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What should you do when you are buying a ticket for someone with only one name (i.e. no family name, last name, or surname)? Some airlines tell you to use an honorific like "MR" or "MS" in place of the first name, but visas are generally issued to First Name Unknown, "FNU".

Toivo Säwén
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  • Comments have been moved to chat; please do not continue the discussion here. Before posting a comment below this one, please review the purposes of comments. Comments that do not request clarification or suggest improvements usually belong as an answer, on [meta], or in [chat]. Comments continuing discussion may be removed. – Willeke Sep 29 '23 at 15:12

1 Answers1

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The 2023-2024 Airline Industry Reservations Interline Message Procedures (archive link) issued by the IATA specify that you should write your passenger's name as the last name and use "FNU" (standing for “First Name Unknown”) in place of the first name. It also states that honorifics are no longer part of the official standard. (This is good, because honorifics have caused problems.)

As mentioned in this past question, your travel is at the mercy of both the airline and the immigration service of the destination country, so it may help to check with both. While my airline told me via email that they prefer an honorific, they acknowledged that the IATA ruling supersedes it. Other airlines might demand an honorific, as silly as that sounds...

Robin Whittleton
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    The whole issue of honorifics galls me. It's almost impossible to fill in a form in the UK without them (and the acceptable list has a tendency to include Lord, Sir, …) – Auspex Sep 28 '23 at 15:21
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    @Auspex You find you can't leave it blank? It's a required field? –  Sep 28 '23 at 18:26
  • @Auspex: can you choose freely the honorific? Are there consequences to choosing "Lord" when you are not one? – WoJ Sep 29 '23 at 06:46
  • @WoJ the HMS Passport Office will just put a note that you're using self-styled or presumed titles https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/titles-included-in-passports/titles-accessible – Martheen Sep 29 '23 at 08:48
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    @Asupex: many years ago the company I worked for developed a web browser. The British Airways website broke an early version because we couldn't handle the size of their honorifics dropdown list. It included "His Holiness". – Steve Jessop Sep 29 '23 at 19:21
  • Where does this use of 'honorifics' come from, please? I don't recall ever seeing 'honorific' used in any booking form, on-line or paper.

    'Title' often but 'honorific' never.

    If you're suggesting 'Honorific means title' why not simply stick with 'title'?

     – Robbie Goodwin Sep 29 '23 at 21:44
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    @RobbieGoodwin, because the term honorific is the right one, title is too narrow in its use. – Willeke Sep 30 '23 at 00:49
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    @RobbieGoodwin, "honorific" is the proper term for words and phrases such as "Mister", "Reverend", "Her Majesty". They are about how a person is addressed. "Title", on the other hand, is about role, position, or achievement: "Sultan of Outer Petrolia", "Scientific Computing Engineer", "Doctor of Veterinary Medicine". There is a connection between these, and a little overlap, but they are not the same thing. As for why forms you've seen have consistently used the wrong word, I can only speculate that those who created them didn't know the right one or didn't care. – John Bollinger Sep 30 '23 at 14:44
  • @WoJ You generally can freely choose the honorific, but if you're using it for something like a billing address for a credit card, it's going to need to match the one they have on file. Or for a plane ticket, it will have to match the one on your passport. And it's the UK—I expect there are potential legal consequences to calling yourself "Lord", though there was a musician/politician calling himself Screaming Lord Sutch who got away with it. – Auspex Sep 30 '23 at 15:56
  • @Auspex And you can't just leave it blank like in the US? I'm confused – Radvylf Programs Sep 30 '23 at 16:12
  • @JohnBollinger; @Willeke Thanks and while I'll be happy to explain to you anything you want to know about the differences and similarities between 'honorifics' and 'titles' that isn't relevant.

    I Asked where does 'this use' of honorifics comes from and my only interest is in 'this use.'

    That's because I have never seen 'honorific' used in any booking form, on-line or on paper for planes or trains, automobiles or ships.

    Can you cite any instance?

     – Robbie Goodwin Sep 30 '23 at 22:11
  • @RobbieGoodwin, you're the only one who said anything about the word "honorific" appearing (or not) on any form. The question is about a practice of and policy of entering honorifics into forms in place of a first name. The only relevant "this use" of the word is the present Q&A. – John Bollinger Oct 01 '23 at 00:03
  • Thanks for making that clear, particularly in an international forum. – Robbie Goodwin Oct 01 '23 at 12:18
  • @RadvylfPrograms No, I've never found a form on a UK site that would let me ignore the honorific! Of course, on paper forms you could, but there's good odds that someone would return it and say you hadn't completed it. – Auspex Oct 02 '23 at 12:15
  • Makes me remember this dropdown I saw when registering a website once... – Luke Sawczak Oct 15 '23 at 13:04