A Hamilton-based woman says she was blocked from boarding a flight to Turkey to see her family due to what she has called a "glitch" in the system.
Nasim Saeidi, who is originally from Iran, went to Auckland Airport on New Year's Eve to embark on an early morning flight where she planned to rendezvous with her family, who were flying from Tehran.
She was unable to return home due to the ongoing social unrest in Iran and has been separated from her family – including her father, who had been in a coma – due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Saeidi said she was unable to go through the airport check-in due to a naming error on her ticket - her first and last name were the wrong way round.
She had made the flight booking through the online travel agency Trip.com on Turkish Airlines and was told by staff to contact them.
"I was stuck on hold for hours and missed my flight because I couldn’t check in," she said.
Saeidi is now stuck in New Zealand after neither of the companies were able to help her.
She said Travel.com were investigating the error and would get back to her, but has not heard from them in three days.
She believes that a glitch in the system could have caused the name swap after she updated her Travel.com account with a new passport.
Before the update, all emails from the company addressed her by her first name; after the update, they used her surname.
"This is just really frustrating," she said.
"I have already booked hotels in Turkey and have 10 people waiting for me, and I still haven't heard anything.
"I haven't seen my family in five years due to the Covid situation, and I couldn’t see my dad, who was sick and in a coma for more than a month."
Saeidi is waiting on an investigation by Trip.com to conclude, which will determine whether the mix-up was a glitch or due to human error.
"I don't understand why they are investigating; I showed them emails with my first name in it, and their customer service believe it was a glitch," she said.
1News reached out to Trip.com, who said that "all relevant departments are investigating the situation".
They said that the reason for the long investigation was to ensure that it was thorough so they could get to the bottom of what happened.
However, they did say that if the error was their fault, "we take full responsibility".
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