john@rarebooksinjapan.com wrote:
> MonkeyBoy wrote:

> >I purchasted two "discount" airline tickets for a flight back to the
> >US.  At the time I reserved the tickets my wife's passport had her
> >maiden name on it, so that's the name that got used.  Well, you
> >probably know where this is going.  Her passport expired during the
> >interim and the new passport has her new surname on it.
> 
> If that was the name on her passport at the time the ticket was issued
> that was the right name to book the ticket in. That's what they asked
> for, wasn't it? Her name as it appeared in her passport at the time of
> booking? Some companies even want a fax or photocopy of the passport
> before taking the booking, and you can't give a photocopy of a passport
> that hasn't been issued yet.
> 
> Take the old passport with you when you go to check in. Take the
> documentation from the city hall proving she changed her name, for good
> measure. Get an embassy-stamped English translation of that document if
> it needs to be shown for your return from the US to Japan. I doubt very
> much that there'll be any fuss about this, and if there is tell them
> you'll take it to court. I'm pretty sure they'd lose if it came to
> that.

Your argument has merit, but the keyword in MonkeyBoy's post is  
"discount".