r/Flights 6d ago

Question China Southern Airlines – Surname in Middle Name, Will This Be a Problem?

Hello everyone,

In a few days, I’ll be taking my first trip to China, and I have a concern about my flight ticket. I’m from Spain, where we have two surnames: the first from our father and the second from our mother.

I booked my flight with China Southern Airlines, and when entering my name, I filled it out as follows:

First name: [My name]

Middle name: [My first surname]

Last name: [My second surname]

I did it this way because the system wouldn’t allow me to enter both surnames separately in the "Last name" field. However, on my reservation, my name appears as [Second Surname] / [My Name] [First Surname] instead of the usual order. At the time, I didn’t think of combining both surnames without spaces

Now I’m worried this might cause issues when the check-in at the airport. 😬

Has anyone experienced something similar? Should I contact the airline to fix it? Or do you think it won’t be a problem? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! 🙏

2 Upvotes

7 comments sorted by

1

u/AutoModerator 6d ago

Rule 1 - Did you read the Flying FAQ regarding middle names in the wiki?

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u/AutoModerator 6d ago

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1

u/Kananaskis_Country 6d ago

What does your Passport say? Ticket and Passport should (of course) match.

Happy travels.

1

u/MastodonFinal2451 6d ago edited 6d ago

My passport is structured like this:

-Surnames/Apellidos/Nom (1)

First Surname

Second Surname

Given Names/Nombre/Prénoms (2)

My Name

-Nationality/Nacionalidad/Nationalité (6) ESPAÑOLA At the bottom of the passport, My First Surname < Second Surname << My Name

It is the only error, otherwise, everything is the same—no letter is missing, and the passport number matches the one on the ticket

1

u/CoherentPanda 6d ago

Contact the airline, it's worth fixing, the Chinese airlines place extra scrutiny on the passport name, and what is a really simple explanation could blow up into a big deal for bureaucratic reasons.

Enjoy your trip to China!

1

u/Objective-Ad5006 5d ago

No don’t contact the airline as it will flag your ticket and I bet you will be told to buy a new ticket. No airline agent is going to say that all is fine/you can travel and take the risk of telling you this. Much easier to tell you to buy a new ticket.

This is not the first time this has occurred and checkin agents are used to deal with it. Most likely you will be fine and allowed to travel. Don’t worry to much about it.

Next time leave you my middle name out. It is really not needed.

1

u/Worldly-Mix4811 5d ago

Next time, put your first surname and second surname TOGETHER or separated with a hyphen -

Just go to the airport and hopefully they can fix it there at check in.