Malaysia Airlines, Air Asia Update Name Rules – Here’s What You Need to Know

The updated system particularly benefits Southeast Asian passengers whose names don’t conform to the Western naming convention, making the booking process more straightforward and reducing potential check-in complications.

Fernando Fong

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Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia have just dropped new guidelines on how to fill in your name when booking flights, and it’s actually pretty important if you want to avoid headaches at the airport.

What’s changed?

The biggest shake-up is for folks with Christian names (Western-style names) on Malaysian passports.

For example, if your passport reads “Vincent Tan Ming Ban,” the system now handles it differently than before.

Key points for Malaysia Airlines:

Your name must match exactly how it appears in your passport’s MRZ (that machine-readable zone at the bottom)
They’ve included clear examples for various name formats, including traditional Malaysian names with “Bin/Binti” and “Anak”

AirAsia’s simple breakdown:

They’ve made it super clear with a “Given Name” vs “Family Name” split
Works for all kinds of names: Malaysian, Indian, Chinese, Filipino, Thai, and Vietnamese formats

Impact On Existing and Future Bookings

The good news is, if you’ve already booked your flights with Malaysia Airlines, you can breathe easy – the airline has confirmed that existing bookings won’t be affected by these new name guidelines.

Your travel plans are safe, so there’s no need to worry about any last-minute changes or rebooking hassles.

The key is just making sure you get it right for any new bookings moving forward.

Take an extra minute to check your passport and match it exactly with their format – it’ll save you hours of stress later at the check-in counter.

These new guidelines are actually making things clearer, especially for Southeast Asian names that don’t follow the Western first name/last name format.

When in doubt, just follow their examples—they’ve laid it out clearly for every type of name structure.

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