ELAL

Was flying USA - Europe - Russia, and as a USA citizen need a tourist visa to enter Russia.

My intention was to obtain the visa during my month long stay in Europe, but was still denied boarding by Brussels Airlines.

My question is, were SN entitled to deny me flying JFK-BRU, due to the lack of a visa for a second upcoming flight?

ELAL

Denied boarding first flight, due to lack of visa for connecting flight
Was flying USA - Europe - Russia, and as a USA citizen need a tourist visa to enter Russia.

My intention was to obtain the visa during my month long stay in Europe, but was still denied boarding for the first flight.

My question is, was I rightly flyi,g to Europe, due to the lack of a visa for a second upcoming flight to Russia?

joshwex90

Was this a multi-stop journey booked, with the Europe-Russia as a separate journey on the PNR?

Often1

It's going to depend on the ticketing. This sounds, but it is unclear, as if UA treated you as connecting in Europe rather than stopping over. If the former, yes you should have been denied boarding. If the latter, no.

A connection would in any circumstance I have ever heard of definitionally be <24 hours. Did your ticket have a specific date for the onward travel Europe-Russia or was it open?

Mama

Of course OP's Europe and Russia flights are all in one ticket. Otherwise, how would the boarding agent or check-in agent know OP's has another flight to Russia one month later?
To the agent, OP's final destination is Russia.

miikkak

According to TIMATIC:

Visitors are required to hold proof of sufficient funds to cover their stay and documents required for their next destination .

As you didn't have visa to your final destination (or separate return ticket), you didn't fulful immigration requirents. If had bought refundable full fare ticket back to Canada at the airport, you might have been able to avoid denied boarding (I know it's too late for you but someone else might be in similar situation later).

joshwex90

One ticket and one journey aren't necessarily the same. If flying USA-Europe-Russia with a 2 hour layover in Europe, then agent shouldn't care about visa to Europe but should care about visa to Russia.

On the flip side, if there's a month in Europe, then agent shouldn't care about Russia entry validity.

Same as when flying USA-Russia-USA, agent doesn't care if the person will have permission to re-enter the USA on return.

Often1

That is irrelevant. It is about connections vs. stopovers, both of which are ticketed together.

But, I suspect that I know the reason and hopefully when OP provides details, it will be evident.

UA likely checks for proof of valid onward / return travel because the destination country requires it. OP says he was headed to "Europe" but that is many nations and not all are EU, Schengen or anything else.

If his destination country requires such proof, UA would be well-advised to determine that OP is qualified for travel to that destination, e.g. Russia, because a failure of such qualification would likely lead to OP being denied entry to "Europe". That would leave UA having to return OP to the US, being fined and all of the other bad stuff.

So, I guess we wait for OP to provide exact details of his ticketing, including what he means by "Europe."

sinoflyer

[bolding mine]

The agent was 100% in the wrong. OP's final destination is (western) Europe with a month-long stopover. It is incumbent on the next carrier, not UA, to verify that OP had the proper documents to Russia. That said, OP risks this kind of situation because encountering incompetence from front-line staff is highly probable.

added:
OP, the title of your thread is misleading. The (western) Europe-Russia segment of your itinerary is NOT a connecting flight. It's a separate oneway flight.

NJFlyer42

Is it possible that Tony Newman's Australian adventure has reminded gate agents to be more (and maybe overly) vigorous?

sbm12

Yes and no. It is not a connection but it is also not a separate trip. It is part of a single itinerary.

The agent likely screwed up by putting in Russia as the destination in TIMATIC because that's how the ticket was issued and that's what the default would be. Much like the China TWOV issues the trick is knowing what to put into TIMATIC to make sure that it spits out the correct answer.

lixiaojuventus

Another question is that, how is OP able to obtain a Russia visa while traveling as a tourist in Europe? I know that visitors to the US (with B1 visa, for example) usually cannot obtain visa to Europe. The European embassy will ask them to return to their home country to apply. The only exception is when the foreigner has a temporary residence in the US, like F-1 visa. Only in this case will the European embassy process the visa application.

joshwex90

Really? The American embassy in London will give non-European citizens (who are visiting London) visas to the US

Often1

I don't know how you can possibly assert that the agent was "100% wrong" when you don't know if OP's stopover destination country requires proof of valid onward or return travel.

As noted above, if OP was required to have such proof and what OP can produce is an onward ticket to a country for which he does not hold a visa, the agent would be "100% correct" as the lack of a visa might result in OP being denied entry at the stopover country and that is the whole purpose of document checks by air carriers.

Germanfflyer

I disagree since these were NOT connecting flights but a stop over - the onward destination did not matter! The final destination for that part was BRU!
It was IDB!