Sri Lankan student Jennifer Abegoonewardene told BBC Sinhala service that she booked a holiday to Cyprus a few weeks ago –together with a friend –through ebookers.com.
But she received an email and a call from the company after few days saying there was an issue related to her booking.
“They told me my surname was too long and forced me to cancel the booking. I was astonished; I have travelled to many countries before and this is the first time this happened to me,” Ms. Abegoonewardene told BBC Sandeshaya.
'Human rights violation'
The student says the company's decision is a violation of her human rights.
A spokesperson for ebookers.com told the BBC that the company apologises "for being unable to assist" her and "for any inconvenience caused.”
"ebookers was unable to process Miss Abeygoonewardana's booking as her name does not fit within the maximum 25 characters stipulated by Turkish Airlines for the 'name' field," the online company said in an email statement.
"We can confirm that each airline has a maximum number of characters it allows to be inputted into the ‘name’ field and this varies from carrier to carrier. These are passed onto the Global Distribution System used by travel agents," it added.
But Ms. Abeygoonewardene says she was told by the Turkish Airline that the decision was taken by the ebookers, not by the airline.
The company has made a full refund but the student says she wanted to visit Cyprus as scheduled, not her money back.
But she received an email and a call from the company after few days saying there was an issue related to her booking.
“They told me my surname was too long and forced me to cancel the booking. I was astonished; I have travelled to many countries before and this is the first time this happened to me,” Ms. Abegoonewardene told BBC Sandeshaya.
'Human rights violation'
The student says the company's decision is a violation of her human rights.
A spokesperson for ebookers.com told the BBC that the company apologises "for being unable to assist" her and "for any inconvenience caused.”
"ebookers was unable to process Miss Abeygoonewardana's booking as her name does not fit within the maximum 25 characters stipulated by Turkish Airlines for the 'name' field," the online company said in an email statement.
"We can confirm that each airline has a maximum number of characters it allows to be inputted into the ‘name’ field and this varies from carrier to carrier. These are passed onto the Global Distribution System used by travel agents," it added.
But Ms. Abeygoonewardene says she was told by the Turkish Airline that the decision was taken by the ebookers, not by the airline.
The company has made a full refund but the student says she wanted to visit Cyprus as scheduled, not her money back.
