Originally Posted by
Carolinian
Your travel agent screwed up by merely making a phone call and not documenting the responce from the Cuban consulate. If they had bothered to get a fax from the Consulate on their letterhead, then I suspect you would have been in better shape with the airline. Your demand for compensation should be with the TA.
That said, I have seen sometimes that airlines are clueless as to current travel requirements and try to enforce outdated provisions. A year or so ago, I was flying back to the country in eastern Europe in which I work. In checking in for my flight in Rome and presenting my passport, I was asked where my visa was. I responded that it had been several years since a visa was required for Americans travelling there. They consulted some obviously way out of date book they had and said well I had to have a visa to fly. Fortunately, I pulled out my residency card and the language on it that said the holder did not need a visa satisfied them, and I boarded. If I had been a mere tourist and not had that residency card, I would probably have been wrongfully denied boarding by the airline. That WOULD have justified suing the airline.
I guess alot has happened since this discussion but I just wanted to note that this happened to me today.
1. I emailed jet blue before buying the tickets and sent a pic of my doc and was told its fine.
2. I called again the night before when I couldn't check in and confirmed
3. My friend in Cuba went to the airport herself and the station manager said they acceptv rtds
4. I flew frfleck who saw. Y rtd and the agent asked for my return ticket which was enough for them to issue the entire ticket all the way to havana.
However, on my layover in Fll, The person issuing the visa straight up told me I cannot leave the country with this document and its just an id and not recognized abroad. I showed them ove traveled with it and they continued to object until my flight left without me. To make matters worst, I had two jumiors doing research so they can send to their supervisor and instead of asking the general manager In Cuba to confirm, they were trying to reach out to cbp ober there. I also went to the American airline checkin after I was given the choice of checking wuth them instead of jet blue and the person at the counter instantly recognized it and said its fine. And here's what finally killed me. Some dumbas comes up to me and says you won't oy need approval from Cuba. You need approval from cbp that they will let you reenter the us. Mind you, uscis issues refugee travel does for the purpose of reentry so to put these untrained morons to deal with this stuff is nonsense and this was really stressful. Theur ignorance kept me from spending Christmas with my family. So who can I talk to about this.