Islam Tarek

I booked my flight through KLM from 6 months to make all the necessary arrangements long time before the departure and to make sure I am on safe-side, I then obtained the USA tourist visa and I booked my residence in Houston for my exam. Yesterday was the day of the flight; at the airport , they did not allow me board to the airplane cuz I have a transit in 2 EU countries and so I would need to have a schengen visa, and I could not finally take my flight to USA cuz of the transit and visa thing which they did not tell me about long time before. I tried to change the flight route through KLM so that I can have only 1 transit a EU country and so I can eventually reach USA, their call center told me I will have to pay 720 Euros while my original booking was for 630 Euros!!, so I cancelled the flight. Furthermore, I knew from Air-france desk in the airport that KLM has changed my flight time schedule 1 month before without even notifying me which caused me to be mad, this was written in my booking as the desk-man in the airport saw it while he was trying to help me in vane because KLM do not even allow Air-France men in Cairo to change any booking!

BobTL

Ditto

It's not the airline responsibility to inform you of the visa conditions needed for your journey, so while I'm sure it wasn't a nice experience it isn't KLM's fault.

mikem004

IT: What was your departure airport?

Gajan

Welcome to Flyertalk and sorry that it was in these circumstances.

As pointed out above, it is the travellers responsibility to ensure the correct visa requirements for travel.

Im a new user

This is correct: if you transit through two EU countries, then you need a Schengen transit visa. Unfortunately, it is your responsibility to find out if you need a visa and in that case obtain the visa.Would you still have transited through two EU countries if you hadn't been rebooked? If you had originally booked Cairo-Amsterdam-Houston, but KLM changed this to Cairo-Paris-Amsterdam-Houston without your knowledge, then I'd imagine that it is KLM's problem to sort this out for you.

Often1

No, it is not. That is not helpful in the least.

It is always 100% the passenger's responsibility to either have the proper documents or, in the situation you have pointed to, to inform the carrier that the reroute is not acceptable because one lacks the proper documents (and presumably cannot obtain those documents).

Before traveling, one should always check the same database, TIMATIC, which air carriers use. It is free through a number of channels, one of them at:

https://www.united.com/web/en-US/app...aspx?i=TIMATIC

Remember, while air carriers check documents to avoid being fined, it is hardly beneficial to a passenger to be transported to some location, only to be denied entry.

craz

Im on the fence on this one , only if the OP had originally booked it as a 1 stop in the EU and if they had their contact info in the record, so booked as a 2 stopper or no email, tel# then OP fault, but if KLM changed them to a 2 stopper and never informed the OP then it should be KLMs fault. Even with status with a few carriers there have been times when I never got a notification of Itin changes be it timing, plane type, even seat assignments where I did OLCI and had 1 seat and yet at the airport ended up in a different seat or cabin even thou the plane was as expected

what I dont get and understand is if the OP was heading to a test for whatever reason it was very important to them, to be in Houston, why cancel the tkt? I can forsee another new thread I cancelled my tkt and KLM refuses to refund me my money, my guess is the OP had a non-refundable tkt, by not up paying the OP loses the tkt paid for, Visa fees and any other money paid out or owed and a chance not being granted another time to take said test. As bad as an extra 720E is it might have been a bargain

Im a new user

The issue is that KLM apparently made some change to the booking without telling (so it seems that the OP first heard of this change after arriving to the airport). As I wrote: if this modification, made by KLM, changed the itinerary from an itinerary which doesn't need a visa to one which needs a visa, then it would be KLM's problem to solve, meaning that KLM either pays for a Schengen visa (not possible if you aren't informed about the schedule change before arriving at the airport) or that KLM chooses a different routing. On the other hand, if it was originally booked as a two-stop itinerary, then it's the OP's problem to solve.

Imagine that you book CAI-AMS-HOU, but then KLM tells you at the departure airport that the itinerary has changed to CAI-CDG-AMS-HOU. If you haven't heard of this schedule change before arriving at the airport, then you haven't had the possibility to protest and you haven't been informed that an extra visa suddenly is needed. Therefore, the airline must fix this for you, in one way or another.

craz

It seems that the OP isnt a veteran flyer, at times I dont get contacted about a change to my Itin, but if I check the res sure enough theres a message in red about some change(usually doesnt say what I have to pull out my printed confirmation and compare them) The OP said they purchased the tkt 6 months out (tells me its a non-refundable most likely) but hard to believe that the OP never checked it before arriving to the airport (assuming it was booked as a 1 stopper and not a 2 stopper) what if the flight was moved up by 3 hrs they would have missed the flight anyways.I feel for the OP who probably wont get even a dime back in what was paid, But cant understand how they never checked the PNR to make sure all is good, could be they did and nothing changed and it was always a 2 stopper and simply didnt know they needed a visa if stopping in 2 Countrys. To be honest I never knew that either but as a US Citizen it doesnt apply, I know that since Ive had more then 2 stops on some of my tkts and never had a problem

Islam Tarek

Thank you guys, I got it, I am just having a terrible experience so excuse me

Islam Tarek

Cairo

craz

Sorry OP, seems since you didnt say you booked it as a 1 stopper and KLM changed it to a 2 stopper, that in fact you booked a 2 stopper since it was probably less money. Hopefully although they dont have to KLM will give you a future credit for amount of the tkt you purchased maybe less a small fee

it wont help you but I already wrote that I had no idea myself that more then 1 stop would require a Schengen Visa. I recently did a TWOV in China I read the Wiki a few times checked everything 3x, yet somehow missed that before leaving Seoul I was suppose to let them know I was going to avail myself of TWOV and didnt have a visa. In the end they never asked me at checkin or the gate, result was once in China it took alot longer to get everything taken care of as an airline employee had to do some paper work which wasnt done, dont know if the airline was fined, there was 1 other person as well. Had China denied me entrance I would have been the only party at fault, thankfully it worked out in the end

I hope you can find a way to still get to that test and dont have to get a new US Visa

atflyer

Hi OP, indeed a bad experience and it shows how complicated visa rules are. I travel a lot to China and there you have similar specific rules you really need to know - in many cities you can even make a stopover of 3 or 6 days as long as you fly in and out to different countries, but never with an additional stop in China since for the 2nd stop you are not allowed to get a waiver . You see often cheap tickets to Asia/Australia via China, but I'd never risk a two stopper within China, although it seems that as long as you are not longer in China as 24 hours including the domestic segment it should be fine. The one time I did a TWOV stop in China I was initially put out of the line for boarding since at boarding they could not find my visum in the passport of course, and were not familiar with the TWOV rules. I had print outs of the rules on me and after some cross-checks with supervisors they let me board for the flight to China. My lesson - be extremely careful if you pass countries for which your nationality needs a visum, and do not trust anyone else as your own good knowledge of the rules. To OP: I really hope KL will be lenient in giving some refund, and that you can do the test at some later moment.

TerryK

Misleading thread title.