Common mistakes of passengers of railways and airlines

Hello! We are the second line of passenger support. Every day, we process hundreds of ticket errors. I really want to tell you what could go wrong, because I really hope that this will save someone’s nerves. At least we are constantly faced with passenger problems, so it seems to us that you are always in trouble.

The most common mistake of the summer is to confuse July with June. In terms of interface, of course, I would suggest renaming one of the months, but I'm afraid it will be difficult. So just check: it can happen to everyone. Example story: A passenger called from Antalya in a panic on the evening of June 29 because his plane did not arrive. His plane was due to arrive in a month. We were able to return his ticket (this is a special magic, and it does not always work, but it’s easier for us than the passenger), and the passenger bought a new one for the flight in a couple of days.

There was also a similar case before May. The girl bought tickets to Cyprus: wanted for May, but mistakenly bought for August. Tickets were very, very irrevocable. She reacted with humor, saying: "Well, that means fate, we will also go in August."

One client per hour through the contact center made six flight cancellations. He was not very sober and stably missed for a month, and then called back to cancel. A very persistent person, probably a military man.

Another client missed the ticket four times: she chose the more expensive one instead of the desired one. We did a quick cancellation without sanctions (this magic is possible only immediately after ordering, and sometimes not with all airlines). But she did not succeed in breaking the record of the persistent passenger above.

A similar mistake often happens in December: people confuse years. That is, you can accidentally buy a ticket for next December, which will be in a year.

Classic - mix up date when departing at night. Last year, there was a girl who took a ticket at 00:15, and he pick up and get ready to leave a day earlier. It is good that she understood this in time. I called, found out everything, there was no free money, so it was not an option to return, I had to go earlier. On the way I met a guide. Then we called back a few months later to say that she was marrying him. But more often they call us about 10-15 minutes before departure or departure with questions about whether it can be rescheduled for tomorrow.

A well-known solution to the problem is a 24:15 time format. If it was indicated on the ticket, then the love story would not have grown together.

The next most common mistake on the railways is buying tickets for yourself (your name) for a friend. Because at the time of purchase, the complete passport data of this friend is not with him. For some reason, people often think that this can be done, but the rules are harsh. On such a ticket, they can only put on the train whose data is on the ticket.

Again, the number is not suitable for any document, but only for an identity document. A girl from the CIS called us. During the processing of her ticket, it surfaced that she indicated the number of the migration card as an identity document. We called back, explained that such a document would not work. She was very upset, said that she had been demanded this migration card in Russia everywhere, so she thought that this is her main document and that it should be indicated. The ticket had to be returned and a new one was issued for a passport.

Recently there was a problem again, which repeats about once a month: a passenger wants to take about 150 kilograms of luggage with him to a reserved seat wagon and is surprised to learn that you can only take 36. Luggage up to 200 kilograms can only be carried in a special baggage compartment, having paid it officially . But many passengers do not pay attention to this rule and still take their bales, give a bribe to the guide, and clog the gondola with their things. Then we learn about it from the reviews of other passengers.

Often, parents take a photocopy of a child’s birth certificate on a train: they think it’s possible. In fact, when boarding a child on a train, you can really present a copy, but only notarized.

The most cunning ones buy additional seats for non-existent children in order to save money and ride in a compartment together, and when they land, they tell the guide: "The children are sick." This number does not work, and strangers sit on them. Because according to the rules, to go alone in a compartment, you need to buy the rest of the seats at an adult rate in your name (real data). When the seats are redeemed for children, the carrier loses half the cost of the seat (discount size), which is disadvantageous. In such cases, the guide may ask for a birth certificate for children who have not gone. If you refuse, then the data is transmitted to the system that the passengers have not landed, the seats are free and can be sold to other passengers.

Presentation of a birth certificate usually solves the issue (if the children exist in nature and their data is indicated), but not always. Here the human factor works: how the conductor decides. As a result, they paid for additional seats at a children's rate, and traveled with strangers.

Or the client made a voluntary return of the ticket. Two months later, she requested an involuntary return, presenting documents that she was sick. But the airline has already processed the first by its own rules. Therefore, if you are sick, then you first need to inform us before departure, and then collect information.

“You know, I have lost all three passports here: mine and children. And now I have new ones, ”is one of the most difficult situations in foreign flights. Then we were able to solve this problem. As a rule, airlines meet their needs and offer options for re-issuing tickets.

The fact that the distribution of errors is random and is in the range of small numbers is proved by the series when randomness ceases to look like that. In the contact center, these are the so-called magnetic storms, for example, all day long - one type of error on the passport.

Where can we help and help

Errors in the name, document number, route, date occur daily. Here we have a FAQ about railways , from which it becomes a little clearer what to do in what situations. A common problem: when a husband orders tickets, they often get mixed up with middle names.

Earlier in the hits it was to write the last name, first name and middle name without spaces in the last name field. We overcame this problem by making the first and middle name fields mandatory and setting a limit on the number of characters in all fields. The top also has the wrong sex of the passenger and date of birth. In most cases, we now determine gender automatically - we check the end of the last name and first name, errors have gone into decline. Often they were not critical, but the passengers were worried.

But the wrong date of birth is still found. Fortunately, when traveling around Russia, because of such an error, no one will refuse to board a plane or train if it has not affected the fare (when an adult born in 2015 is traveling). When flying abroad, the airline may still have questions, so you can’t do without contacting the contact center. It is especially important to check the passenger data for flights to the USA and China.

For quite some time we tracked down a bug with incorrect transliteration of the name and surname in the air tickets, and it turned out this: when the passenger entered his data in Russian, they were saved. The usabelists came up with automatic transliteration and connected the standard that the state used for passports. Then he changed, and new passengers with old passports began to transliterate differently from what they actually recorded. As a result, we still turned off the autotranslation of fields for foreign passports - now the user adds his last name in English letters himself. For the Russian passport and birth certificate, automatic transliteration continues to work, because variations are allowed in them. In this case, it is important that the sound is preserved.

Often, passengers after the purchase verify the spelling of the name with the data on the bank card, but as you know, anything can be there. Sometimes it takes time to reassure the passenger. Alternatively, offer banks to use our site for the correct transliteration, but it seems that they will not agree.

In preparing the material, I express gratitude to Evstigneeva Veronika.