I was denied boarding due to outdated information on passport validity? What to do?
- By
- Aparna Patel
- |
- 19 Jul, 2023
- |
Check-in staff go by Timatic, which is based on information provided to IATA by local immigration authorities. They won’t change their mind even if you call an embassy in front of them.
Unfortunately there is a misunderstanding on your part: it is not the 3-month passport validity requirement in and of itself that was new, but the 15-day visa exemption altogether. This, however, has been around for a good while now and is definitely stated in Timatic
Regarding document validity, however, Timatic states:
Passports and other documents accepted for entry must be
valid for a minimum of 6 months from the arrival date.
In other words, the embassy website was outdated, which they often are, which is why I personally advise people, with a few exceptions, to never trust embassy info over Timatic.
Unfortunately, your chances of getting compensation are slim, because you did not comply with the requirements.
The truly annoying part is that the check-in staff is required to ensure you comply with the requirements, but not to inform you of what the requirements are. Instead, they say “we don’t know, not our responsibility, ask the embassy”, not giving a damn about the fact that the embassies’ info may be (and often is) inconsistent with that in Timatic.
On the day of travel, as if by magic, suddenly they know exactly whether to let you board.
Like I said, they go by Timatic, which is why I always recommend travellers to familiarise themselves with it. Although it’s only meant for professionals, I can’t count the amount of times me being familiar with it has saved the day (most recently when boarding a Zurich-Kiev flight – they didn’t want to let me board with my national ID card, but when I insisted that I can transit at Kiev and asked them to check Timatic, I got onboard)
Off-topic: the best way to get familiar with Timatic is through this interface (general search, individual search).
You’ll end up with a great traveller tool that, for the most part, can safely be relied on. Because remember, whatever you see in there yourself, that’s what check-in clerks will see as well
Credit:stackoverflow.com‘
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