Air travel UK to USA with a hyphen in my surname - will it be a problem?

Upvote:7

You should check your passport's machine readable zone. Most countries seem not to add characters like hyphens there, and may substitute it with a space (encoded as a <) instead.

You should make sure that the name the airline has matches the MRZ. But most likely it will not be a problem.

Upvote:7

My name has a hyphen that I always include in my bookings. Airlines sometimes put it on the boarding pass and sometimes don't, and I've never had any problems.

Edit: worth noting that another answer now reports someone having problems with United, who I've never flown with.

Upvote:7

I have had an issue with a hyphen when checking in and validating my green card with United at their self-serve terminals at Halifax Stanfield International Airport (YHZ) when traveling to the United States. Some combination of the hyphenation on my green card, passport, and boarding pass, caused a validation error that didn't allow me, via the terminal, to confirm that I had a valid travel document to visit the United States. I now always have to visit a physical agent who is easily able to override the validation error and confirm that I have a valid travel document. I am not able to check in online or via the self-serve terminal. This is purely anecdotal, of course, but if you do need to check-in at the airport, you should give yourself the full amount of time that the airport and airline suggest, to ensure that you are able to get potential issues like this sorted out with a physical agent, if needed.

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