Ryanair Name Change Cost: Fees, Free Fixes and How It Works
I once spent forty minutes on hold to Ryanair because I’d typed “Phillip” instead of “Philip” on a mate’s booking. Forty minutes, three menu loops, and the answer turned out to be a two-minute fix I could have done myself in Manage My Booking, for free, if I’d caught it within 48 hours of paying. I hadn’t, so he paid the standard Ryanair name change cost instead: £115 for one letter.
That’s the number most people searching for this actually want: a full Ryanair name change costs £115 per passenger if you do it yourself online, or £160 if you have to go through the contact centre or an airport desk. Two genuinely free fixes exist underneath that, and most people never find out about them until it’s too late. Here’s exactly how the whole system works, and how to make sure you’re not the one paying £115 for a typo.
For everything else Ryanair charges for, see the Ryanair fees complete list. This post is only about the name field.
Ryanair name change cost at a glance
| Change | Cost | Deadline |
|---|---|---|
| Swap first/last name order (data entry error) | Free, once per passenger | Within 48 hours of booking |
| Correct up to 3 characters in a name | Free, once per name | Up to 48 hours before departure |
| Full name change or correction, done online | £115 per passenger | Up to 24 hours before departure |
| Full name change or correction, via contact centre or airport | £160 per passenger | Up to 2 hours before departure |
Two separate free allowances exist, and they run on different clocks: one measured from when you booked, the other from when you fly. Mix them up and you’ll assume you’re covered when you’re not.
Ryanair name change for a spelling mistake: what’s free and what isn’t
Swapping the name order (you booked “Smith John” instead of “John Smith”) is free, but only once per passenger, and only within 48 hours of making the original booking. Miss that window and the same swap becomes a paid name change.
Fixing a spelling mistake of up to three characters in either name is also free, once per name. This one runs on a different clock though: you have until 48 hours before the flight, not 48 hours after booking. A missing accent, a doubled letter, a single wrong character (Smyth instead of Smith) all fall under this. Change a fourth character, or fix more than one typo in the same name, and it stops being free.
Both allowances are self-service through Manage My Booking. Neither needs a phone call, and calling in for something that already qualifies as free won’t get you a better outcome. It’ll just cost you the hold time.
Anything bigger than a three-character fix (a properly wrong name, a legal change from marriage, or a correction that’s more than a typo) falls outside both free allowances and goes through the paid process instead.
Ryanair name change policy: what you can actually change
Ryanair’s policy is more permissive than most airlines on one point: the paid name change can move a booking to a completely different passenger, not just correct a typo on the same person. If a friend can’t travel and someone else is taking the seat instead, that’s handled as a name change on the existing booking rather than a cancellation and a fresh purchase, provided it happens before the flight departs and the fee gets paid. This only works while the original flight is still upcoming. Once a flight in a return booking has already flown, the name on the remaining sector generally can’t be touched.
It’s worth knowing this exists, because a lot of people assume, reasonably, based on how most airlines behave, that a non-refundable ticket is stuck with the original name no matter what. On Ryanair, paying £115-£160 to swap the traveller entirely is usually far cheaper than eating the cost of the original booking and buying a fresh one at whatever the route happens to be selling for that day.
A married or divorced name change is the one real exception to all of this, and it’s more generous than either free allowance. Contact Ryanair via live chat with a copy of your marriage certificate or deed poll before you travel, and they’ll update the booking for free: no £115/£160 fee, no 48-hour deadline to race against. It only covers a legal change backed by paperwork though. A name that’s simply wrong on the booking, with no marriage or deed poll involved, still goes through the standard paid process.
How to change a name on a Ryanair booking
There are three routes, and the one you pick decides what you pay. In order of cost, from cheapest to most expensive:
- Manage My Booking, self-service. Log in, pull up the booking, and edit passenger details directly. This is the £115 tier and the only way to hit that price.
- Live chat, via the Ryanair app or website help section. Available for name changes but typically routes you to the same online process rather than doing it for you at the lower price.
- Contact centre or airport desk. This is the £160 tier: an agent makes the change on your behalf instead of you doing it yourself in Manage My Booking.
Since it’s a per-passenger fee, changing three names on a shared booking means three separate charges, not one flat fee for the booking.
Ryanair name change contact number
There’s no dedicated Ryanair name change contact number. No separate line rings a name-change team, and Ryanair publishes country-specific customer service numbers rather than one central UK line, so the right one depends on where you booked from. Check the list on Ryanair’s help centre rather than trusting a number copied off a forum. Live chat through the app is usually quicker than the phone anyway, and anything that already qualifies as a free correction can be done in Manage My Booking without contacting anyone at all. One thing to remember before you dial: letting an agent make the change is exactly what pushes the fee from £115 to £160.
Ryanair name change after check-in
If you’ve already checked in and then spot the mistake, you can’t edit the name on top of a completed check-in. Ryanair needs you checked out of the flight first. Contact Ryanair to have the check-in reversed, then make the change through Manage My Booking (or the contact centre, if you’re past the online deadline) as normal. The same £115/£160 pricing and the same departure-time cutoffs apply once you’re back to an unchecked-in booking. Checking in first doesn’t add a separate fee. It just adds a step you have to undo before the name field is editable again.
How to avoid paying the Ryanair name change fee at all
Check every passenger name against their passport the moment the booking confirmation email lands, not the night before you fly. That’s the single biggest thing separating a free 48-hour fix from a £115 charge.
If you do catch a data-entry error, whether that’s the wrong order or an obvious typo, check which free allowance covers it and use it inside the deadline. A name-order swap needs to happen inside 48 hours of booking. A spelling correction has until 48 hours before departure, which gives you far more breathing room if you catch it later.
Book directly through ryanair.com or the app rather than a third-party travel site when you can. Third-party bookings route name changes through their own customer service first, which usually adds time, and sometimes cost, on top of Ryanair’s own fee.
If the change is down to marriage or divorce rather than a booking error, don’t pay the fee at all. Contact Ryanair via live chat with your marriage certificate or deed poll and ask for the free update. It’s the single best way to dodge £115-£160 on this list, and most people never ask because they assume every name change costs money.
Ryanair name change FAQ
How much does a Ryanair name change cost?
£115 per passenger if you do it yourself online through Manage My Booking, or £160 if it’s done through the contact centre or at an airport desk.
Is there a Ryanair name change contact number?
Not a dedicated one. Name changes go through the same customer service channels as any other booking query: Manage My Booking for self-service, live chat via the app, or the general contact centre for anything you can’t finish online.
Can I fix a spelling mistake on Ryanair for free?
Yes, up to three characters in a name, once, free of charge, as long as you do it at least 48 hours before departure. Bigger corrections are treated as a paid name change.
Can I change a name on Ryanair after check-in?
Not directly. Contact Ryanair to reverse the check-in first, then make the change through Manage My Booking or the contact centre. The usual £115/£160 fee and departure-time deadlines still apply.
Is a married-name change free on Ryanair?
Yes, and it’s the one exception to the fee. Contact Ryanair via live chat with a copy of your marriage certificate or deed poll before you travel, and they’ll update the name on your booking without charging the usual £115/£160.
Can I transfer my Ryanair ticket to someone else?
Yes. Ryanair allows a paid name change to move a booking to a completely different passenger, not just correct a typo, as long as it’s done before the flight departs. It goes through the same £115/£160 process as any other name change.
What’s the deadline for a Ryanair name change?
Up to 24 hours before departure if you’re doing it yourself online, or up to 2 hours before departure if it’s through the contact centre or airport desk.
The bottom line
The free fixes are real, but they’re narrow, and they run on two different clocks: one from booking, one from departure. The safest habit is checking names the moment you book rather than relying on either window later. Past that, £115 online is the number to budget for, £160 if you end up needing an agent to do it for you, and both are cheaper than most people assume once you know Ryanair will let you transfer a ticket to someone else entirely rather than forcing a full rebook.
For the rest of what Ryanair charges for, see the full list of Ryanair fees for 2026, or our Ryanair guides hub for everything about the airline in one place.
Sources
Fee figures and free-correction rules are verified directly against Ryanair’s Help Centre and its passenger-details change guidance, and matched against the already-verified fee table in the Ryanair fees complete list (last verified 2026-08-15). Confirm the exact fee shown at checkout for your own booking before paying, since Ryanair can revise pricing without notice.
