davetravels

This is on a DL 006 ticket. Shouldn't DL have made sure that it was ticketed all the way thru properly? Also, those boarding passes were printed at a DL ticket counter. Shouldn't the DL agent who issued them have caught that one segment that said "Flight Coupon Required" and straightened it out before leaving the ticket counter?!?

sethb

Depending on when it was purchased, I wonder if a credit card chargeback is available. The passenger didn't get the service purchased, he got something less valuable.

flyerCO

He got his service. He made it to Belgrade. Nothing to charge back. Just because you don't get the exact flight doesn't mean you can get a refund when you still made it.

Regardless it looks like some how Air Serbia never was sent an eticket and thus they had every legal right to refuse boarding. No compensation will be due. I'm curious if Air Serbia syst screwed up or OP got a paper ticket and didn't know to take it.

choky27

Tickets were purchased back in February through travel agent we have been dealing with for over 15+ years, and there were no paper tickets involved (I am old enough to remember them) nor did anyone ask for them either way. Either way, isn't this still a sc..w up by Delta who checked me in flying there? And no one is answering shouldn't they be replying on my original complaint to them, its been 18 days now?

So, moral of the story is regardless who I buy tickets from they can put me on 4 different airlines, each for its own segment and in case of trouble I have to deal with separate carrier? I am an auto engineer, if something is wrong with our car/truck we do not send customer to deal with supplier/s of the defective part.

Thx again to all who contributed to this discussion.

MSPeconomist

Now I see that there's no ticket number printed on the original Air Serbia boarding pass, which is consistent with the requirement for a paper ticket. When it was rebooked with the connecting flights, there's a different KLM ticket number, so KLM seems to have reissued the ticket on their stock. Classes V and L with KLM flight numbers would mean a broken fare. The Air Serbia segment was rebooked into classes N and Y on KLM and what looks like UU flights, but I can't see all of the first letter clearly. Could UU be a LH affiliate like GermanWings?

One indication of whether there were originally two ticket numbers attached to the single PNR would be to look at ticket numbers for the return trip, assuming that the OP originally purchased a RT. If the return TATL segment now has the KLM rather than DL ticket number, this would seem to suggest that the original thing was all on a single ticket as well as a single PNR. If AMS-USA is untouched and still has a DL 006- ticket number, I would guess that the original purchase involved two ticket numbers, perhaps with the second one never being issued. Here it would help to see the original ticket receipt from DL as this should show what flight segments were purchased on what ticket numbers.

The classic case of several ticket numbers being associated with a single PNR would be where there are too many flights to put on a single ticket, but this obviously isn't the case here.

MSPeconomist

Have you tried to ask your travel agent to explain what happened? The travel agent should have given you a receipt that contained the original ticket number(s). I guess we've been assuming here that you purchased the ticket directly from DL, with DL "acting as your travel agent" but now DL's role is reduced to just the first ticket (which might not have included the Air Serbia flight) being written on DL ticket stock with all segments being on the DL PNR.

ADDED: I just did some googling and Air Serbia was started as Jat in 2012, but perhaps didn't fly until being renamed Air Serbia a year or two later. It's 49% owned by Etihad and 51% by the government of Serbia. They codeshare with a variety of airlines, more than a dozen, where many but not all are in SkyTeam. Their own website seems to allow online ticket purchases, but I wan't successful in getting into a page on passenger rights and denied boarding. The Etihad website seems to stress their partner Air Serbia's "Arab hospitality" and shows a picture of an Air Serbia FC cabin (A319/320) followed by a picture of Etihad's own residence suite. Wikipedia says that they have about 20 aircraft including ATRs and a charter division operating four 737s. They also have gound operations and aircraft service divisions.

My guess is that Etihad would not permit them not to use etickets so they're not a rare/nonexistent carrier that still requires paper tickets.

davetravels

Not a big deal at this point, but, if does look like UU, but, checking KVS, it's JU325, which shows as Air Serbia / Jat Airways.

So, a TRAVEL AGENT issued this! That adds, yet a NEW dimension!

Someone, between the Travel Agent and the DL check-in agent should have known that this was a paper ticket segment.

OP, this could be a goof up by your travel agent. I would discuss it with them and see what they say. Show them that your boarding pass says "FLIGHT COUPON REQUIRED".

I still say that the DL check-in agent at DTW should have caught this, too!

MSPeconomist

I strongly agree that it should have been caught at DTW by the agent who did the original check in and issued the boarding passes. The OP should also have looked at the boarding pass and noticed/asked questions. The OP in principle also should have approached a transfer desk at AMS or the GA before boarding started to comply with the document check requirement.

Still, if the Air Serbia segment's ticket wasn't properly issued, it's a mystery how the GA was able to rebook the OP onto later flights and issue reissue it as an eticket with apparent ease. If a paper ticket was required, how can the segment be rebooked with the eticket "reissued" if the OP had no paper ticket?

I wonder whether the OP had difficulty checking in at DTW. I've seen agents attempt to reissue tickets when there's a check in problem that they don't understand. After several attempts, they sometimes reissue as a paper ticket just in case it solves the problem. This apparently happened to me on a simple connection through AMS a couple years ago. An AF agent at an outstation apparently (unknown to me) couldn't check me in for a connection through AMS to the USA but without much delay gave me what looked like regular boarding passes. When I went to board the DL TATL flight at AMS, the GA asked me where the paper ticket was and I had no idea what she was talking about as no one had mentioned a paper ticket or given me one. This was an ordinary DL RT ticket for all mainline DL and KLM flights, totally EU rather than someplace strange, purchased by phone from DL with SWUs applied at the time of purchase. Nothing should have been messed up.

TerryK

Agreed provided that OP did check in with a live agent. Many agents will simply hand over BP without looking.

I doubt there was ever paper ticket. "Paper ticket required" message just means there is no eticket attached to that segment. Me think JU just didn't receive eticket coupon for that segment which caused all issues. I would let TA off the hook as this is out of their control.

davetravels

BP says 1 bag checked, so, I'd assume, yes.

TerryK

There are self service kiosks where you can check bags. You get your BP from kiosk and agent tags your bag. Agent doesn't handle BP in this case.

MSPeconomist

We don't know whether the travel agent did everything right or not, but regardless the travel agent should advocate for the customer when problems arise. This is partly why we use travel agents and why they are paid for their services. IMO the travel agent should at a minimum have explained to the OP which carriers operated which flights on the itinerary. In fact, this information should have been (and was required to have been) included in what the travel agent gave to the OP, even though it did appear on the DL online itinerary. IIRC the legal requirement is that all codeshare flights be disclosed at the time of ticket purchase.

MSPeconomist

Good point. Also, agents normally circle the gate and or boarding time before they hand the boarding pass to the passenger. I'm tempted to assume that the green scribble and highlight/underline on the boarding pass for the first flight was done by TSA.

davetravels

At some point, a DL agent has to verify and enter your passport info into the computer. Even when I've had int'l BPs, the BP scanner won't let me board my ORIGINATING flight unless my passport info has been entered. Maybe they scanned their passport at a kiosk, but, looking at the BPs, aren't those the type that are issued by a counter or gate agent? I think the kiosk BPs hava different look.

MSPeconomist

I was thinking that too, but DL has my passport information in my profile and I "think" I've gotten the "DOCS OK" from a kiosk sometimes in the past. If the OP isn't a frequent international traveler on DL (which is apparently the case with no status and no PreCheck through GE or otherwise), this is less likely. I don't know whether Serbia would require a visa (are they in schengen?) or have any other special requirements.