barhom

You cant leave EU with only a residency permit card, you need the your passport as well. But to answer your question, no, they came and left together. The only difference between them is that this is his first trip whereas she has made several trips earlier (and has lots of stamps)

Grog

You did not have enough information to accuse the passenger of a mistake. So far, it doesn't look like that the passenger or the OP has made any mistakes. A number of posts in this thread are accusational without sufficient evidence.

As a fellow member here, I'd prefer to see other members solicit more information for clarification rather than rushing to judgment against the OP and his parents. Too much to expect? I don't think so.

barhom

They are on their way back to the airport now to see if LH will either re-book them on the next flight to BEY (if they can verify that they have made a mistake) or at least book them on the next flight back to ARN.

We will see how it goes.

Anyways, I would like to ask, in the case that we want to apply for compensation according to EU 261/04. To which airline would that be?

The ticketing airline is SAS (first leg was SAS) and the 2nd leg where one got denied boarding is operated by LH. However the e-ticket numbers are all in the SAS numbering scheme.

Complain to SAS or to LH in this case?

paul00

@barhom: I am sorry to hear about your parents' experience

Edit: I've just re-read your first post. Your parents booked their journey (ARN-FRA-BEY) on a single ticket. On 12 May, their first flight (ARN-FRA) was delayed. By the time they arrived in FRA, they had missed their connecting flight to BEY, and so they were re-booked onto the next flight from FRA to BEY on 13 May. However, on 13 May, they were denied boarding to the FRA-BEY flight, as LH incorrectly thought that your father had inadequate travel documentation. Your parents were therefore rebooked again onto the next flight from FRA to BEY on 14 May.

Based on these facts, I think your parents would actually be able to claim compensation pursuant to Regulation 261/2004 from both SAS (for the delay of the ARN-FRA flight, if the delay was 3 hours or more) and LH (as they denied boarding to the FRA-BEY flight on 13 May, without a valid reason). The Regulation exempts airlines from having to compensate passengers 'where there are reasonable grounds to deny them boarding, such as reasons of health, safety or security, or inadequate travel documentation', but in your parents' case, LH made a mistake and incorrectly thought that your father's travel documentation was inadequate.

:D!

Switzerland is in the Schengen area (having joined in 2008) and since then, although there are occasional passport inspections when travelling between Germany and Switzerland by train, passports are never stamped

As the affected people are Syrian citizens they will find it hard to get a visa to any third country especially if they do not really intend to genuinely visit that country. I suppose they could as a last resort book a flight to Iran

I am wondering how a Syrian citizen presumably at least in his 40s has "never left the EU"

I think the only recourse, if LH refuses to interpret the Timatic rules differently, is to contact the German Federal Police as stated by oliver2002

fassy

Why not? Thousands of reasons... no money for a trip, health issues, just don't want to... I know a lot people with Turkish passport who never even left Germany

barhom

The answer to that is quite simply. He gained his Swedish residency permit in 2016 and subsequently flew to ARN Stockholm for the first time ever in 2016.

This is his first trip leaving the EU, he has been here for less than a year. Quite naturally he only has 1 stamp on his passport with EU entries.


We have contacted LH in Frankfurt now and they are trying to get them on another flight to BEY tonight after tripe-checking that their documents are correct. At least they told us that, in case they cant fly them to BEY they will fly them back to ARN at their cost.

I assure you guys that their papers are in order. They are flying back to BEY to visit SYR to renew their passports. There's nothing hokus pokus about anything, a simple mistake done by the border police and/or the airline employees @ the gate of the plane.

oliver2002

Make sure their passports are signed We had some drama there too: LH Denied boarding in DXB due to unsigned SY passport [split off from Newbie lounge]

TomMM

Last year I flew FRA-BEY on LH and it was interesting watching the passport check process. A few people were denied boarding including one lady who couldn't explain why she was in London for an extended stay.

GUWonder

There could be one of several things going on.

The first thing I'd want to know if in their situations is if the Syrian government had reported the denied travel party's passport to Interpol. There has been a lot of that going on, and it's yet another reason that I've been saying that the Interpol SLT database has become a governmental weapon against the traveling public and is just not about stolen and lost travel documents.

There are Syrian citizens who have only ever lived in the EU, as various EU countries don't allow for dual-citizenship with non-European countries (at least). There are also Syrian citizens who have never left the EU as they came into the EU and have never left since then.

Some of these denials of travel actually protect Syrians from ending up worse off. For example, it's not necessarily a great thing to end up in Turkey or Lebanon or Iraq only to find out that the Syrian government has revoked the Syrian passport rights of a Syrian citizen legally resident in some EU/Schengen country who then can't make it back home easily since residency documents by themselves don't necessarily work all that well for international travel absent a passport.

GUWonder

Switzerland is part of the Schengen area. Going from Germany to Switzerland won't generate an EU exit stamp for most people, and that has been consistent for the entire period of time during the Syrian refugee crisis.

barhom

Just to update you all.

Lufthansa is sending my parents in law back on the next flight to ARN at their cost.
I'll be sending a claim for compensation to SAS and Lufthansa according to Regulation 261/2004.

We will see how it goes.

Thanks

UA1K_no_more

They can't renew them at the Syrian embassy in Stockholm? Or any other Syrian embassy within the EU?

GUWonder

Syria has cut back on where it holds passport blanks for its latest passport version and also increased the fees related to getting a passport. And Syria isn't all as well connected with DHL and the like as it used to be.

Non-European citizens with residency in an EU country can end up in a mess even if in the EU but outside their country of residency without a passport.

Even as a US passport holder with various treaty rights to be in some EU countries, if I cross the border of some such country to leave without my US passports, I may have trouble even crossing back in on the same day.

TomMM

How much time was left on their passports?
(http://www.iatatravelcentre.com/travelinformation.php)