Re: British Airways refused boarding

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BA has all the right to refuse boarding as long it is
universally applicable. BA made great efforts to tell you on
their website what all legal documents and procedures are
necessary except this one. You can say that they are not
required to do so and they can say it is my responsibility to
check these regulations by visiting UK's consulate website.

BA can wash their hands of all responsibilities. They can say
that they have a special product, that does not require a
warning label, but if I consume that product I am liable for
violating that law. I am just wondering if it is applicable to
all or some products.

What I am trying to say is that they did violate the law. And by
doing so jeopardized my wife's safety. They have a inconsistent
system in place where sometimes they will let you through and
sometimes not. If it had happened the first time when she went
by BA last June I would not be complaining as much. Except that
I would say it is very bad customer service.

As far as cash registers ringing, I see that on their side.
Happily collected the money without any regards to whether we
are able to fly or not.

All I want to know, given that I am not an expert, whether this
case has any merit.

On 4/18/06, Curmudgeon wrote:
> You want to sue BA for failing to warn you to not break the
> law?????? I can already hear those cash registers ringing.
>
> On 4/18/06, PK wrote:
>> OK here is the story:
>> My wife had to go to India in a hurry because her father
> was
>> ill. She bought a British Airways ticket but was stopped in
>> Philadelphia apparently because she needed a air-side
>> transit visa for passing through London. She is a permanent
>> resident and I found out later that 2 years back they
>> instituted a new rule saying that this visa is required is
>> the US permanent residence was issued before April 21st
>> 1998. Guess what hers was issued Nov 1997. She eventually
>> made it to India by KLM.
>>
>> Bad luck you would say. But here is the rest of the story:
>> She was issued a boarding pass in Pittsburg for her flight
>> out of Philadelphia to London to Delhi. They checked her
>> documents in Pittsburgh and the only reason they found it
>> out in Philly was because she went to the counter to change
>> her seat. Bad luck again. Otherwise, no one would have
> found
>> it out. We did not know.
>>
>> And here is the last part. She went to India June 2005 by
>> British Airways and no one stopped her for not having a
>> air-side transit visa both ways. And this rule was supposed
>> to have gone into effect 2yrs back.
>>
>> Can we sue BA?
>> - for not mentioning this requirement on their webiste
>> when they have several other warnings and not this one.
>> Plus, they require you to input all passport and green card
>> info. So they could have easily warned us long before.
>> - for failing to stop her from going the first time. And
>> thus violating UKs immigration rules and jeopardizing my
>> wife's safety. Because if she were caught the first time
>> then it would have been a nightmare.
>>
>> Thanks for reading so far.