Airline ticketing - Russian travel

[TomLena 0]

Elena and I have had the very recent tragedy of her mother passing away very suddenly. She has traveled to Russia late last week in order to be with her family and attend the funeral and pay her last respects.

Unfortunately, in our haste to book the last minute tickets, I didn't even think of potential travel issues related to her maiden vs. married name.

Long story short, she left here with the following:

1) Round trip e-ticket from Tampa to Moscow (via Washington D.C.) with her married name (United Airlines)

2) Round trip e-ticket from Moscow to Chelyabinsk with her married name (S7 Airlines)

3) Russian international passport with her maiden name, but a stamp issued by the Russian Embassy shortly after she renewed her passport stating her married name

4) Green card with her married name

5) Florida driver's license with her married name

She didn't really have any problems getting through check-in and TSA while here in the USA. She also was able to enter Russia on her Russian passport without any problem. In all situations, if anyone needed to compare the name on the passport with the ticket, she showed them the stamp and all was OK. The domestic airline (S7) balked that her passport didn't match her ticket name and didn't care that she had a stamp from the Russian Embassy in there, but the clerk may have been wrong. She didn't have a lot of time to haggle with them over it so I just had her exercise her ability to cancel the ticket for a 25% fee and get a new one issued with her maiden name.

The situation with S7 scared us. We're now worried that she might have issues returning. She didn't take our certified copy of our marriage license with her. I'm going to send her a PDF scan of it so she can print it, but that's about the best we can think to do unless they give her problems at the airport.

I'm hoping that someone has some personal experience in this matter and can give us good advise or information. When all is said and done, even if her return trip is allowable with the documentation she has, there's always a chance she runs into a fickle security agent who wants to make their own rules. I've run into this before, but luckily it was only over a 'duty free' purchased can of Red Bull that I ended up boarding with anyway by consuming it.

[jkelly07 120]

i don't think you will have any problems with green card, state driver license both shows the same name and address, it is a good idea to send her your marriage certificate,, just in case, her passport is in her maiden name,you have the poof,,, your good ,