You can advertise for someone with the same name as your companion to come on the trip with you, like this person did.

You can advertise for someone with the same name as your companion to come on the trip with you, like this person did:

A Toronto man looking for a travel partner with the same name as his ex-girlfriend has finally found his match. After making headlines a month ago by offering a free plane ticket around the world to someone named “Elizabeth Gallagher,” Jordan Axani has found the right girl. Elizabeth Quinn Gallagher of Cole Harbour, N.S., will be headed to New York Thursday to begin the trip of a lifetime. The journey began last month with a post to Reddit.com titled: “Are you named Elizabeth Gallagher (and Canadian)? Want a free plane ticket around the world?”

In the post, Axani said he was stuck with tickets purchased at a discount but worth several thousand dollars. He had planned a trip with his girlfriend, he said, but they had since broken up, and the airline wasn’t budging on the ticketholder names.