Given a travel related situation, and given a specific question about the situation, summarize the question into a title

I know that it is more expensive / harder to find a car with an automatic transmission to rent, but why is that the case?

My first guess would be that autos are more expensive to buy, and that any excess wear and tear on the car caused by people who are bad at driving manuals simply doesn't come close to the increased purchase price.

Another option would be that people prefer to drive manuals, I guess?

This answer states that they used to have better fuel economy: What is the most common transmission type for rental cars in Japan? Is that still the reason for primarily offering manuals?

The above question & answers indicate that Japan is now mostly (exclusively?) automatics in the rental market. I believe the same is true of NZ and Australia. Are those countries ahead of the curve, or are European countries behind it?

EDIT: Of course, NZ and AU import a huge number of their cars from Japan, so that's probably trickled on through to the rental market (Japan produces less manual cars, countries can't import as many manuals, less available to buy, rental companies wind up with mostly automatics).

Why is it harder / more expensive to rent cars with automatic transmission in Europe?

I'm flying to Peru with my girlfriend next week and I realized that her name is incorrect on the reservation.

Instead of Sally Marie Jones it's Jones Marie Sally.

We're flying into Houston, then Lima, and in Lima we switch airlines for our flight to Cajamarca.

I booked the ticket with Orbitz who made the reservation with United. United booked the flight with LAN air, the Peruvian airline.

Both companies say that they are unable to change the name because of TSA restrictions not allowing a name change. I asked if I could just cancel and re-book, but United said they could not do this because there are multiple airlines involved.

A note has been attached to the reservation explaining the issue, and the United rep said that they would be able to print her boarding pass with the correct name. However, he said there are no guarantees that she'll be able to fly because although the boarding pass will be correct, the ticket will still have the reversed name.

I was prepared to just take the chance that it will all work out, seeing how it's really obvious the name is just backwards, but with recent events I'm worried that US airport security is going to be extra strict for the next little while.

Is this something I need to worry about, or are chances good that this will work out fine?

The United rep said there's a chance we could cancel the United flights and get a new ticket with the correct name for no cost, but we'd have to pay for new tickets within Peru ($500 out of the total $1300 ticket cost). I'd rather not do this unless there's a reasonable chance we'll have trouble at the airport.

Am I going to have trouble flying with a reversed name on the ticket?

Several websites tell me that "nobody" will let you fly "standby" except as a change to a fare already bought.  Is there anyone that will still sell a cheap "next unsold seat" fare?

I'm retired and have no problem hanging out an an airport for a few days to save money.  But it's not saving if it's regular plus change fee.


Does anyone still offer standby without already having paid another fare?