Was I denied boarding incorrectly by TUI to the USA from Birmingham UK due to visa issues

7/28/2022 1:25:08 PM

TUI was certainly wrong if they declined to send your advance passenger information (API) to Customs and Border Protection because of the team leader’s incorrect belief that you could not use your valid visa in your expired passport in connection with your current valid passport.

However, if they sent your API (complete and correctly entered) and received a response indicating that they should not let you board, then they would not have been in the wrong.

To be clear, I’m thinking of the possibility that they sent your data, got a "do not board" response, and then misrepresented the reason for that response either because they misunderstood it or because they felt like making up a reason would help get you out of their hair more quickly so they could get on with processing the flight.

I do not know how likely you are to be able to find out which it is. Ideally you want to have them in a position where the burden of proof is on them to show that they sent your correct information, including the visa, and were told not to board you. I don’t know whether the denied-boarding regulation puts them in that position. If it does, file a claim and see if they have the evidence. It will depend a bit on the specific language used to exclude improper travel documents from the scope of the regulation: if it says that it only covers denial related to overbooking, it won’t help you. If it says that cases of improper travel documents are excluded, then you can probably challenge their determination that the documents were improper.

Unfortunately, this will only help you with your September trip if they do have the records of the API transaction with CBP and will disclose them. To find out what happened from the US side you’d probably have to file a request for your data, which will probably take too long to be of use for September, but it might be worth a try.

Another possiblity would be to change your September tickets to fly to Canada and enter the US from there. If you enter by land, you’ll be able to present your visa directly to a CBP officer. Even if you fly, you’ll be going through preclearance in the Canadian airport. This is probably more cost and trouble than is justified for most people, but it might be useful for some.

Credit:stackoverflow.com‘

About me

Hello,My name is Aparna Patel,I’m a Travel Blogger and Photographer who travel the world full-time with my hubby.I like to share my travel experience.

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