Student legally changed name to avoid Ryanair name change fee

Adam Armstrong claimed he would have been forced to pay a total of £220 to change his name on his ticket after a booking error.

The ticket was booked in the name Adam West, and so the student thought it would be cheaper to change his name legally for free and purchase a new passport for £103 in the name matching the booking.

The student thought he would have to pay the £110 name-change fee twice, as he had booked both legs separately.

However Ryanair has clarified that the airline’s policy would have only required him to pay £110 had he booked both legs on the same booking.

However the student seems to be happy with his decision:

“I just liked the name,” he told Anton Savage on Today FM.

“It took £100 to change my name versus £200 to change my  ticket,”

“I’m not giving Ryanair a penny.”

He has managed to keep his name change a secret for the last week

“My Dad doesn’t actually know. It’s all over the news this morning so I guess he’ll find out sooner or later. It’s been one week so far. I did mention the idea to him and he wasn’t too pleased…but I did it anyway.”

“I’m going to change it back in seven years [when passport expires].”

Ryanair said in a statement: “Customers are asked to ensure that the details they enter at the time of booking are correct before completing their booking and we offer a 24 hour ‘grace period’ to correct minor booking errors.

“A name change fee is charged in order to discourage and prevent unauthorised online travel agents from ‘screenscraping’ Ryanair’s cheapest fares and reselling them on to unwitting consumers at hugely inflated costs.