Is Transit visa a requirement or not
May 31, 2019, 6:27 am
#16
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jeps, I've taken the liberty as a mod of trying to split your post up a bit which will hopefully make it a bit more readable, enabling us to understand the position better and give you the best advice.
As far as I can tell from this:
- your mum required a transit visa to pass through LHR. Because we don't have any more information from you on the various criteria, at the moment we have to assume BA has made the correct determination from Timatic here.
- as your mum's UK transit visit was refused, BA was unable to let you travel.
- you tried a number of re-routings, but none of them worked well.
- eventually, having been told that you would lose all the money expect the taxes, you still decided to cancel the ticket. You subsequently received the refund you were due from BA.
- you then decided, after the original flight date had passed, to change your mind and ask if you could again change the ticket to retain more value. As BA had already processed your cancellation and provided the refund, they were unwilling or unable to do this.
BA's Conditions of Carriage, and those of every other airline in the world, require the passenger to take on the responsibility of having adequate and correct documentation to enable them to fly. When your mother did not have this, BA correctly would not process her at the airport in Kenya. This is not BA's fault, so I don't think you have any redress there.
It sounds like your entire ticket has been cancelled and the refund due for it sent to you. The return portion you refer to probably no longer exists, I'm afraid.
On the face of it, your main chance of recovering anything from this seems to be the number of pieces of conflicting advice you believe you received from BA. It is entirely possible this has happened, because it sounds like you were dealing with a lot of different places and offices.
As has been said, if you could let us know what exactly you're hoping to achieve here we could probably give you more precise and useful advice.
As far as I can tell from this:
- your mum required a transit visa to pass through LHR. Because we don't have any more information from you on the various criteria, at the moment we have to assume BA has made the correct determination from Timatic here.
- as your mum's UK transit visit was refused, BA was unable to let you travel.
- you tried a number of re-routings, but none of them worked well.
- eventually, having been told that you would lose all the money expect the taxes, you still decided to cancel the ticket. You subsequently received the refund you were due from BA.
- you then decided, after the original flight date had passed, to change your mind and ask if you could again change the ticket to retain more value. As BA had already processed your cancellation and provided the refund, they were unwilling or unable to do this.
BA's Conditions of Carriage, and those of every other airline in the world, require the passenger to take on the responsibility of having adequate and correct documentation to enable them to fly. When your mother did not have this, BA correctly would not process her at the airport in Kenya. This is not BA's fault, so I don't think you have any redress there.
It sounds like your entire ticket has been cancelled and the refund due for it sent to you. The return portion you refer to probably no longer exists, I'm afraid.
On the face of it, your main chance of recovering anything from this seems to be the number of pieces of conflicting advice you believe you received from BA. It is entirely possible this has happened, because it sounds like you were dealing with a lot of different places and offices.
As has been said, if you could let us know what exactly you're hoping to achieve here we could probably give you more precise and useful advice.
May 31, 2019, 6:37 am
#17
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Join Date: May 2019
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I see, this case is the same as mine exactly when it comes to the rescheduled flight. I thought BA staff would check in the system. This is truly unfair because Australia no longer issue labels, and uk immigration noted Australian visa holder to be exempted, yet the airline don't allow these paper notification grants.
May 31, 2019, 6:57 am
#19
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You're only allowed 5 posts in your first 24 hours. So if you keep posting multiple short posts, you'll be locked out of FlyerTalk for a period. NWIFlyer has already tried to help you on this point.I wonder whether this is the problem; I think that we may have had some similar query before. Would BA at NBO be able to check the validity of an electronic Australian visa, so as to satisfy the UK's TWOV conditions? Would BA at NBO have known to do this on the first travel attempt? Would the BA pre-travel contacts who have given apparently conflicting or confusing advice known what NBO could or couldn't do or what NBO would or would not have known to do?
May 31, 2019, 7:24 am
#20
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(10th April, 2018) The first flight was from Kenya(2335 hrs)to London(Heathrow)- 6.20 am … London( Hearthrow) 9.00 am to Doha then to Melbourne – ( two tickets)She was denied boarding and needed transit visaSo we rescheduled and applied for Transit visa without confirmed email and official tickets because the booking staff forgot to save the card details hence delaying and we couldn’t wait because it takes log for process. We ended up submitting and advising them that we would submit the rest of the documents, Thereafter the Transit visa was declined.
Rescheduled flight (16th May, 2019) Kenya (2335 hrs) to London(6.20 am), from London(heathrew) 9.30 pm to Sydney the Melbourne. This was one ticket operated by BA till Australia – we had to cancel this because they said the transit visa is still required because Australia paper notification is not acceptedWhen I check in the BA website, she is exempted, and when I call immigration Uk they still say she is exempted. She holds
Kenyan Passport
Australian Visa
Yes I realized I made a big mistake
I thought she didn't require transit visa under TWOV
Rescheduled flight (16th May, 2019) Kenya (2335 hrs) to London(6.20 am), from London(heathrew) 9.30 pm to Sydney the Melbourne. This was one ticket operated by BA till Australia – we had to cancel this because they said the transit visa is still required because Australia paper notification is not acceptedWhen I check in the BA website, she is exempted, and when I call immigration Uk they still say she is exempted. She holds
Kenyan Passport
Australian Visa
Yes I realized I made a big mistake
I thought she didn't require transit visa under TWOV
Please explain "two tickets." If mother had one ticket TO LHR and then a separate ticket for the flight(s) beyond LHR, it's technically not a connection. This could impact the use of UK TWOV since someone could obviously cancel the second ticket and attempt to remain in the UK or claim to be stranded in the UK after being delivered to LHR by BA.
May 31, 2019, 7:39 am
#21
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Join Date: May 2019
Posts: 7
The first ticket was booked by BA, but from London to Doha was Qatar Airline, I remember when I called Qatar Airline, they supplied their ticket, The second ticket(rescheduled) was all ran by BA right from Kenya to Australia but through London. And to add on what Frequent flyer said, I personally called immigration and the staff said , she would be exempted to pass uk without transit visa and even gave me the reference no, so the mistake might be airline's.
May 31, 2019, 10:06 am
#22
Join Date: Jul 2018
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I'm pretty sure BA do have access? I've flown to Australia on BA with an E visa with no problems.....
May 31, 2019, 10:09 am
#23
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May 31, 2019, 11:25 am
#24
Join Date: Oct 2004
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For reference, here is the previous thread where I documented a similar denied boarding experience: Direct Airside Transit visa exemption + BA check-in staff
The issue seems to be that the UK home office Airline Liason Officers can't or won't verify Australian e-visas for purposes of transiting the UK without a visa.
The issue seems to be that the UK home office Airline Liason Officers can't or won't verify Australian e-visas for purposes of transiting the UK without a visa.
May 31, 2019, 3:29 pm
#25
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Worth pointing out as well that any reference from OP to a paper copy of Australian visa will not be an Australian visa, as they are issued entirely electronically and searched against passport number/date of birth in vevo
a paper copy will only be a user printed out email or confirmation page which is never going to be any more acceptable than the electronic version. They do occasionally serve as a prompt to check the electronic database but really they are proof of nothing
as I said previously, my default would have been to just rebook on QR NBO-DOH-MEL. The London side trip seems unnecessary and I can kind of see what the formal transit visa was declined because it’s 2 separate tickets and who on earth would fly such a weird routing?
Now we’re where we are it may be best to look for an alternative routing on QF via Johannesburg, as they are necessarily the experts at checking Australian visas
a paper copy will only be a user printed out email or confirmation page which is never going to be any more acceptable than the electronic version. They do occasionally serve as a prompt to check the electronic database but really they are proof of nothing
as I said previously, my default would have been to just rebook on QR NBO-DOH-MEL. The London side trip seems unnecessary and I can kind of see what the formal transit visa was declined because it’s 2 separate tickets and who on earth would fly such a weird routing?
Now we’re where we are it may be best to look for an alternative routing on QF via Johannesburg, as they are necessarily the experts at checking Australian visas
Jun 1, 2019, 1:50 am
#26
Join Date: Oct 2004
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I don't know if the blame here is with BA either, they just do what their home office airport liaison officer tells them to do.
Jun 1, 2019, 3:11 am
#27
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A weird routing shouldn't be a reason for transit visa exemption being declined. The rules state that a valid Australian visa can be used for transit to any country. So if you were flying BKK to LHR to FCO on a passport that required a transit visa for the UK, having an Australian visa should exempt you. Except it won't. Because reasons...
I don't know if the blame here is with BA either, they just do what their home office airport liaison officer tells them to do.
I don't know if the blame here is with BA either, they just do what their home office airport liaison officer tells them to do.
(i’m referring of course to the formal transit visa being declined by immigration a/a an exemption being declined by BA)
Jun 1, 2019, 4:06 am
#28
Join Date: Apr 2008
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It would be helpful if BA can electronically sponsor transit visas for customers who booked and paid on BA. Emirates can do it in DXB.
Less trouble for the customers, more ticket sales for BA, more people through LHR..
Less trouble for the customers, more ticket sales for BA, more people through LHR..
Jun 1, 2019, 5:38 am
#29
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Join Date: May 2019
Posts: 7
True, but in the application of Transit visa I submitted the second rescheduled ticket, it wasn't complex. May be BA got less passengers traveling from Kenya to Australia through London. I bought this ticket thinking first it was cheap and affordable, but after transaction I realized it was expensive. So initial currency was USD and I didn't even think of cancelling because after comparing with the other airlines it looked almost the same price, I didn't know about other challenges like transit visa and so, I could have even cancelled within 24 hrs and get the money back. In real sense it is very expensive and complex because so far we've spent a lot of money. But I will look for other airlines now and forget about this. But I still think the refusal for this boarding yet the flight it was on one ticket, seriously that was not genuine, there are some tricks in it.