Does your name get mis-spelled? Does your post (mail) go missing.
THE USA AND UK
After I returned to the UK from the USA, friends and businesses sent me mail addressed to London. They did not specify the UK. Some of my post was sent to London in Canada. I received invitation to events long past, 6 months later when I was in the UK.
Back in the UK the street names caused confusion.
I used to live in Hillview Rise. I received mail addressed to Hillview Ride and Millview Road.
Family Names
What about family names? I get Lansberry and Landsbury and Landsberry.
For Sharot I get Sharon and Sharrow.
First Names
And first names? For Angela I get Anglia and Angel.
At school I was called Hazel Nut and I dropped Hazel when I left school.
But now everybody insists on your correct name. When the dentist shouts Hazel it takes half a minute before I realised they are calling me.
That was just the problems I encountered in the UK.
I remember several occasions when I was told the hotel did not have my reservation or airline booking.
EUROPE - France
France The first time was years ago in Lille in France. Four of us arrived at a hotel in Lille. We arrived by car from the UK, hoping to check into our rooms, shower and change into smart clothes, and drive across town to a reception held by the tourist board.
The hotel had no reservation for any of our four names. We tried calling the French tourist board office. We got an answering machine message in French. I eventually managed to translate, with the help of the receptionist, that the office was closed for an event and they would return next week.
I asked (in French), do you have a vacant room, where we can leave our bags and use a shower and change our clothes. Look, Our reservation says we have rooms here.
The girl on reception said they were fully booked. But somebody had not yet turned up. I asked, how far are they travelling from? We got the last ferry. Maybe they are not coming. Who booked those rooms.
She told us, the rooms are booked by the French tourist board.
I gasped, "Those bookings must be for us!' Four rooms and four of us. They have booked in their name instead of ours."
She still seemed doubtful.
We showed her that we were going to an evening dinner organized by the French Tourist board. If the rooms were for anybody else, we would either swap rooms or go to the other hotel.
Now I know when rooms are booked for me by anybody else, to ask for the name of the person doing the booking, and to have a letter saying the name of the person booking and the name of the person occupying the room. Plus of course the phone number out of hours to contact if there is any problem with the hotel booking, or we are delayed on our travels and need to cancel the room.
ASIA
In Asia the family name comes first, followed by the two personal names. Common family names include Lee and Lim. So minister Lee Kuan Yew, the family name is Lee. You say the three one-syllable names together, as if it were written Lee-kuan-yew or Lee, Kuan-yew. think of the way in an old English boarding school a boy would be called Smith rather than John, and taking the class register the master would call two brothers: Smith, John or to match the three syllables used in Chinese, Smith, Johnny, and Smith, Peter.
As a result, in Asia, a Western woman whose name is Andrea, and whose husband is John Smith, might find herself address as Mrs John. That is at first disconcerting, later amusing. However, it can lead to confusion when it comes to hotel reservations and air tickets.
We have several time been told that we don't have any booking in our name for a restaurant or attraction, or a hotel or air ticket. If this happens to you, ask to see the list. If they will not permit this, because they are suspicious of your intentions, or afraid of violating data protection, try to read the list upside down.
Or ask them to look for both your first name and last name separately. A change in spelling can make things worse. It helps if you know which date and time you made the booking. For example, John Smith may make a restaurant booking, but there is nothing under Smith. Nothing under John either.
However, looking at the list, you see a booking for two people, made by a Mr Smith Joan. This might be the answer to the problem, especially of Joan has not arrived and has the same phone number as John Smith.
Useful Websites
Singapore Airlines
singaporeair.com
About the author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker
THE USA AND UK
After I returned to the UK from the USA, friends and businesses sent me mail addressed to London. They did not specify the UK. Some of my post was sent to London in Canada. I received invitation to events long past, 6 months later when I was in the UK.
Back in the UK the street names caused confusion.
I used to live in Hillview Rise. I received mail addressed to Hillview Ride and Millview Road.
Family Names
What about family names? I get Lansberry and Landsbury and Landsberry.
For Sharot I get Sharon and Sharrow.
First Names
And first names? For Angela I get Anglia and Angel.
At school I was called Hazel Nut and I dropped Hazel when I left school.
But now everybody insists on your correct name. When the dentist shouts Hazel it takes half a minute before I realised they are calling me.
That was just the problems I encountered in the UK.
I remember several occasions when I was told the hotel did not have my reservation or airline booking.
EUROPE - France
France The first time was years ago in Lille in France. Four of us arrived at a hotel in Lille. We arrived by car from the UK, hoping to check into our rooms, shower and change into smart clothes, and drive across town to a reception held by the tourist board.
The hotel had no reservation for any of our four names. We tried calling the French tourist board office. We got an answering machine message in French. I eventually managed to translate, with the help of the receptionist, that the office was closed for an event and they would return next week.
I asked (in French), do you have a vacant room, where we can leave our bags and use a shower and change our clothes. Look, Our reservation says we have rooms here.
The girl on reception said they were fully booked. But somebody had not yet turned up. I asked, how far are they travelling from? We got the last ferry. Maybe they are not coming. Who booked those rooms.
She told us, the rooms are booked by the French tourist board.
I gasped, "Those bookings must be for us!' Four rooms and four of us. They have booked in their name instead of ours."
She still seemed doubtful.
We showed her that we were going to an evening dinner organized by the French Tourist board. If the rooms were for anybody else, we would either swap rooms or go to the other hotel.
Now I know when rooms are booked for me by anybody else, to ask for the name of the person doing the booking, and to have a letter saying the name of the person booking and the name of the person occupying the room. Plus of course the phone number out of hours to contact if there is any problem with the hotel booking, or we are delayed on our travels and need to cancel the room.
ASIA
In Asia the family name comes first, followed by the two personal names. Common family names include Lee and Lim. So minister Lee Kuan Yew, the family name is Lee. You say the three one-syllable names together, as if it were written Lee-kuan-yew or Lee, Kuan-yew. think of the way in an old English boarding school a boy would be called Smith rather than John, and taking the class register the master would call two brothers: Smith, John or to match the three syllables used in Chinese, Smith, Johnny, and Smith, Peter.
As a result, in Asia, a Western woman whose name is Andrea, and whose husband is John Smith, might find herself address as Mrs John. That is at first disconcerting, later amusing. However, it can lead to confusion when it comes to hotel reservations and air tickets.
We have several time been told that we don't have any booking in our name for a restaurant or attraction, or a hotel or air ticket. If this happens to you, ask to see the list. If they will not permit this, because they are suspicious of your intentions, or afraid of violating data protection, try to read the list upside down.
Or ask them to look for both your first name and last name separately. A change in spelling can make things worse. It helps if you know which date and time you made the booking. For example, John Smith may make a restaurant booking, but there is nothing under Smith. Nothing under John either.
However, looking at the list, you see a booking for two people, made by a Mr Smith Joan. This might be the answer to the problem, especially of Joan has not arrived and has the same phone number as John Smith.
Useful Websites
Singapore Airlines
singaporeair.com
About the author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker
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