Jabier's full name as "FRANCISCO JAVIERARRAIZA CENOZ" (they ignored the space between the middle two names). Jabier expressed concern about the discrepancy, so Karen spent a few hours in March on the phone with Orbitz and the two airlines on the itinerary (Delta and KLM). She finally received confirmation from an Orbitz sales rep that Jabier should be able to travel on the ticket as-is[1].
Today, Jabier printed out his boarding pass; the name on the boarding pass is "FRANCISCO CENOZ". He called KLM (airline operator of the first leg of the itinerary) to confirm that he'd be able to travel under that name; the KLM agent told him no. I spent a few hours on the phone with Orbitz trying to work out a solution. According to Orbitz, it's up to the Delta ticketing agent at the airport to make a "judgment call" as to whether to let Jabier on the plane or not.
I spent another hour fighting with Delta about it; Delta claims that Orbitz didn't pass along the right information and didn't properly populate the secure flight passenger information. So, I'm about to call Orbitz again.
$%^&# airlines.
*Either way:* barring any new information from Delta, KLM, or Orbitz, we advise Jabier to get to the airport early tomorrow to ask the Delta ticketing agent at the airport to a) honor the ticket under the printed name, and b) instruct KLM to do the same. If they refuse, we'd have to consider the option of buying a new ticket in order for Jabier to travel.
As of right now, there is another, similar itinerary available for $720.70 that would get Jabier into Toronto at the same time of his original itinerary, and would have him return to Madrid two hours later on May 3rd. That price may change by tomorrow. Is the Inkscape Committee willing to approve this additional expense (+/- $100 or so), should it be necessary? Please advise. If you approve the additional expense, then we'd instruct Jabier to contact us in the event that he's unable to travel on the original ticket, and we'd book a new itinerary on the spot.
+1 vote from me.
Thanks. -Tony
[1] I brought this earlier conversation up with Orbitz today; they're going to conduct an investigation. But, the investigation will not be resolved in time to affect Jabier's travel.
-- Tony Sebro, General Counsel, Software Freedom Conservancy +1-212-461-3245 x11 tony@...41... www.sfconservancy.org
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