No need for fight na, But really english is our national language. I dont know why you're fighting with me instead of mr branson.

@poster
sorry to hearthat virgin are full of crap they have a lot of policies with those travelling to nigeria not listed on their website and i am currently in a complaint which will possibly lead to litigation against them as one of their guys over the phone has told me wrong information which ended costing me £64. i was travelling from manchester to london and then to lagos and the idiot told me to check in online and just pay £64 for additional 2luggages and then i wont have to pay anything again, only for me to get to the airport and was told i had to pay the £130 which would have been the normal cost and i already paid £64.

just forward a complaint to them and hopefully they will respond back but they might stu[pidly apologise and offer you AIRMILES as compensation instead of refunding you your money.

lol @ poster you got caught out, they say this money goes towards administrative charges, now did you pay in naira or pounds? anyway, just understand the terminology next time,know what first name and last name means, its same fru out the whole Airline industry, you pay to change your name however forward or backward as the case may be.Its a standard practice.

I wonder why some pple still fly virgin with all their inadequacies & uneccessary arrogance.Arik air is doing so much better alongside serving meals that won't nuseate you & ruin your journey.

cold:

I wonder why some pple still fly virgin with all their inadequacies & uneccessary arrogance.Arik air is doing so much better alongside serving meals that won't nuseate you & ruin your journey.

We cant all fly arik. otherwise, the demand/supply imbalance will push their fare up astronomically.

I recommend you lot read this as well:

http://www.saharareporters.com/letters/your-letters/5386-continued-deplorable-in-flight-services-of-virgin-atlantic-a-treatment-of-nigerians-on-the-lagos-london-route.html

Why do Nigerians have to pay for the incompetencies of these foreign companies?

I guess they believe we deal with it everyday from Nigerian companies and service providers so why bother to offer them better services.

Any serious business should know that Surname is the word for lastname in most countries with a British English tradition. Thought Virgin is a British company BTW.
Even Western Union, an American company, printed Surname on their Nigerian forms while the same form in the USA has Lastname.

Virgin Atlantic should be apologizing for not offering country specific services, rather,  they are charging Nigerians 30 pounds for their own error.  That is just plain wrong.

Kilode?!:

Why do Nigerians have to pay for the incompetencies of these foreign companies?

I guess they believe we deal with it everyday from Nigerian companies and service providers so why bother to offer them better services.

Any serious business should know that Surname is the word for lastname in most countries with a British English tradition. Thought Virgin is a British company BTW.
Even Western Union, an American company, printed Surname on their Nigerian forms while the same form in the USA has Lastname.

Virgin Atlantic should be apologizing for not offering country specific services, rather, they are charging Nigerians 30 pounds for their own error. That is just plain wrong.

I would suggest you re-read what OP wrote in his post, he had made a mistake by writing down his surname as first name and therfore had been chrged for a change of name,some airline like Luftanza migh cancel his ticket alltogether or rather if it was a a promotional ticket he would have lost his ticket as such ticket are non-changable or reundable,the issue is the ammount and the manner in which the go about these trapped charges are totaly rediculos

There is a difference between National and First language. I also havent come across many people that dont know Lastname = Surname but going by what the poster said about a long queue of people trying to change their names on thier ticket, there are a lot of people out there that dont know.

@ Poster,

If you had to pay £30 for your mistake, you were lucky.

Someone got deported from Amsterdam because the immigration officer did not believe the name was his. The name on the immigration computer was something like : Surname: Emeka First name : Eze

His passport showed Surname: Eze First name : Emeka. While in Nigeria, he simply did not check the name on the visa was same as that on his passport before leaving the embassy, only to get to Amsterdam and be deported back to Nigeria.

They are all scams!!

erico2k2:

I would suggest you re-read what OP wrote in his post, he had made a mistake by writing down his surname as first name and therfore had been chrged for a change of name,some airline like Luftanza migh cancel his ticket alltogether or rather if it was a a promotional ticket he would have lost his ticket as such ticket are non-changable or reundable,the issue is the ammount and the manner in which the go about these trapped charges are totaly rediculos

I did, OP said " on their website the indication is First name and last name. so why didnt they just say surname and other names"

Obviously, the OP is a Nigerian who read the online form and understood it as an average Nigerian will, so my comment up there stands.

Virgin Atlantic is wrong on this one, the proper convention in most British English speaking Countries is Surname and Given name or other name(check your Nigerian Passport) Lastname and firstname is an American Convention. Western Union understood that and provided for that on their forms like any serious, customer focused business/company should. Virgin did not.

Kilode?!:



I did, OP said " on their website the indication is First name and last name. so why didnt they just say surname and other names"

Obviously, the OP is a Nigerian who read the online form and understood it as an average Nigerian will, so my comment up there stands.

Virgin Atlantic is wrong on this one, the proper convention in most British English speaking Countries is Surname and Given name or other name(check your Nigerian Passport) Lastname and firstname is an American Convention. Western Union understood that and provided for that on their forms like any serious, customer focused business/company should. Virgin did not.

Dude you cannot be for real. The average nigerian *really* doesn't know that your surname is your last name which is your father's name? - You can't be serious.

We can talk about and condemn virgin atlantic's bad practices and not being customer oriented, etc., but please let's not encourage or make excuses for ignorance.

They are all scams!!

omo~fat:

Dude you cannot be for real. The average nigerian *really* doesn't know that your surname is your last name which is your father's name? - You can't be serious.

We can talk about and condemn virgin atlantic's bad practices and not being customer oriented, etc., but please let's not encourage or make excuses for ignorance.

Really? Nigeria is not a country that is serious about data and statistics, so I will offer a "guesstimation" based on what I believe is sensible. If you attended school in Nigeria, even if it's just Primary 1(grade 1) you will know that surname = your father's name, that is how we are taught based on the British English tradition used in Nigeria, that is what Nigerians expect to see on forms used in Nigeria, that should be a no brainer, if you attended school in Nigeria you will know.

So, that was prob. why the OP asked  "why didnt they just say surname" this has nothing to do with ignorance, you are expecting too much if you think Nigerians should know a convention that is foreign to theirs. Virgin should have done their homework like W/U did.

Lastname is not the  normal British English way of writing[b] Father's name[/b] and Virgin should know that. That long line of Nigerian travelers can't be that silly, ignorant and wrong. Virgin is the ignorant one here.

Kilode?!:

Really? Nigeria is not a country that is serious about data and statistics, so I will offer a "guesstimation" based on what I believe is sensible. If you attended school in Nigeria, even if it's just Primary 1(grade 1) you will know that surname = your father's name, that is how we are taught based on the British English tradition used in Nigeria, that is what Nigerians expect to see on forms used in Nigeria, that should be a no brainer, if you attended school in Nigeria you will know.

So, that was prob. why the OP asked "why didnt they just say surname" this has nothing to do with ignorance, you are expecting too much if you think Nigerians should know a convention that is foreign to theirs. Virgin should have done their homework like W/U did.

Lastname is not the normal British English way of writing[b] Father's name[/b] and Virgin should know that. That long line of Nigerian travelers can't be that silly, ignorant and wrong. Virgin is the ignorant one here.

man just check what you wrote up there, now if OP was flying Nigerian Airways or virgin nigeria then its all good, he was flying virgin atlantic,a british based airline, so what do you expect? and mainwhile they Uk sometimes use Surname as well as last name and in all of our bank Cards, first name comes first b4 last name, thats where and how its being derived, its not a form of international standard, its like we saying bank Holiday while in Nigeria its called public holiday.copy that?

erico2k2:

man just check what you wrote up there, now if OP was flying Nigerian Airways or virgin nigeria then its all good, he was flying virgin atlantic,a british based airline, so what do you expect? and mainwhile they Uk sometimes use Surname as well as last name and in all of our bank Cards, first name comes first b4 last name, thats where and how its being derived, its not a form of international standard, its like we saying bank Holiday while in Nigeria its called public holiday.copy that?

It seems we are both arriving at the same conclusion, but let me clarify with your example, If you are speaking to a bunch of Nigerian kids and you mentioned "tomorrow is a bank holiday" they will probably react with a hun?? and that will be understandable, but if you had said "tomorrow is a public holiday" I'm sure very few will be confused about what you mean, that is the difference as I understand it.

You and I know that lastname and surname means the same thing, but for a company like Virgin Atlantic they shouldn't have assumed that, then charge their customers 30pounds. It has nothing to do with the ignorance of customers, I can totally understand why that will be confusing. Virgin should have done their home work better, lastname is correct but surname would have been better and less confusing or better still, write one and place the other in parenthesis, I've seen this on forms before, a good company should have thought about that. Western Union did. Virgin did not.

nice talking to you though.

Kilode?!:

It seems we are both arriving at the same conclusion, but let me clarify with your example, If you are speaking to a bunch of Nigerian kids and you mentioned "tomorrow is a bank holiday" they will probably react with a hun?? and that will be understandable, but if you had said "tomorrow is a public holiday" I'm sure very few will be confused about what you mean, that is the difference as I understand it.

You and I know that lastname and surname means the same thing, but for a company like Virgin Atlantic they shouldn't have assumed that, then charge their customers 30pounds. It has nothing to do with the ignorance of customers, I can totally understand why that will be confusing. Virgin should have done their home work better, lastname is correct but surname would have been better and less confusing or better still, write one and place the other in parenthesis, I've seen this on forms before, a good company should have thought about that. Western Union did. Virgin did not.

nice talking to you though.

well true though, but I would like to think not until someone write a letter of suggestion to them, this urgly act would continue.

Kilode?!:

It seems we are both arriving at the same conclusion, but let me clarify with your example, If you are speaking to a bunch of Nigerian kids and you mentioned "tomorrow is a bank holiday" they will probably react with a hun?? and that will be understandable, but if you had said "tomorrow is a public holiday" I'm sure very few will be confused about what you mean, that is the difference as I understand it.

You and I know that lastname and surname means the same thing, but for a company like Virgin Atlantic they shouldn't have assumed that, then charge their customers 30pounds. It has nothing to do with the ignorance of customers, I can totally understand why that will be confusing. Virgin should have done their home work better, lastname is correct but surname would have been better and less confusing or better still, write one and place the other in parenthesis, I've seen this on forms before, a good company should have thought about that. Western Union did. Virgin did not.

nice talking to you though.

In order to maintain political correctness, the metropolitan police in england have been advised to stop asking for the "christian names" and "surnames" of members of the public. Rather, they've been advised to keep it at firstname and lastname.

Not sure what this has to do with virgin atlantic but it just seemed related

mute

they should be sanctioned 4 their mistake