JDiver

AA employees will use IATA timaticweb2 to verify if a passenger will be allowed to fly, not Sherpa. Airlines and airport officials rely on timaticweb2 and their government’s regulations, not Sherpa. Another easily preventable AA fail.

MSPeconomist

Except for the long term visa case, there's nothing that says proof is needed, or more importantly, what would be considered to be acceptable proof.

IMO the BWI agent tried to get the OP and wife on board by asking for additional documents and then permitted OP and wife to board because he/she was satisfied by the documents/proof that were obtained. Then Claire had a different interpretation of the rules from TIMATIC, which AFAIK doesn't specify what (if any) proof of various relationships to a citizen/national of the Philippines is required.

Assuming a single ticket/PNR, airlines are supposed to check documents before the first segment. There have been cases where a person planned to get their passport during a connection or stopover at the start of an international trip and they were denied boarding.

I wonder how many longterm couples using the same last name (and with any minor children using the same last name) even have a copy of their marriage certificate. For most people, it would be a stretch to locate a (certified) copy of the birth certificate as date of birth is shown on driver's licenses and passports.

Passports normally show place of birth as well as date of birth, so the only additional information on a birth certificate would be names of mother and (in most cases) father (maybe with their marital status), plus perhaps some doctor and hospital information. Perhaps the BWI agent assumed that this implies citizenship, which is correct (with few exceptions) in the USA but not everywhere.

Antarius

I assume Sherpa is powered by TIMATIC or some source that is reliable. It is a third party tool that is used by other vendors for evisa procurement and stuff.

dls25

Actually, if you click on "Documents and requirements you need to travel" it is a link to TIMATIC.

Often1

OP's wife was unable to properly document her admissibility to the Philippines. Thus, she was denied boarding. That could have happened at BWI, DFW, or ICN. Best at BWI, but DFW it was.

The TIMATIC readout, no matter how formatted (all of the portals feed of TIMATIC data), yields the same clearcut result. The sole glitch is that the BWI agent did not read through to the end.

The sole question here is whether AA ought to refund or credit the ticket as a gesture and there seems to be agreement on that. Some seem to believe that AA has a contractual obligation, but can't point to authority for that, so it's up to OP to sue.

Many people are forced to face stressful travel around family crises. The simple best advice is to find a friend or someone you trust, including a real bricks & mortar TA who charges a fee for their work, to figure out the details when you are not in a frame of mind to do so.

rickg523

More apt analogy - You're wearing shorts. Check in agent says you have to buy trousers. From me. Right now. Then you can fly. You buy the trousers. When you get to the gate, Gate Agent tells you those trousers are the wrong color. You can't fly. You ask what color and why did you sell me those? Agent answers I can't tell you that, but those are the wrong color. Go home. Then you find out they were the right color after all, but your trip is cancelled and you're not due a refund. This is what happens when you fly Kafka Air.

Antarius

Bad analogy, because the person did not have the valid documentation.

rickg523

The point was they weren't told so until after they'd forked over a couple of grand for unusable tickets sold to them at the insistence of AA. And you birds are saying they aren't due a refund? What the hell is the analogy for that? Other than bait and switch fraud?

Antarius

See the first analogy.

Yes, AA screwed up by letting them board in BWI. But the OP screwed up by not having the documents on hand. Why is it entirely AA's fault?

rickg523

I never said it's entirely AA's fault. Reread post 79. I said the OP contractually should be on the hook for the one way tickets he purchased on line. But the sale by the agent of round trip tickets, implying this was sufficient for him to fly, when it wasn't sufficient, should be redressed.

Steve M

I've been in exactly the situation you were in: starting at IAH, connecting at DFW to an int'l flight, and doing mobile check-in. I had no bags to check. When I got to the gate area, I heard my name being paged to the podium. They did the document check at that point, and acted like they had to note this in the computer before my boarding pass would give a green light at the gate. I don't know when your experience was, but at some point they seem to have made it such that this step can't be skipped, unless a gate agent just cleared people in the computer without actually doing the check, and I doubt that would happen as that would be a way to lose your job should a problem happen downstream.

What about the passenger compensating AA for the passenger's mistake of trying to fly without proper entry documentation for the ticketed destination? I suppose paying for the transportation actually used is the compensation due here, and it sounds like that's already happened.

Dave Noble

In the end, the only one responsible for ensuring that they have the correct documentation to travel is the passenger
The only time that an airline has to ensure that documentation is correct is before allowing the passenger to board the flight where it is needed ; the passenger had documentation that allowed travel to DFW
The airline is not responsible for providing a system where passengers can check what is required, though some do ; I find easiest to find and access is Qatar Airways's

Would it be a nice gesture to allow credit for future use - yes
I cannot see that there is anything contractuallly that requires that the airline check documents at origin for the entire journey

asking customer service on a basis of a goodwill request seems a lot more likely to be successful to me in getting value from the ticket

Antarius

This typically happens to me (unless I check bags). However I have made it to DFW and ORD without having to do document check. A few years ago, I flew MAF-DFW and then onwards to LHR, but didn't even have my passport until I landed in DFW. An unexpected trip resulted in having to fly to LHR but I wasn't carrying my passport. My friend brought it to me in DFW, at which point I exited security, got my passport and then did document check.

It could have been a thing CSRs could override at one point, like you said. I'd wager all these experiences are 3 or so years old at least.

Often1

You will need to point to a contract provision to support that if it is going to help OP.

My view is that it would be the appropriate customer service gesture for AA to refare the ticket to a BWI-DFW-BWI and refund the balance to OP's credit card.

AsiaTravel2019

It's unfortunate the OP had the experience he did.

I work in the Philippines on a regular basis and it has been very common knowledge that the country has been closed for months. Without a Phils passport, I wouldn't even try, even if the airline lets you on (unless you like sleeping in Terminal 1 at MNL.)

Someone else mentioned: even if you could get in, the enhanced community quarantine would guarantee a miserable experience. If somebody outside the US passes away, I will be attending on Zoom and we can have an in-person memorial next year sometime.