I think I made a big mistake when I bought tickets for me and my family. My wife is Colombian and has her maiden name on her passport. She has her married name on her GC. I made the mistake of buying her ticket with her married name, which is not on her passport. Her maiden and married names are similar because of her two last names before.
maiden: jane smith jones
married: jane smith doe

Is she going to be able to get on the plane here in US or in Colombia if the ticket doesn't match her passport exactly? Even if she is carrying her green card and marriage certificate?

I think I just bought myself an extra ticket...

If she is carrying identification in her maiden and married names, I think she should be fine. She is not the first person to travel without having changed her identification soon after marriage......i.e. people on honeymoons.

i have been reading a lot of posts that say she shouldn't have a problem with immigration. What I am worried about is her plane ticket not matching exactly the name on her passport and not being able to get on the plane.

The only people who can give you a definitive answer to that is the airline. The airline has its own rules and only they can say.

i just called continental and they said to bring the original or certified copy of the marriage certificate. I can understand that in the U.S. but not in Colombia. I don't think a marriage certificate from California is going to mean much to them there.

If the only airline you are flying on is Continental that is ok. Their rules are the same whatever country they depart from.

If you are flying on a different airline in Columbia you would need to check with them too.

If she has a National Identity Card from Columbia, maybe she could take it with her, also her birth certificate as it will show her maiden name, marriage certificate and passeport.

If it comes down to it, call the airline and have the ticket reissued with a the correct name. Its generally not free, but it is better than buying another ticket. But if marriage certificate works, thats fine too.

Airlines have to comply with international law when it comes to names on tickets.... your ticket name MUST match your passport for you to board an international flight....

You should have the name amended on the ticket or ask the airline to add her maiden name to the booking Ref for that ticket so that she can travel...

On our last flight to the UK from the US the woman in frount of us was refused boarding because her ticket was in her married name and her passport was still in her maiden name she had her birth certificate and her marriage certificate and her greencard but the airline staff explained to her that it is the law that the ticket must match the name on the passport....

Kez

I worked at Heathrow for ten years enforcing the law and never came across any international or other law requiring this. It is the policy of the airlines, and just what and what isn't accepted is down to the individual airline to decide. Virgin Atlantic for example will allow a difference of three letters between the passport and ticket, British Airways go on a case by case decision but general will not accept a difference. One of the main reasons for this is to stop unwanted tickets being given or sold to third parties to whom the airline could have sold a ticket and collected the revenue for it.

With flights to the USA these are pre-cleared by the Department of Homeland Security and a mismatch between ticket, passport and green card will cause the flight to be refused and cost the airline a great deal of money. The airline has to send the mainfest and other inforamtion to the USA electronically before the flight departs. At Heathrow there are US immigration officers to deal with such problems and other matters relating to the US no fly list.

I was only saying what the check-in staff told the woman in front of us at the airport in Boston....

Kez

Get the ticket changed. Ask for a supervisor at the airline and try and get the change fee waived or at least reduced. That is by far your best option.

I am not sure how much time you have from now until she plans to travel but I would suggest calling the Colombian Embassy and checking if they can ammend her passport to include her married name or expedite a new passport in her married name.

After reading all of these posts (on other threads too) I think I'll apply for my new passport next month.

When my husband (then my fiance), his mum and I travelled to America together for our wedding, I was in charge of booking the tickets. Nobody bothered to tell me that her passport was in her married name, because she uses her maiden name exclusively for all other purposes, so I booked it in her maiden name. We didn't even pick up on this issue until we were an hour outside of JFK, and they were filling in their I-94Ws! Of course she didn't have her marriage certificate with her, because no one had even flagged there would be an issue before we left. It hadn't caused an issue with the Delta check-in staff on the Gatwick end, and when they went through immigration in New York no one noticed it. There were no problems on the way back to London either.

I guess the fact that she is a sweet-looking 70-year-old lady (and a professional actress to boot -- so she can milk that sweet and dotty thing something good!) might have helped, but we were all scratching our heads as to why nobody at Delta or immigration ever mentioned the discrepancy...but we're not complaining!

When I came to US I had my plane ticket on my married name and the passport on my maiden name.....all I needed was my marriage certificate and everything was good

Thanks to everyone for replying. I will try and get the airline to change her name on the ticket. I am worried about airline staff in Colombia. I won't go into the crazy things that happen at airports there.

It isn't an immigration issue. They are only concerned you have a valid passport and visa if required and if the immigration rules require it a return ticket. It doesn't matter to them what name you use only that the documents refer to the person presenting them.

I've never been asked my US immigration to show a return ticket just my passport.