Dear Tripped Up,
I am a Ugandan citizen pursuing a Ph.D. in public health in the Netherlands. In May, I went to visit family in the United States, flying Aer Lingus from Amsterdam to Dublin and on to Newark, N.J., without incident. But as I dropped off my bags at Newark Liberty International Airport for my return trip, the agent checked my passport and told me that I needed a transit visa for the stopover in Ireland. I informed him that Uganda was not among the 26 countries whose citizens require transit visas in Ireland, and showed him the Irish government page that lists them. A supervisor got involved, pointing out that there were other African nations on the list (as if that made a difference). They wouldn’t budge, and we headed back to my sister’s home in Princeton, N.J. An hour into the drive, we finally got through to Aer Lingus by phone and were told to return to the airport and go to the Aer Lingus “help desk.” We drove back but could find no such place. So I bought a $964 one-way ticket to fly KLM to Amsterdam from Kennedy Airport in New York for the next day. Subsequent calls and online complaints to Aer Lingus (we have five case numbers) resulted in no compensation or apology. Can you help? Martha, Leiden, the Netherlands
Dear Martha,
Try as I might, I cannot conjure up a scenario where an American citizen is barred from a flight because an airline worker confused the United States with Canada or Mexico. From what you and your family members told me in a follow-up interview, however, it is far more plausible for citizens of Africa’s 50-plus nations.
Given the sophisticated tools airport workers have at their fingertips — systems like Timatic, which is updated daily with the latest visa requirements from around the globe — there is no excuse for what happened to you in Newark. I am flabbergasted that even after you showed the workers the Irish government’s crystal-clear list of countries that require transit visas, they still denied you boarding. At best, the incident seems to reek of ignorance and stubbornness; at worst, discrimination, or some mixture of all three.
I should add that airlines do have an incentive to err on the side of caution on visa issues: First, they must cover the return flight of a passenger who is turned away. Second, destination governments impose fines on them for each passenger allowed to travel without the right documentation. Last year, the Irish government increased the fine to 5,000 euros, or about $5,900. Airport workers can face pressure not to let that happen, which can contribute to mistakes.
After not responding to your written complaints and phone calls for almost three months, Aer Lingus responded to my inquiry, belatedly recognizing its error.
“Aer Lingus is committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive environment where every customer feels welcomed and respected,” Aoife Bannon, an airline spokeswoman, wrote in an emailed statement. “In this instance, we recognize that an operational error occurred due to a misunderstanding of visa requirements. We have reached out directly to the customer to express our sincere regret for their experience, which fell short of our standards on this occasion.”
The airline will reimburse you for the $964 ticket on KLM, for your checked-luggage fees on the original flight and for the additional transportation costs you were able to document. It will also pay you the €600 you are owed under European Union regulations for denied boarding.
Aer Lingus further stated, “We are also working closely with our airport partners to understand how this occurred and to ensure further training and education on visa requirements are in place to prevent a recurrence.”
Note the deflection there: The workers you encountered were contractors, not direct Aer Lingus hires, a common arrangement at check-in counters.
When I asked what specific measures the airline was taking with the contractor, I did not get a response. But perhaps I can help Aer Lingus, using evidence from a phone video another passenger took of you and your sister’s discussion at the baggage drop counter.
The video shows the supervisor, referring to a system the airline uses to determine visa requirements, telling you, “They said you guys need a visa.”
Ms. Bannon would not confirm what system Aer Lingus uses, but it is very likely Timatic, the industry standard.
When I queried the page Timatic makes available to the public, asking what visas are required for a Ugandan citizen transiting through Dublin, the result was clear: none. “Passengers can transit through Dublin (DUB) without a visa between 04:00 and 16:00 on the same calendar day,” the result reads. “They must arrive at and depart from Terminal 2.” (Your flight was to arrive around 6 a.m. at Terminal 2.)
A spokesman for Timatic confirmed that is the same information an airline worker would see.
In the video, your sister eventually gives up, and says you’ll rebook. She seems to refer back to what you said was the supervisor’s conflating of African countries: “The next time, if we’re going through Dublin,” she says, “as Africans, we will make sure we have the visa.”
“It’s not about ‘You’re African,’” the supervisor says, seeming to contradict the earlier observation about other African nations that you mentioned. “Some countries, they need a transit visa.”
The supervisor gives you the option to call Aer Lingus to confirm, but as you mentioned, you did that on the way home and were told they could not handle the issue over the phone and that you should return to the airport.
Aer Lingus dropped the ball in other ways, as becomes clear from the audio recording your sister (smartly) made of her call to the airline the day after the incident, after you had booked the flight with KLM and registered two online complaints.
After speaking to an agent, and then waiting about an hour on hold, your sister reaches an Aer Lingus supervisor. “It was indeed confirmed that it was an airport mistake,” he says, and offers to rebook you free of charge. Too late for that, so your sister asks for the flight and other expenses to be reimbursed, and reads him the case numbers from your written complaints. He takes them down and says, “You should be receiving a reply as soon as possible.”
It turns out that “as soon as possible” was three months later, and only after I reached out.
If you need advice about a best-laid travel plan that went awry, send an email to [email protected].
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Seth Kugel is the columnist for “Tripped Up,” an advice column that helps readers navigate the often confusing world of travel.
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