“Ex Husband Update” — Man Gets Wife’s Birthday Wrong on Plane Ticket, She’s Left at Airport

A woman's husband ended up getting on a flight without her because when he booked their airline tickets, he got her birthday wrong.

Jaime Wystub (@jaimewystub) uploaded a viral TikTok that's accrued 1.9 million views where she puts her significant other on blast for the mistake.

As a result, she was left at the airport while her husband went on his way to their destination.

"At the airport, guess where my husband is?" she says, before flipping around the orientation of her phone to reveal a shot of an airplane on the tarmac.

She is inside the airport, while her hubby has already boarded the flight they were supposed to get on together.

"He's on that flight. Guess where I'm not? Ask me why not. He got my birthday wrong."

Whenever you're booking travel accommodations with airlines, the birthdates of passengers must match your identification documentation.

These checks are done for security purposes to ensure that the people who are booked on flights are the same ones at the airport and getting on the plane.

Afar magazine discusses this phenomenon at length in a piece delineating traveling protocols.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA), according to the outlet, takes the ticket and identification matching very seriously. So seriously, in fact, that name abbreviations are also cause for not letting someone board a flight.

For example, let's say the name on your driver's license is Michael Smith, but you book your airline ticket under the name Mike Smith. Since that's technically not the exact same name listed on your identification, then that means a TSA agent may not let you go through security to board your flight.

Even misspellings, or errors, will also give you a hard time. Afar writes:

"According to the Transportation Security Administration, the name on your booking must match the name on your passport or driver’s license. Inverting some letters or putting an abbreviated version of your name (such as Mike instead of Michael) won’t fly with the TSA and airline security protocols."

The outlet continued: "They [the TSA] need to ensure that the person boarding the plane is the same person who has the ticket and that they’re not on a no-fly list. Similarly, immigration authorities need to ascertain that travelers are correctly identified, and matching names help facilitate this process, reducing the risk of accidental illegal entry or exit."

So what's a person to do if they realize that the name on their ticket doesn't match exactly what's on their identification? The magazine offers up a few solutions. The first is that prior to the flight, they simply should contact the airline and let them know of the error and that the name and all other data, like their birthday, match the information on their identification.

There's also another, potentially faster way of fixing this problem. Pretty much all airlines allow folks to cancel the tickets that they booked within 24 hours of purchase. So let's say you bought a plane ticket and received your confirmation email. However, you noticed that your passenger information on this email doesn't match your ID.

If you don't want to wait in a long call line queue or hope that someone who isn't a chatbot addresses your message in a timely fashion. you could simply cancel your ticket. Then, hop back online to re-book that ticket and make sure you punch in the correct information.

But if you notice the issue when you're already at the airport, then you just have to hope you have enough time to get the problem fixed before you go through security and board your flight. In instances like these, maybe you should adopt a "dad" mentality" and make sure you're at the airport at what seems like a ridiculously early time.

It should be noted, however, that there could be some financial implications of these changes. Conde Nast Traveler writes that airlines may charge anywhere from $125 to $500 for a name change on a ticket, which isn't really the way anyone wants to start off a trip.

Several TikTokers who responded to Jaime's video voiced their support of the woman and her condemnation of her husband in this scenario. One person joked: "I hope there’s an ex-husband update!"

Another penned: "I fear I would be the husband in this situation."

Someone else wrote that they wouldn't trust their better half to be responsible for travel. "Are we letting spouses book flights? When did this happen? Next we’ll be giving my children their birth certificates and passports … no thank you."

And it seems others have had this issue as well: "My husband entered my maiden name on my reservation one time. I literally have the same last name as him and he put my maiden name."