I've seen that forever and not just on United. I have thought it's something about the underlying SABRE system that many airlines use. Maybe someone here knows more.
> I've seen that forever and not just on United. I have thought it's something about the underlying SABRE system that many airlines use. Maybe someone here knows more.
I don't remember the precise details, but some airline website's password had restrictions at one point that made it super-obvious that they were internally converting alphanumeric passwords to digits based on the US telephone key mapping.
I remember thinking at the time it might ultimately have been due to SABRE (because I believe that's literally one of the oldest computer system still in use), and screen-scraping some telephone menu system depressingly seems like something someone would do for expediency.
I wouldn't be surprised if a system like that also mangles names.
> Usernames and passwords containing letters need to be translated to numbers to enter them in a Fidelity phone system (like FAST, or if you call a representative). Use your telephone keypad to convert the letters to numbers. There is no case sensitivity. Substitute an asterisk (*) for all special characters.
https://www.fidelity.com/customer-service/need-help-logging-...
I can tell you from personal experience that if you have four names it will turn "First Second Third Last" into "Firstsecondthird Last" (I usually fly Delta).
I asked a checkin agent to fix it but they said it will start rejecting my ID if they change it at all.
On British airways (and I believe other ticket systems that use Amadeus), I often get LastnameTitleFirstnameSecondname all as one word (in caps). It certainly looks funny on the boarding pass, but I've never had any issue getting through security.
