Did I mention I almost ruined our trip to Central America?
I remember having a conversation with Mark when we got back from Belize in 2008 on whether I should change the name in my passport to Heather Seymour from Heather Terry. We decided at the time that it could wait – when you use your passport, it’s the only form of identification they check so the only name that needs to match is the one on your passport and the one on your airline ticket. So I never changed it.
Fast forward to Sunday night when Mark realized that my passport still read Heather Terry but he’d bought my ticket under Heather Seymour. Cue panic. I got on the phone with Continental first, heeding Mark’s advice to say as little as possible about the situation and only say the name was wrong and needed to be changed. The conversation didn’t go well -- “Why is the name wrong? Is it only misspelled? What name is on your driver’s license? These tickets are non-transferable.” My call was then transferred to an international agent, at which point I handed the phone to Mark and escaped to the other room.
I don’t really know how Mark did it, but 20 minutes passed until he came in triumphantly and said they’d changed it for us. I was a mess by that point, sitting in tears on the couch clutching a pillow and telling myself everything was going to be OK and trying to watch “Celebrity Apprentice.” (And no, “Celebrity Apprentice” is not part of me being a mess! We love that show!) Mark had seemed fairly confident the whole time that they’d change the name (unlike myself) but couldn’t resist throwing in “I would’ve been sad to go to Central America without you!”
Can you imagine if we’d gotten to the airport and realized our mistake? I don’t think I would’ve been going anywhere. Thank goodness Continental has the foresight to send a “check your personal information” e-mail a week ahead of time.
