jampoco

I am a British national living (was working) in Switzerland and have a Swiss residence permit.

I travelled to San Diego on the 28th February for a 1 month break (BA ticket: GVA->LHR->SAN). I was supposed to return on the 1st of April.

Over the past few months as COVID ramped up my return itineraries through BA became increasingly extreme (e.g. SAN->ORD->LHR->DUB->GVA), and, as a result have continuously had legs cancelled and required rebooking. A combination of agreeing to wait for the situation to calm down and cancellations (over 6 itinerary cancellations now) meant I never had an option to fly back through my BA ticket until recently.

A few days ago I was informed that my DUB->GVA leg had yet again been cancelled and as a result BA and its partners had no way of getting me back to GVA. However, they cited a recent mutual agreement they have set up with Swiss allowing them to book me through Swiss for the LHR->GVA leg. I jumped on the opportunity and agreed to be rebooked on a flight departing this morning SAN->ORD (AA) ORD->LHR (BA) LHR->GVA (Swiss).

I was aware that Switzerland has blocked entry for visitors and is only allowing in Swiss nationals and residents. I did not bring my physical residents permit with me as I travelled before these measures were put in place - hindsight 20/20... Because of this, I emailed the Swiss 'service de la population' and asked whether a photocopy of my residents permit would suffice to get back into the country. They confirmed that this was ok and the border agent would be able to check my credentials against my passport using SYMIC.

Arriving at the airport this morning I went to check in with AA. I was asked if I was a Swiss resident, I confirmed and showed my photocopy and residents number. The gate agent asked me to hang on so she could just double check with her colleague if a digital copy was ok. This was escalated up to their supervisor and then some global helpdesk. Conclusion: AA's policy is that unless you have a physical copy: no flying. I produced the letter from SPOP showing Swiss border control's confirmation that it was not required by them. They escalated again: still no.

All in all I spent about 2h30 at the airport going back and forth between AA and BA with no resolution. Eventually I missed my flight and was told by BA that the best they could do for me was a paid ticket change to get me to London then figure out the Geneva leg myself. However, BA ticketing office was closed for the day so they can't do that until tomorrow. AA offered nothing other than suggesting I drive 3h to LAX and try get a flight from there...

I am still stuck in San Diego. My ESTA will expire in 4 days. BA have promised to call me back tomorrow morning when BA & AA ticket offices are both open to try and help me out. I am fortunate that the BA agent is great and really seems to be trying to help me out (I am greatly appreciative of him). Unfortunately, it sounds like this will be a paid change for $1k-$2k and might only get me as far as London!

I know it's a crazy time with COVID but how can an AA deny me boarding, enforcing stricter requirements than Swiss border control? Surely they should be required to inform me in advance if they do... Am I tough out of luck here? If I'd known this I could have just had my damn physical permit sent to me 2 months ago but assumed confirmation from SPOP would be adequate. As a side note, my brother travelled from LHR to GVA during these same restrictions without the physical copy and had no issues.