corporate-wage-slave

Just for the benefit of anyone else going through India (and indeed Pakistan and Bangladesh - I can't remember about Sri Lanka), many airports there stamp a label and attach it to every item that passes through the security scan. At the gate they often check each hand baggage item going on their aircraft to see if the label is present and correctly stamped. It's not quite the end of the world if the label has fallen off, but again given the Indian's love of stamps and bureaucracy, it's best to take good care of such things.

HarryKUK

Yep, I've experienced this before. I've flown to India around 20 times now and although things are improving it's still overly complicated and out of line with other major airports.

Last time I flew to India I was in transit in Mumbai on a flight to Bangkok, where I deliberately left a twelve hour gap between sectors so I could pop out to visit a friend (I had a long term visa at the time which allowed me to pop in and out at leisure). The staff on the exit ramp saw the connecting boarding card poking out of my passport and wouldn't let me follow the arrivals path, insisting I follow the connecting flights signs because I had an onward boarding pass. I must have explained my stopover at least five times to five different people who eventually gave in and let me go to arrivals. They seemed very unwilling to deviate from set procedures.

IcHot

I always wonder about the relationships in abusive and unfair situations. In the US, we had a police department and a hospital do some awful things in tandem and they both tried to make money on it.

In this case, all parties failed to provide for passengers and wanted to pocket money for services not rendered. Rules used for corrupt ends, IMO.

Dave Noble

Riiight - So BA and Immigration are in cahoots to get passengers to bypass immigration so that it can deny boarding and make some extra cash? Really?

HarryKUK

Have you ever been to India, Dave?

Whilst I doubt this is the case here, nothing surprises me anymore. I've had check in agents try to convince me I had to pay a fee to enter the lounge, which was then verified by the 'lounge assistant'. It took my very deadpan face for them to eventually back down and put it down to an error ('Oh, we didn't realise you were in business class')

jacobitetraveller

as far as I am concerned BA will lay the blame firmly with either immigration or the pax or both

the situation should not have arisen and BA did the right thing by denying boarding

Dave Noble

Sorry; the idea that there is some conspiracy going on here seems ludicrous to me

HarryKUK

We are going off topic now, but are you familiar with the Thai airport scam? AKA the 'zig zag scam'? These things do happen, but as I mentioned earlier, I don't think that's what is happening in this case. But I would be careful in calling it 'ludicrous' - stranger things have happened.

Ah, also have you ever crossed a land border between certain countries in Africa? We exited one, queued to enter the other, and were told we needed to pay some sum to enter (around $100). When we refused and tried to query this with the original country they said the same thing. These are immigration officials from two different countries, clearly colluding. Literally in no mans land, no access to an embassy, totally at the mercy of their demands. And you know it's a made up, totally corrupt fee, when they begin to negotiate the figure downwards with you. First hand experience. (Some parts of) the world can be an awful place.

IcHot

I think you misunderstand. They don't have to work in coordination.

The point is that it is so easy to hide behind the rules and official policy and pocket the money and wash one's hands of the matter. Nice way to make a few bucks and not provide the service that was paid for. Regular people get screwed over many times by the compounding of events.

Of course, BA is a legitimate business. Therefore, all the rules are written or interpreted in their favor most of the time.

Andriyko

I would very much like to know whether checking exit stamps is something routinely done by airlines in India. Something tells me that this was an unusual situation and that BA was directed by authorities to check the stamps at the gate (otherwise I see no reason why should BA even care whether someone has the stamp and how they left the country as long as they're unlikely to cause problems upon arrival).

I once spent half an hour running around BCN trying to find an immigration officer to stamp my passport upon departure (I did not) because I found it strange at that time that there was no exist control. But most people won't know what's supposed to happen. As long as they did not have some criminal intent and followed what seemed to be a perfectly fine route with no queue then I don't see how these passengers can be accused of anything.

These people did no violate any rules, they did have correct documents but the government (airport) failed to channel them through the airport so that they can be inspected for immigration. Abandoning them at the airport seems harsh. While BA is not responsible I don't see how this situation does not fit "if you can't travel due to circumstances beyond your control we'll re-book you' promise (unless these passengers went out of the way to avoid immigration). Plus, it was not just 1 person, and for all we know people from other flights also could have gotten into the departure hall without going through immigration.

BahrainLad

I remember a certain "Land of the Free" that not so long ago used to get very upset if your little green VWP chit had gone missing from your passport, or hadn't been surrendered when you left and you were trying to get back in...caused a few people a few problems from time to time. Still, (some parts of) the world can be an awful place!

HarryKUK

No, it isn't routine, I think it was just done on this day as a result of the situation.

I think there were others who did the same from what the pax have told me, so can only assume other flights from other airlines were also affected since it wouldn't just have been BA pax in the queue at this time.

You want to go where?

Agreed. Hanlon's razor reminds us that we should not attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence. It is very easy for me to believe that local Indian immigration officials made an error and corrected it in a way deleterious to the OP's relatives. I find it much harder to accept that BA as a corporation (and it would have to be at the corporate level not at the individual level, because there is no way that revenue could accrue to individuals in BA) conspired with Indian immigration to allow a certain number of passengers to bypass Immigration, get stopped at boarding, and thereby miss their flight. The potential costs in bad publicity for both BA and the Immigration authorities is far more than the limited revenue that either could generate through such a scheme.

corporate-wage-slave

Not so sure about that. I know I've had my exit stamps checked regularly at CCU where there is no scope for bypassing immigration.

I also don't believe it's anything underhand. You just need to see the BOM emigration desks to see how this could have happened. One feature is that airport staff wander too and fro in that area and I guess that's why they make it easy for them to walk through.

HarryKUK

What's the rationale behind this? If the immigration channels can't be bypassed why waste time and resource checking for stamps at the gate? Surely they're admitting they don't trust their own procedures if they feel the need to check their own work again at the gate?