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There is already a great answer about travelling with two passports. What happens if the spelling in the passports is slightly different (due to alphabet transliteration into English?)

Let say a person has citizenship from countries A and B. That person buys round trip ticket from A to B and back to A.

In theory that person should show the B passport when flying to country B and show the A passport when flying to A. This means the airline ticket spelling will mismatch one of the passports

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Vitalik
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  • How different are the spellings? – John Zwinck Jan 22 '15 at 01:03
  • first name Vitaliy vs Vitaly – Vitalik Jan 22 '15 at 02:02
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    I think most people would be quite capable of believing those names are actually the same. I wouldn't worry about it too much. – John Zwinck Jan 22 '15 at 02:15
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    Is the passport photo in each passport "essentially the same?" As in, are you a balding, bearded, white guy in one and full of hair, clean shaven with a visible scar in the second? If both photos are similar and similar to you, and you can show other identification as well (driver's license, etc), explaining that the name was messed up due to Cyrillic letter translation will be understood and ignored. – CGCampbell Jan 22 '15 at 18:12
  • Names are similar and pictures are similar, what i wonder is if airline agents and TSA are always understandable and reasonable. – Vitalik Jan 22 '15 at 20:04
  • Please offer more specifics. It seems too hypothetical and open-ended to answer in right now. Generally you only need your passport to match your boarding pass while boarding, and for that purpose, which passport you use is often (usually? always?) irrelevant, as they're just trying to authenticate who you are, not prove your citizenship, etc. When entering a country, you may or may not be required to present a particular passport, but at that point, whether it matches your boarding pass is usually (always?) irrelevant. So when would this situation actually come up? Be specific. – Flimzy Jan 22 '15 at 20:52
  • So the question is then NOT - "what happens if two passports have different spelling" but more "what happens if the passport doesn't match the ticket", correct? – Mark Mayo Jan 23 '15 at 02:45
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    @MarkMayo "What happens if the passport doesn't match the ticket, but I also have another passport that does match but doesn't grant the permission to enter the destination country" – Vitalik Jan 23 '15 at 14:48
  • May be up to the staff. I'm not sure, otherwise I'd answer :) – Mark Mayo Jan 23 '15 at 14:49
  • I do this all the time, and have never had any issues. However, I did obtain a notarized letter from my birth country's consulate in the US, confirming that the two versions of the spelling are in fact of the same name. I have only had to show it once in about 25 trips. – user79729 Jan 18 '19 at 12:35

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Presented both passports at check-in and was denied boarding because of different spelling in the passport. True story. Had to buy another ticket. After some hassle fixed the spelling issue.

Mike
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  • Did either of the passports match the name on the ticket? – phoog Jan 17 '19 at 20:13
  • Yes, of course, I was flying from London to Moscow. Ticket was in the name of my US passport, Russian passport which they checked for entry requirements had a different spelling so they denied boarding. The company was BMI airlines, bankrupt now, deservedly so IMHO. I had to buy another ticket and fly with British Airways later that evening. – Mike Jan 17 '19 at 20:23
  • And of course I have made the argument above that they can verify BOTH my identity and the fact that I will be let into the destination country. They just didn't care. So basically you're at the mercy of some random airline person. I've later heard that you're ok as long as your name(s) in different passports is within 1-2 characters difference, but I don't know whether that's a policy or just a rule of thumb that airlines can apply or ignore. – Mike Jan 17 '19 at 20:28
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The airline needs to check your passport for two purposes:

  1. To positively identify you to ensure that your name matches the booking;
  2. To ensure that you have the proper documentation to enter the destination country.

It sounds like in your case, you may need to show both passports to the airline on checkin. One passport will satisfy the identification requirement; the other will satisfy the arrival requirement.

Today it is not unusual to have more than one passport. The airline should be fine with this.

Greg Hewgill
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