I Booked a Flight but Made a Mistake, Now What?

— -- If you’re the designated family travel agent like I am, I’ll bet you recognize that sinking feeling you get when you make all the arrangements only to find yourself saying, “Oops, I goofed!” (Or maybe something a lot more colorful.)

We’ve all been there.

Unfortunately today’s airlines aren’t very forgiving. They charge expensive change fees when we make mistakes and make us jump through other hoops.

What to do? Here are a few ways to mitigate certain errors.

1. If you put down the wrong travel dates...

What you can do: Review any booking before you ding your credit card, then review it again within the next 24 hours. If you find an error within that timeframe, you can make the necessary changes for no charge. If you wait until later, you will pay up to $200 for domestic flight changes and up to $400 for international. The lone exception: Southwest has no change fee whatsoever.

If you don’t discover your error until after 24 hours have passed: You will have to pay the change fee and the price difference of a new ticket (and it’s usually higher). Before you do this, though, do the math; it could be cheaper to eat your ticket, thus avoiding the additional outlay, if you find another airline with a much better price. If you can’t find a better deal, you’re stuck with re-doing your ticket and paying the fees. Again, review all trip details carefully.

2. If you make a mistake in the passenger name...

What you can do: If you discover this error within 24 hours, make the change.

If you discover it later: If it’s something minor such as including (or omitting) a middle name or initial and comes close to matching the name on the ID you’ll present at security, it’s probably no big deal. The TSA is usually pretty cool about this and in most cases, will only require a brief interview with a TSA officer at the security checkpoint and that’ll be that. However, if the name you put down is completely different, move on to No. 3.

3. If you booked for the wrong person...

What you can do: Airline tickets aren’t like movie or concert tickets; you can’t pass them out to anyone. They can only be used by the person whose name appears as the traveler. If that’s not you, either detect the error early on or go through the scenario in No. 1.

4. If you booked booked, then saw a cheaper deal...

What you can do: If your reservation is on Southwest and you find a lower fare on that airline, you get a credit for the difference, good for future travel. If you purchased the cheapest deal on another airline such as Delta’s Basic Economy your ticket is non-refundable (and more and more of the cheapest tickets on all airlines are non-refundable). If your ticket is refundable, contact the airline.

5. As a last resort...

Never be afraid to ask. Sometimes, throwing yourself on the mercy of an airline rep actually works because some of these folks have wide discretion when it comes to handling problems, especially those who work for larger carriers. I’ve personally heard of cases where change fees were waived but in all honestly, this is extremely rare. Give it a try, as long as you know there are no guarantees. Some guidelines:

- Keep your story short: Don’t embellish, just give the facts and admit you’re at fault.

- Do not get angry: The airline rep didn’t make the mistake and may be disinclined to help a nasty caller.

- Mention membership: If you are a miles member, mention this, especially if you have elite status. If your status gives you access to a special hotline number, use that to contact the airline.

- Twitter: Many airlines have designated staff who monitor tweets and respond to problems on social media. Give this a shot.

One last thing: More and more of us are booking flights on phones and those little keyboards can be difficult for some, so reviewing reservations is more important that ever.

Rick Seaney is the CEO of FareCompare, a website that curates the best deals on flights from around the world. Any opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author.