ProleOnParole

Could it have been IST/TK? In which case the OP could have got the visa online while airside:

http://www.mfa.gov.tr/visa-informati...eigners.en.mfa

SwissBritMiss

I can only think of IST, LON or DME /SVO too... others seem too much of a detour for VCE to ATH. In fact, even London / Moscow do...

Nor Greece or Italy, so OP's wife must hold a different citizenship: http://www.schengenvisainfo.com/who-...schengen-visa/

Which may also explain why an IST visa on arrival was not an option?

MSPeconomist

Bucharest? I may be wrong, but I don't think Romania is in schengen. It's the hub for Tarom (?), which is a SkyTeam member.

Would one fly via Jordon or Egypt? Tel Aviv? Although Israel might not require a visa for the OP to go landside and get luggage, although I would expect their immigration to be less flexible, while their security checks can take a long time.

SwissBritMiss

You're right that Romania is outside Schengen (but has been accepted by the EC); however Tarom only appears to fly as far as Beirut going east (including code shares)...

I don't want to derail this thread but this mystery airline has me hooked...

Steve M

Nowhere did the OP disclose what his wife's nationality was, only that they were both traveling "from Singapore." We do know that they have different nationalities, as he apparently did not have the same visa trouble as she did. Thus, at least one of them is NOT a Singapore national. Actually, I take that back, as they could both have the same nationality, but he had a Two Entries or Multiple Entries visa. But in any event, nowhere did he say what either of their nationalities is. I'm willing to assume that she's not a Singapore national.

wrp96

Well the airlines do have Timatic as above, but that would only be helpful at check in. Anything in advance would be problematic considering visa/document requirements can change with no warning at all, and people are able to book many months in advance of travel.

Some recent examples are when Dubai suddenly required Canadians to get visas, when they weren't needed previously, without much warning. Or the opposite, where Brazil has always required visas, but this summer has a temporary visa waiver for many countries, that wasn't announced that much in advance. If someone who booked 11 months in advance had relied on what was in place at booking "because the airline told me this is all I need," then it would've been a big problem in the Dubai case if found out at the airport, or mad because they spent money they didn't need to in the Brazil case.

daKav

Me too. My money is on SU (SVO is the holy grail of unresponsive agents all around.) or Air Serbia.

SwissBritMiss

Correct, she is not as she would not need a Schengen visa as a Singaporean national.

OK, I'm way too curious. Just checked and El Al don't serve SIN, and Royal Jordanian / Egyptair don't serve VCE.

Air Serbia also don't serve VCE without a stop and change onto codeshare AZ.

My money is increasingly on TK.

747FC

OP: when I fly internationally, I check each country's official website for visa requirements. I also check my country's listing. I print it all out to remind me what is and is not needed. I double-check several weeks before starting the trip. So far, this strategy has not failed. Sorry to hear about your abbreviated journey.

Non-NonRev

And check and double-check as the travel date approaches.

Often1

All speculation as OP has not bothered to return and provide two simple pieces of information: the name of the carrier and the transit station. If OP can't be bothered to provide that, not worth much to be helpful beyond the obvious which was that this was apparently easily avoided.

ProleOnParole

Maybe he's stuck at another airport and this time there's no hotel with WiFi.

SwissBritMiss

To be fair to the OP, needing a multi-entry Schengen visa for flying between two Schengen countries but transiting through another, would not have been immediately obvious to me, either. My excuse is that I'm fortunate to not need to think about visas for most of my travel - and if the OP didn't need a Schengen visa either, probably is in the same place.

As a few other posters point out, it's not just limited to careless travellers.

Steve M

That pretty much sums up what I wanted to say, on each point. I'm fortunate enough to not need visas to most places I visit. Putting myself in the OP's shoes, I think I would have caught it if I was taking a flight between two cities in the same country but transiting a third, but not in his situation of going between two Schengen countries via a non-Schengen country. I realize that's a bit ironic, but I'm just sharing how I think I would have reacted.

Another aspect to this is that even if many of us would not have caught this situation ourselves, even if we checked all of the relevant websites, there's the issue of blame. When something like this goes wrong, there seems to be a tendency to want to assign blame to someone, and more specifically, someone else. Notice how some in this thread seem to be stretching to assign blame either to the embassy that issued the Single Entry visa, or to the airline. Sometimes, things just happen. And sometimes, the person that bears responsibility would have had a hard time to prevent it from happening.

Steve M

I think the most likely answer is BA and LHR. I find it easier to believe that, all aspects of this considered, that they would have allowed the wife to go airside for an hour on the honor system there than at SVO. But that's just a guess.

Not really to help the OP, but just as a thought exercise, I wanted to talk more about what someone said about the issue of that she should have been caught before departure from VCE. I'll use LHR/UK as the presumed transit location just for the sake of discussion, even though it may have been somewhere else.

Someone mentioned that the airline probably violated their duty to the UK, by transporting a TWOV passenger there that lacked the proper documentation for admittance to their next destination, thus making them ineligible for TWOV (and based on nationality, inadmissible to the UK). If she didn't already have a ticket from LHR back to SIN, and didn't have the means to buy one, what would they have done with her? First of all, could have and would have the UK fined the airline for transporting the passenger to LHR in this case?

Separate from that, what would they have done with the passenger? Based on whatever treaties or other arrangements cover such things, could the UK have sent the passenger back to VCE (possibly at the airline's expense, given that they should not have transported her)? Would Italy have the ability and obligation to "undo" her exit, since she was legal there immediately before departure, and just restore her back to legal status as if that flight hadn't taken place? Or, would the UK only be able to send her to a place where she could be lawfully admitted?