A Ryanair passenger is challenging a €115 (£100) fee for changing his name back to “Luke” after autocorrect changed it to “Lukewarm”.
Luke Bradley from Wicklow in Ireland faces the name-change fee after a booking mistake on a €50 (£43) ticket.
The airline has a 48-hour cooling-off period in which booking errors can be corrected free of charge.
After that Ryanair imposes no fee for putting “minor errors” right, but in common with other carriers generally limits this to three letters.
Ryanair says: “Full name changes will still occur a name-change fee.
“In certain situations it may be cheaper to purchase a new flight, rather than paying for a name change.”
Mr Bradley took to Twitter to publicise his discussion about the mistake: “Gabi the senior customer service rep insisting Lukewarm is a name.”
He included a screen grab of the heated live-chat conversation in which he wrote, in exasperation: “My first name is down as Lukewarm Bradley. I DIDN’T ENTER that. It’s not even a name.”
Mr Bradley told The Independent that Ryanair had been tepid in its response: “It’s outrageous they can’t change this.”
A spokesperson for Ryanair said: “It is each customer’s responsibility to ensure the name on the booking matches the name on their passport and we offer a 48 hour grace period to correct minor booking errors.
“This customer requested a name change nine days after making the booking.”
In January the personal finance organisation Money Saving Expert accused Ryanair of having a glitch in its reservation system which changed passengers’ last names to that of the lead traveller.
More than 160 passengers claimed the low-cost airline had automatically changed their companions’ surnames after booking to match that of the person buying the tickets.
Martin Lewis, the founder of Money Saving Expert, said: “There is a seemingly blasé attitude to customers who feel hard done by.”
