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British Airways needs to make clear its policies if it values its customers. Last week my daughter who holds a valid US Advance Parole document but has an expired US L2 visa was not allowed to board at Dulles Airport (Washington DC) en route to Bangalore, India via London. The reason was that she requires a valid visa to transit through London. Fair enough, the need to comply with laws and regulations of the countries you enter is valid, we have no dispute with that and we would gladly comply with the law of the land. However, from reading several testimonies of passenger experience, I am given to understand that this is a common issue. Many passengers go through this trauma of not being allowed to travel by BA counter staff on a daily basis, due to improper travel documentation.
Why has BA not recognized this as a gap and plugged it? BA loads the passenger booking a ticket with tons of information at the time of making a reservation, most information is irrelevant to the booking.
Suggestion: While accepting a reservation BA needs to validate travel documents, not while boarding alone. At the last moment (just about to board) not allowing passengers to travel creates a traumatic experience, major travel plans are thrown into chaos (5 of us as a family are scheduled to travel), now our travel plans are in jeopardy as our daughter could not travel. We have wasted an enormous amount of time, money and effort and a joyful experience is now converted to a wretched one. As a solution: One line stating that a transit visa is required if you do not have a valid/ expired US visa will help alleviate much agony and pain caused to the passenger as well as avoid chaos at the terminal with BA counter staff going around in circles, running from pillar to post to figure out the problem, most of the counter staff are not aware/trained to understand the problem, leave alone explaining to the agonized customer the cause of the problem. The counter staff I handed the Advance Parole Combo Card to had no clue as to what the card stood for. This is not acceptable, counter staff should be aware of basic travel documentation requirements. It was not a pretty sight at the counter and this reflected very poorly on the airline.
To add to the agony the ticket which stands cancelled has to now be rebooked, costing us huge cancellation fees. Booking a fresh ticket to travel at short notice, is also an added financial burden as we have to pay an exorbitantly higher amount for a current ticket at short notice. We booked this ticket 5 months ago to get the benefit of a lower fare, we have lost out on this benefit and have also lost money in the way of cancellation fees.
Suggestion: BA should not deduct cancellation fees from the passenger. The airline should allow the passenger to re-book at the rate at which the ticket was originally booked, as long as the routing is the same.
Bottom line: BA should not throw the blame squarely upon the passenger but should share the blame for accepting the booking despite invalid documentation. It appears that BA wants to make money more that ensure passenger carriage. This is not fair and I seek compensation from BA for the mental anguish and trauma caused to my 21 year old daughter, for the loss of time and opportunity and the grief. She was eagerly looking forward to going to India after 12 months of studying and work, to be with extended family. She has been in great pain and grief ever since her travel plans were cancelled by BA.
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