If my customer's name is spelled wrong on a flight booking, can I correct it in the system or do I have to cancel the ticket?

Yes, in many cases a spelling correction can be requested through the system without cancelling, but whether it actually goes through is the airline's decision, not ours. Each airline has its own name correction policy, so the same mistake can be a simple free fix with one carrier and a full reissue with another.

In practice, how you handle it depends on when you spot the error. If the booking is still held and the ticket has not been issued yet, correcting the passenger details is usually straightforward because nothing has been filed with the airline as a final ticket. Once the ticket is issued, the correction has to be raised against the booking as a change request, and that request is passed on to the airline or the supplier behind that fare. Some airlines allow minor corrections such as a missing letter, a swapped first and middle name, or a surname and given name in the wrong order. Others treat any change to the name as a new ticket.

There are real limits worth knowing. A name change to a completely different traveller is almost never permitted, because the ticket belongs to the person named on it. Low cost carriers often handle corrections as a paid reissue, and some fares have to be cancelled and rebooked at whatever fare is available on the day, which may be higher than the original. Not every supplier exposes an automatic correction option through the API, so in those cases it becomes a manual request and the turnaround depends on the airline.

Spot the mistake as early as you can, raise it the same day, and get into the habit of checking every name against the passport before you issue, since that is far cheaper than any correction.