Yes darling, the travel industry has a queer way of writing our names and let us attempt to dissect why this is so! You will discover they have good reason to do so and the whole thing is really at times funny!
Unlike in a movie house or a bus, an airline passenger ticket (or computerized reservation for ticketless airliners) must bear the name of a passenger. Why so, that is another topic we should discuss in another article! Anyway, the ticket declares whom it belongs to. The name printed in the ticket should and must be the only person using this ticket for travel. It is (so far still) non-transferrable. Any other person cannot use it (unless that other person bears exactly the same name - which actually happens!). Note that henceforth, that name on your ticket will be your name as far as the airline is concerned, whether you are at the airport or inside the aircraft.
By international convention, airlines and travel agencies around the world follow a strict rule when writing names on passenger tickets:
1. The Last Name must be written first.
2. An oblique or a slash (/)must follow.
3. The First Name (and optionally the Middle Name) Initials must be next.
4. The title must be last.
5. Items 1 to 4 above must be written continuously without spaces or dashes in between letters.
6. Items 1 to 5 above must be printed in UPPER CASE (CAPITALIZED) ROMAN ALPHABET LETTERS whether done by hand or machine.
7. For Thai, Chinese, Arabic, etc. names where it is difficult to identify first names, the name as written on passports or IDs are just copied without the spaces, then ended with a slash (/) and the title. Example: ENGBEEWEE/MR, or ABDULMALIKRASHAD/MR
So, you think that's it on names? Not yet, kaibigan!
If any surname is composed of two words with a dash (-), a space, a slash (/), an apostrophé or any other non-alphabet character, these characters must be omitted. Thus, if you are Jose Ma. Ponce-Enrile, your ticket name will become PONCEENRILE/JMMR. Now imagine if your name was Romeo Bay-ag. You will instantly become "BAYAG/RMR"! In the same way, Catherine O'Hara will become OHARA/CMS.
When "physical space" in the ticket itself or the airline's computer still permit, there is an option to spell out the whole first name/s - even plus the middle name! Only if there is still space. And items 5 to 7 above, must still be followed.
Here are more examples: Kim Olivier De La Paz should be DELAPAZ/KIMOLIVIERMR or DELAPAZ/KOMR in the ticket. Gone are the days where we use PAZ before DELA. Another would be KENNEDY/JOHNJRMR. Observe here where the JR was placed. As a rule, name suffixes are never attached to the surname.
On first names, while the convention is that the initials (or first letters) maybe enough, Philippine issued tickets are better done with the full first name or first names spelled out. Reason for this is that we have this fad of naming our children with the first letter starting like that of the mother or father. An example would be the brothers Dennis, Daniel, Donald, Donnie, Dean, Darryl, Darwin and Dexter all surnamed Mendoza. Add in the father named David! If we simply followed the above convention, their tickets, all nine of them, will have MENDOZA/DMR. And, if they traveled together, either the airline crew or passengers themselves will be confused. Imagine if one of them needed a special diabetic meal! The crew would be in mad disarray looking for the Mr. D. Mendoza who needed that Diabetic Meal!
Sometimes, it is wise for the issuer to add the initials of the second name or the middle name. In the above case, Dennis Spencer's ticket would be named MENDOZA/DSMR. Just make sure you will be able to prove or help authorities decipher what those initials mean.
Lastly, there is a very big misconception on the "title" part of names. And as always, this only happens among Filipinos who mostly are very particular (even unreasonable) about titles.
Be aware that in the travel industry, they ask for everybody's title not so much to know if they should bow or kneel in front of you. They are all trained to uniformly treat their passengers with utmost courtesy anyway. When they do get your "title", they are more particular about your gender and your age bracket so that they will know whether you will need help or be of help during emergencies. They do not care if you are called a Congressman, Senator, Ambassador, Judge, Fiscal, Engineer, Atty., His Excellency, or Her Royal Highness. Normally therefore, even if you are a Bishop, your ticket will just say SANTOS/PEDROMR even if you insist that you should be called Very Reverend!
To prove a point:
There was this case of a lady lawyer who insisted that her title be made "ATTY." instead of the usual MS. She had her tickets returned to the airline only to have the name title changed. The airline obliged. Upon return from her junket, the lady lawyer was protesting at anyone she could talk to that she had been harassed on entry and exit at the immigration desk of her destination country. When checked by the airline, her trouble started when the immigration office noticed that her passport name was Pilar but her ticket name was PATTY! How did that happen? Her ticket agent made her ticket name as "SURNAME/PATTY" instead of “SURNAME/PMS”! The P here was for Pilar and the ATTY was for Attorney, as insisted by this omnipotent lawyer. By convention, the ticket agent could not have put a period after the ATTY, right?
So, the verdict was: "buti nga sa kanya, atrevida kasi"!
And please don't insist on having your name copied from your business card with those attachments as degrees earned or membership in an organization. Adding things like CPA, DMD, DVM, MBA, MLM, PHD or KBP, KKK, KGB, CIA whatever will just confuse people and they don't add any value to your safety, comfort or onvenience!
But there are exceptions. Yes there are, this is the Philippines! And even if it defies international convention, ticket issuers in the country will sometimes do it anyway and you may see names like LIM/DDR, or BAUTISTA/JCAPT. And yes, this is the Philippines, they can have a litany of reasons for doing so. Take those two names as an example. LIM/DDR was written so, for the airline people to be alerted that a Medical Doctor is on the flight; while BAUTISTA/JCAPT was written so, to advise airline staff that this passenger was an airline pilot. Clearly, both persons could help in emergencies, right?
In sum, be contented to see your names end with MR for men (including gays and drags!), MS for women (single, married or divorced), MSTR for boys below 12 years old, MIST for girls also below 12 years old and INF for children below 2 years old (infants).
We are not yet quite done on this naming matter. Here's more!
Sometimes you would see a name end with CHD or MDM. The former means child and the latter means Madamme (older ladies). These are all in the effort to immediately identify the age bracket of the passenger so that they may be accorded the right service especially during emergencies.
At times you may also see an "HRH" for a title. Of course, this is rare. There are only a few royalties in the world (like me hehehe) that you still call His/Her Royal Highness.
So remember, the TITLE is needed by your airline to ensure immediate and proper assistance during emergencies.
To be honest, and this is supposed to be a secret of the airline industry, this is also to ensure that the passenger using the ticket, paid the correct fare and is the correct person! Why? Because, if you paid a child's fare, it will not be easily recognizable unless your name has a MIST, MSTR or CHD. Airline people cannot be memorizing all the fare types in the world. The same goes for the elderly who are given fare discounts. Got the idea? Now if you are thinking of doing some unscrupulous act, don't count on this. Many an adult traveler had been caught using tickets paid under a child's fare. So had many a young passenger also been caught trying to use tickets paid in a senior citizen's fare. So, beware!
In some cases, you will see some extra writing just after your name title, and usually separated by a space. Ooops! Did we not say that there should be no spaces on the passenger name? Don't panic yet, these are normal conventions to properly identify the passenger or ticket. See, even the international conventions have exceptions! Following are some examples:
CBBG
The name may read: TAN/LINDAMS CBBG
This means that the passenger, Linda Tan, bought a separate ticket for her Cabin Baggage (CBBG) to occupy another seat. Sosyal kasi sya! And, only the "extra ticket" will have that CBBG code written on it.
COUR
The name may read: LAM/DICKYMR COUR
Here the passenger, Dicky Lam, is a Commercial Courier accompanying some shipments of his company that would be somewhere in the cargo compartment of the aircraft. Why the notation? Well this is an indication that if you bumped Mr. Lam out of his flight, you may be delaying the aircraft for a longer period as he must have all his shipments offloaded with him. The reverse is true. If you bump his shipments off the flight, Mr. Lam will naturally back-out of the same flight.
EXST
The name may read: OBESE/FATTYMS EXST
In this case, the passenger, Ms. Fatty Obese, bought a separate ticket for an extra seat (beside her) probably because she is so huge to fit into just one seat! Only the "extra ticket" for the extra seat will bear EXST.
DOB
The name may read: UY/JMIST DOB21JAN95
DOB is the industry's abbreviation for Date Of Birth. This means that the passenger is a child(girl) and probably availed of a "youth fare". The DOB will usually also be used alongside the title INF - just to tell everyone how old the infant really is.
Oh my, oh well, we have started mentioning those codes and there are thousands of them that the airliners use. But let's talk about them in a latter article, k?!
As for now, let's be happy to have known why our names are written so!
Unlike in a movie house or a bus, an airline passenger ticket (or computerized reservation for ticketless airliners) must bear the name of a passenger. Why so, that is another topic we should discuss in another article! Anyway, the ticket declares whom it belongs to. The name printed in the ticket should and must be the only person using this ticket for travel. It is (so far still) non-transferrable. Any other person cannot use it (unless that other person bears exactly the same name - which actually happens!). Note that henceforth, that name on your ticket will be your name as far as the airline is concerned, whether you are at the airport or inside the aircraft.
By international convention, airlines and travel agencies around the world follow a strict rule when writing names on passenger tickets:
1. The Last Name must be written first.
2. An oblique or a slash (/)must follow.
3. The First Name (and optionally the Middle Name) Initials must be next.
4. The title must be last.
5. Items 1 to 4 above must be written continuously without spaces or dashes in between letters.
6. Items 1 to 5 above must be printed in UPPER CASE (CAPITALIZED) ROMAN ALPHABET LETTERS whether done by hand or machine.
7. For Thai, Chinese, Arabic, etc. names where it is difficult to identify first names, the name as written on passports or IDs are just copied without the spaces, then ended with a slash (/) and the title. Example: ENGBEEWEE/MR, or ABDULMALIKRASHAD/MR
So, you think that's it on names? Not yet, kaibigan!
If any surname is composed of two words with a dash (-), a space, a slash (/), an apostrophé or any other non-alphabet character, these characters must be omitted. Thus, if you are Jose Ma. Ponce-Enrile, your ticket name will become PONCEENRILE/JMMR. Now imagine if your name was Romeo Bay-ag. You will instantly become "BAYAG/RMR"! In the same way, Catherine O'Hara will become OHARA/CMS.
When "physical space" in the ticket itself or the airline's computer still permit, there is an option to spell out the whole first name/s - even plus the middle name! Only if there is still space. And items 5 to 7 above, must still be followed.
Here are more examples: Kim Olivier De La Paz should be DELAPAZ/KIMOLIVIERMR or DELAPAZ/KOMR in the ticket. Gone are the days where we use PAZ before DELA. Another would be KENNEDY/JOHNJRMR. Observe here where the JR was placed. As a rule, name suffixes are never attached to the surname.
On first names, while the convention is that the initials (or first letters) maybe enough, Philippine issued tickets are better done with the full first name or first names spelled out. Reason for this is that we have this fad of naming our children with the first letter starting like that of the mother or father. An example would be the brothers Dennis, Daniel, Donald, Donnie, Dean, Darryl, Darwin and Dexter all surnamed Mendoza. Add in the father named David! If we simply followed the above convention, their tickets, all nine of them, will have MENDOZA/DMR. And, if they traveled together, either the airline crew or passengers themselves will be confused. Imagine if one of them needed a special diabetic meal! The crew would be in mad disarray looking for the Mr. D. Mendoza who needed that Diabetic Meal!
Sometimes, it is wise for the issuer to add the initials of the second name or the middle name. In the above case, Dennis Spencer's ticket would be named MENDOZA/DSMR. Just make sure you will be able to prove or help authorities decipher what those initials mean.
Lastly, there is a very big misconception on the "title" part of names. And as always, this only happens among Filipinos who mostly are very particular (even unreasonable) about titles.
Be aware that in the travel industry, they ask for everybody's title not so much to know if they should bow or kneel in front of you. They are all trained to uniformly treat their passengers with utmost courtesy anyway. When they do get your "title", they are more particular about your gender and your age bracket so that they will know whether you will need help or be of help during emergencies. They do not care if you are called a Congressman, Senator, Ambassador, Judge, Fiscal, Engineer, Atty., His Excellency, or Her Royal Highness. Normally therefore, even if you are a Bishop, your ticket will just say SANTOS/PEDROMR even if you insist that you should be called Very Reverend!
To prove a point:
There was this case of a lady lawyer who insisted that her title be made "ATTY." instead of the usual MS. She had her tickets returned to the airline only to have the name title changed. The airline obliged. Upon return from her junket, the lady lawyer was protesting at anyone she could talk to that she had been harassed on entry and exit at the immigration desk of her destination country. When checked by the airline, her trouble started when the immigration office noticed that her passport name was Pilar but her ticket name was PATTY! How did that happen? Her ticket agent made her ticket name as "SURNAME/PATTY" instead of “SURNAME/PMS”! The P here was for Pilar and the ATTY was for Attorney, as insisted by this omnipotent lawyer. By convention, the ticket agent could not have put a period after the ATTY, right?
So, the verdict was: "buti nga sa kanya, atrevida kasi"!
And please don't insist on having your name copied from your business card with those attachments as degrees earned or membership in an organization. Adding things like CPA, DMD, DVM, MBA, MLM, PHD or KBP, KKK, KGB, CIA whatever will just confuse people and they don't add any value to your safety, comfort or onvenience!
But there are exceptions. Yes there are, this is the Philippines! And even if it defies international convention, ticket issuers in the country will sometimes do it anyway and you may see names like LIM/DDR, or BAUTISTA/JCAPT. And yes, this is the Philippines, they can have a litany of reasons for doing so. Take those two names as an example. LIM/DDR was written so, for the airline people to be alerted that a Medical Doctor is on the flight; while BAUTISTA/JCAPT was written so, to advise airline staff that this passenger was an airline pilot. Clearly, both persons could help in emergencies, right?
In sum, be contented to see your names end with MR for men (including gays and drags!), MS for women (single, married or divorced), MSTR for boys below 12 years old, MIST for girls also below 12 years old and INF for children below 2 years old (infants).
We are not yet quite done on this naming matter. Here's more!
Sometimes you would see a name end with CHD or MDM. The former means child and the latter means Madamme (older ladies). These are all in the effort to immediately identify the age bracket of the passenger so that they may be accorded the right service especially during emergencies.
At times you may also see an "HRH" for a title. Of course, this is rare. There are only a few royalties in the world (like me hehehe) that you still call His/Her Royal Highness.
So remember, the TITLE is needed by your airline to ensure immediate and proper assistance during emergencies.
To be honest, and this is supposed to be a secret of the airline industry, this is also to ensure that the passenger using the ticket, paid the correct fare and is the correct person! Why? Because, if you paid a child's fare, it will not be easily recognizable unless your name has a MIST, MSTR or CHD. Airline people cannot be memorizing all the fare types in the world. The same goes for the elderly who are given fare discounts. Got the idea? Now if you are thinking of doing some unscrupulous act, don't count on this. Many an adult traveler had been caught using tickets paid under a child's fare. So had many a young passenger also been caught trying to use tickets paid in a senior citizen's fare. So, beware!
In some cases, you will see some extra writing just after your name title, and usually separated by a space. Ooops! Did we not say that there should be no spaces on the passenger name? Don't panic yet, these are normal conventions to properly identify the passenger or ticket. See, even the international conventions have exceptions! Following are some examples:
CBBG
The name may read: TAN/LINDAMS CBBG
This means that the passenger, Linda Tan, bought a separate ticket for her Cabin Baggage (CBBG) to occupy another seat. Sosyal kasi sya! And, only the "extra ticket" will have that CBBG code written on it.
COUR
The name may read: LAM/DICKYMR COUR
Here the passenger, Dicky Lam, is a Commercial Courier accompanying some shipments of his company that would be somewhere in the cargo compartment of the aircraft. Why the notation? Well this is an indication that if you bumped Mr. Lam out of his flight, you may be delaying the aircraft for a longer period as he must have all his shipments offloaded with him. The reverse is true. If you bump his shipments off the flight, Mr. Lam will naturally back-out of the same flight.
EXST
The name may read: OBESE/FATTYMS EXST
In this case, the passenger, Ms. Fatty Obese, bought a separate ticket for an extra seat (beside her) probably because she is so huge to fit into just one seat! Only the "extra ticket" for the extra seat will bear EXST.
DOB
The name may read: UY/JMIST DOB21JAN95
DOB is the industry's abbreviation for Date Of Birth. This means that the passenger is a child(girl) and probably availed of a "youth fare". The DOB will usually also be used alongside the title INF - just to tell everyone how old the infant really is.
Oh my, oh well, we have started mentioning those codes and there are thousands of them that the airliners use. But let's talk about them in a latter article, k?!
As for now, let's be happy to have known why our names are written so!
4 Comments
Thanks for sharing!Airlines Tickets Philippines
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletethank you for sharing yo8ur idea.. paanu po ba input sa name in this person MR. RAMIL SAPAYAN III. hope u will post may comment asap thank y
ReplyDeletesuffixes are never attached to the surname. thus, SAPAYAN/RAMILIIIMR
ReplyDelete