Originally Posted by
jahason
You can be denied boarding even if there is nothing wrong with your passport and there is nothing you can do about it. One passenger was in Tehran on a business trip and about to board the BA direct flight to London at Tehran airport. At the final security by BA the agent asked him "Where are you travelling to". This person (a Dutch national) replied flippantly "This flight is going to London, where do you think I'm going to?". The agent looked at his passport and told him that he thinks it might not be genuine and the passenger needs to get a letter from the Dutch embassy verifying that the passport is genuine. That passenger had to wait till after the weekend and get that letter before he could travel out again.
My husband was somewhere in SE Asia and the customs agent started asking him questions. The agents English wasn't good at all and he asked something like, "how did you come here". My husband said "on the plane". The agent asked several more questions, each verbalized a bit "differently" than it would be said by a native English speaker. The agent was getting furious and my husband was getting frustrated and I could see where it would sound like he was getting flippant but he was trying to answer questions that just didn't make sense. Fortunately, a supervisor noticed the situation getting a bit tense and actually apologized to my husband and sent him on his way. As my husband walked off he heard the supervisor say, "in English you would ask it this way. It doesn't make sense the way you're asking".
Sometimes, it's just a break down in translation. Perhaps the Tehranian was trying to find out where was his final destination, which is a question I'm often asked. I would have answered "where are you traveling to" with "My final destination is London. I'm on holiday and will be staying in the city centre" but only because it seems to be what they're always really asking but idk.