felipegarcia

Ok, so some family members of my aunt's friend have tickets to fly from Abuja, Nigeria to Mexico (via Paris, I presume).

When they got to the airport they were first accused of having false plane tickets, then of not having some documents (which they had in Spanish, as their final destination was Mexico), and after sorting that out, they are being accused again of having false documents.

Apparently the problem is with the Air France supervisor (I presume they meant the station manager or equivalent position), as they called some AF office and they said that it was wrong but they couldn't do anything, as only that supervisor could fix it.

Does anyone know what AF department could be called to get them to fix this situation?

I know that they started a tweet recently, but in this case, I'm not retweeting for a stranger. The people stranded in Abuja are nephews and nieces of a missionary priest from Ghana who is currently in Mexico, and he (and his order) are good friends with several family members and friends (my aunt included). I've already tried to see if any of my friends who work in the airline industry have any friends working at AF who could give us a hand, but I haven't had any luck.


Thanks


Felipe

orbitmic

To be honest, with all due respect, that is quite a lot of intermediaries between the original issue - whatever it is - and us. Ultimately, some family members of someone who knows one of your family members are having a problem, which nature we do not really know, which they would like to sort out. We are here assuming that the AF station manager may be (rightly or wrongly) the person telling them there is something wrong with their situation, and there is a claim that while they called AF central services, they declined to help not because they believe that the suspected problem may be real (which I'm afraid is the most likely reason) but because they could not overrule the station manager (not very likely) and would like some generic AF number which could sort the 'problem' whatever it effectively is .

So on that limited information basis I would venture two possibilities:

- the problem is with their tickets. Not sure what 'false plane tickets' are nowadays but I guess it means that they do not appear as booked on the flights on the AF system. If so they should show original confirmation or get travel agent to confirm the regularity of the booking.

- the problem is with id papers. Airlines have to ensure all passengers they transport have proper paperwork including passport and, if needed, visa. If they don't and someone is flown in who was not supposed to be, the airline need to pay a very heavy fine as well as the cost of flying them back. Of course, needless to say that Nigeria is one of the world's top departure points for various types of trafficking and airlines will be particularly careful there. If the passengers believe that they have the right paperwork (passports, visas) despite the airline's claim, they would be best off contacting the relevant consulate or embassy who can confirm the appropriateness and authenticity of the said paperwork. Needless to say that if the airline refused carriage with no good reason, the passengers will then be able to seek damages.

felipegarcia

After some more calling, this is what I found out.

They were asked to produce a letter of enrollment to the school they will be attending, which they only had in spanish, and they were asking for it to be in English or French, now they have it, but the supervisor said that "anyone could have written that". Apparently when this whole mess started, she cancelled their tickets and told them that they had nothing to do at the airport.

Their visas were issued in Nigeria (that's why they were their in the first place), as the nearest Mexican consulate that could issue them was there (they live in Ghana).

And the missionary is the one who arranged for them to travel to Mexico.

carnarvon

That looks weird.

If they have a valid visa, what can be the rationale for AF staff to ask for more?

The kind of documentatioon you are mentioning may be required by the Mexican authorities to issue the visa, but not by the airline.

brunos

Impossible to detail an answer from such vague facts.
In general, an airline will let you board if you hold a valid visa for your final destination but some countries also require to show a return ticket when boarding.

However, to get from Nigeria to Mexico you need to transit through another airport.
Apparently, Ghana and Nigerian citizens need an Airport Transit Visa to transit in CDG (even if they stay in the international zone). Without ATV, AF should not let you board the plane.

Zembla

Since a few years there is a transit visa waiver for Nigerians through CDG, so that can be exluded from the list of possible missing prerequisites.

orbitmic

I agree with both carnarvon's and brunos's points - in a nutshell To put it simply, I still think that there is a (possibly significant) part of the story that your friends/the friends of your aunt have not told you. If they want you to help they will need to disclose much fuller facts to you, and my guess is that it is easier that they sort it out themselves directly with AF. As mentioned earlier, airlines have to be very strict with ensuring people have got the right documentation to travel. If a passenger hasn't got it, then the airline simply won't accept because they would be the ones financially punished. Conversely, if they do, they will let them go ahead, the airline has no right and no interest in asking documentation beyond what is listed - strictly speaking - as necessary travel documents, neither more, nor less.

irishguy28

I could be wrong, but perhaps the airline suspects that, despite presenting a Mexican visa and a letter of enrollment from a school in Mexico, that the passengers may be intending to travel only as far as France, instead.

A simple hand-written translation, for example, of a Spanish letter would also not suffice. Without some indication that the purported translation has been certified or has been prepared/issued by a competent person or authority, there can be no certainty as to whether the translation is accurate or not. I know, of course, that these people could not possibly have known that such documents would need to be translated, but unfortunately, it would be impossible to obtain an adequate written translation when thus asked at the airport.

As regards the allegations that the tickets were invalid - where were these tickets bought? If not bought themselves online, or from a reputable travel agent, perhaps there may also have been a problem with the tickets, or perhaps all the flights that the ticket-holders thought they had paid for were not, in fact, purchased by those agents?

Sorry if this comes across as overly suspicious and negative. But there seems to have been something involved that raised suspicions on the part of the airline. Remember, the airline will be fined if it brings people to France that are not in possession of the proper papers to transfer through there, so they need to satisfy themselves that the presented papers are genuine. I guess they don't often see Mexican visas there, or perhaps such visas appear on a "watchlist" at this outstation.

It was in the news in Ireland recently that certain EU passport holders were to be subjected to rigorous scrutiny at Barcelona airport (to the point of being asked to complete language tests, to "verify" their claimed nationality) prior to boarding.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...313153577.html

Cupart

Something is not quite right here. Even though a country is not represented in another country but for instance a neighbouring one, this doesn't mean you HAVE to travel from the country in which the embassy is loacted.

Ah, that changes everything We can always pull the religious trump card. If nothing else works drag in a minister, priest, shaman,______ (fill in the blank) or whatever and we're good

KQ321

Hmmm. You don't always have to apply in person (for example, I have obtained visas by post from an embassy in a neighbouring country, as that embassy had no representation in the country I was in). However, you may have to, depending on the requirements imposed by the country issuing the visa.

As an entirely random example, a citizen of Burundi desiring a UK visa would have to travel to the UK embassy in Kigali, Rwanda in order to obtain it:

I can't immediately find online the Mexican visa requirements for West Africans, but needing to travel to the embassy in Nigeria (either due to the Mexican embassy requiring to see applicants in person; or the applicant not wishing to entrust their passport to the mail/courier system) would not surprise me... And then once the applicant has obtained the visa, they may well decide to travel direct from that location, rather than going back to their home country first.

B747-437B

I don't know the Mexican requirements specifically, but many Embassies in Nigeria require applicants to present themselves in person. Processing times can take weeks or months, so most applicants from other countries have to quit their jobs to travel and stay in Abuja until their visas are ready.

Xandrios

Why would this be AF's responsibility? They sold a ticket - they should deliver the people where they wanna go. Its up to the authorities at the country of destination (Either France or Mexico) to accept or deny entry.

irishguy28

An airline is not just responsible for blindly carrying passengers from point to point. They also have to ensure that all immigration requirements are in order and that all necessary visas are in place.

If it turns out that the visa is not in order, and this is not picked up until arrival in MEX, the airline could possibly be fined.

If they suspect the visa, regardless of whether it is genuine or not, is not representative of the passenger's intended final destination, and is just a ruse to allow them to travel to CDG (when the passengers would otherwise not be entitled/allowed to travel to CDG) - i.e. if for whatever reason the airline suspected the passenger of wishing to stay illegally in France - then the airline could also possibly be fined. Air France must always satisfy itself that the requirements for making a transfer in Paris are met by any of its passengers prior to allowing them to board.

Given that AF raised issues with both the visa and the ticket itself, it seems that they did not think the requirements for travel were met.

Bear in mind also that the airline claimed there was a problem with their ticket. I suspect that the ticket was not bought directly from Air France. We do not even know if they actually were in possession of a valid ticket all the way through to Mexico, or even if the onward flight from CDG was with Air France or even was direct to Mexico. ("tickets to fly from Abuja, Nigeria to Mexico (via Paris, I presume)." is all that is stated by the OP).

Perhaps it's just that AF could not verify that there actually was any valid ticket to get them beyond Paris - hence a suspicion that they were just planning to travel only to Paris, thereby bringing the Mexican visa and letter, as well as the passengers' intentions generally, under increased scrutiny.

jms_uk

Passengers are citizens of Ghana, as I understand.

carnarvon

Felipe said they live in Ghana, not that they are Ghanean.

This "invalid ticket" issue is another weird thing. Unless the AF representative is using this as an excuse to cover a mistake of his/hers, it could be that the ticket was issued by a bogus travel agency, not on AF stock... So many things are possible.