hello all,

i was wondering if there were any experiences you'd like to share where you were (almost!) denied check-in or boarding to a plane because they had incorrect entry requirements info regarding the country you were travelling to.

here are two examples that happened to some friends of mine.

1. friend was flying to taiwan on a us passport. at that time i believe the max stay without visa was 2 weeks. however it was possible to apply for a landing visa at tpe valid for one month. my friend had a ticket booked for three weeks, because of ignorance regarding the landing visa process his date of return was changed during check-in. he then had to change it again once he arrived in tpe. annoying.

2. friend was flying to vietnam on a us passport with a valid tourist visa recently issued in it. during check-in the agent insisted that in addition to the valid visa the vietnamese immigration authorities required that an additional id style picture be affixed in the passport next to it. all attempts to challenge this proved fruitless. how do you prove that something is n o t required? they also refused to fly him to hkg where there was a stop-over.

it is nigh impossible to find id picture machines anywhere in the us. eventually he was saved by remembering he actually had an id picture with him somewhere. thereupon they stapled it in and all was good. needless to say that the vietnamese border guards did not even look at the picture, nor seem to care about it.

ladies and gentlemen, your experiences? what did you do in similar cases?

al