[jaws79]

Dear Cazzi,

My wife and I recently purchased two return flights from Melbourne to Amsterdam through BYOjet.com. This was to be our honeymoon as we were recently married. We booked both tickets in my surname as we were in the process of changing my wife’s surname on all of her documentation.

My wife is an Australian permanent resident but does not hold an Australian passport as she is not yet a citizen. Her Dutch passport was due to expire in March (around the time of our flight) and when we went to have this renewed, the Dutch consulate advised us that her passport MUST remain in her maiden name.

We contacted BYOjet to inform them of this issue and they asked us to present them with a copy of both my wife’s old passport and our marriage certificate. They apparently sent these to Etihad to see if a name change was possible.

After contacting Etihad, BYOjet sent us a return email... “Please be advised that after speaking with Etihad they had advised that due to the codeshare flight with KLM they are unable to amend the name. In this circumstance they have advised that full cancellation penalties will apply.”

The full cancellation works out to be $724 per ticket. This is almost half of the original ticket price! We cannot afford to lose out on this amount. The KLM codeshare flight is from Amsterdam to Abu Dhabi (EY7307). After several attempts to contact Etihad directly to see if anything further could be done we were referred back to BYOjet who cannot help us any further. We even tried to contact KLM who said they could do nothing as the booking is with Etihad.

Obviously we do not want to cancel this flight. We understand if we are required pay a fee for a name change. But what was supposed to be a happy and stress free honeymoon has turned out to be the exact opposite. It was an honest mistake as we had never imagined that changing your surname to your married name on your passport would be impossible.

Please please please please please help us as we are desperate!

Yours sincerely,

Jordan.