Baby not allowed to fly after travel agent puts own name on ticket

Shilpy Arora of

By Shilpy Arora of

• Auckland man Gagandeep Singh said his baby couldn't take a flight after a travel agency staff put their name on the child's ticket.
• Singh reached the airport three hours before the flight only to find the staff member's name was listed as the adult accompanying his daughter.
• He said he can't afford to keep the baby in New Zealand after damaging his back in an accident.

An Auckland father says he is "disappointed" and "angry" after his baby couldn't take an international flight because a travel agency employee put her name on the child's ticket.

Gagandeep Singh, 31, booked a ticket through the Mann Travel agency to send his three-month-old daughter overseas with his mother.

Singh was shocked when he reached the airport to find the agent's staff member had written their name as the adult accompanying the child.

"When I asked for my boarding pass, the airlines' staff called out the name of the [agent's] staff. I told them she was just a staff member at the travel agent who booked the ticket.

"They [airlines' staff] said no, her [staff member's] name is given as the adult who will be travelling with your baby.

"I was disappointed. I was furious."

The father of two had to cancel his baby's travel.

Mann Travel referred Stuff to their official response on Google Review.

The agency said [using a staff member's name] is a "common practice" when the adult and infant tickets are booked through two different travel agencies.

"Since infants do not have a dedicated seat, as infants travel in their parents' laps or in baby cots provided by airlines, we issued the ticket and held the PNR (passenger name record) under the adult's [their staff member's] name in our system."

The company said after an earlier flight was cancelled, Singh requested them to re-link the infant ticket to the newly reissued adult ticket [his mum's ticket], which was booked through another agent.

"However, after contacting the airline, we were informed that this was not possible due to a difference in booking classes between the adult and infant tickets.

"We explained this policy clearly to [Singh] during our conversation."

About six months ago, Singh booked his mother's return tickets to New Zealand through a different travel agent in Tauranga.

His mother travelled to New Zealand in March and her return flight was booked for 13 September.

After his daughter was born in June, Singh decided to send her to India with his mother on the return flight.

Singh contacted the travel agency [Mann Travel] to book his baby's ticket so the baby could travel with his mother on 13 September.

The airline later cancelled the flight booked for 13 September.

He claimed the agency failed to link his mum's rescheduled ticket with his baby's rescheduled ticket.

Singh said he wanted to send his daughter to India as he faced extreme financial hardships.

He said his life changed three months before his daughter was born when he suffered a serious back injury, and could no longer work as a farmer in South Auckland.

"I had a back injury. I have not been working for months. I am not eligible for financial support because I am on work visa.

"There have been times when local Gurudwara (Sikh temple) helped my family with food.

"Six months ago, my mum travelled to New Zealand to see my wife who was pregnant.

"I decided to send my newborn to India because I am not in a position to feed my children and provide them with a good accommodation."

The family of four have lived in a garage for six weeks and recently moved to a one-bedroom shared accommodation.

"I don't know where to take my baby now because we told the landlord only three people would be living in one room.

"My wife had to join a new job after sending baby to India, but she can't do that now. She has to take care of the baby.

"The travel agent's mistake has made it so hard for us."

A Malaysian Airlines representative told Stuff it was clearly a mistake by the travel agent.

"I can say surely this is not our problem. They need to admit what they're doing, actually.

"They can't put staff name in the booking. When they are doing a dummy booking, they need to put the mother's name.

"It's a very simple logic question. When you go into the aircraft in the aviation, you want to fly on the day and then the [grand]mother's name is not same as [in] the original [ticket booked] for the infant. If you being the authority in the airport, would you let the people to fly?"

"The name of the passenger [accompanying adult] is different. That is why, the infant was unable to fly.

"This is 100 percent [on the] travel agent."

Migrant Rights Network's volunteer Sher Singh said they get a lot of cases where naming errors and ticket issue errors were made by the travel agencies.

"It puts a lot of stress on people when they are not able to board the flight.

"When you buy tickets, make sure you have an e-ticket number issued to you and not just the PNR."

- Stuff