urww

Dog250, I'm so sorry to hear about your experience.
It is clear that a check in agent was not correct. Have you tried to fight back, escalate to a supervisor?

Checking timatic everything is very clear:
All travelers arriving directly or transiting for over 12 hours through Brazil, Angola, Argentina, Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Colombia, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, French Guiana, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Sudan, Suriname, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, Venezuela

I can imagine you're caught completely off guard on the spot . Once that happened to me at EZE when flying back home to CPT. I could have not remotely imagined that i would have needed YF vaccination coming from Argentina. Fortunately some googling, basic photoshop skills and I was good to go .

So you were travelling from MVD (Uruguay, which is not on the list above) and your transit in Brazil was clearly less than 12 hours (there is nothing in the rules about being it landside or airside, so you were clearly abiding all the rules and requirements), why the hell they required YF vaccination? Well... it looks like it comes down to a particular agent you dealt with. Why wouldn't you escalated tho?

I think you should go to a local LATAM office and make a big fuss. They clearly messed up a big way - they denied you boarding with no reasons for this (and no matter if they say you were denied by QR staff, you've got a ticket issued by LA and LA flight number - they're the ones responsible in the end). They have to send you back to CAI. I think it's not gonna be an easy ride (talking to them) but if you're persistent enough should be manageable.

Again, so sorry for your experience. Please fight with them, don't waste your avios. You're in the right here.

urww

All the requirements are obviously checked at the point of departure, for you it was MVD. If you were not good to go they wouldn't have let you board the first flight MVD-GRU - to begin with.

heliot2009

The problem is that "transit up to 12h" means not leaving the airside transit area of the airport. Dog250 was good to go at MVD because the LA agent did not assume that he would leave the transit zone in GRU.
Unfortunately later he formally entered Brazil on his own in GRU and from this moment traveled to CAI from Brazil and not in transit, at least for QR agents. I wouldn't blame LA agents in this situation at all. If anyone made a mistake, it was the QR agent, not LA's. Dog250 made here also two mistakes in my opinion: 1) He did not check in for the entire route at LA check-in counter in MVD (it's absolutely possible - I did it myself a few weeks ago) ; 2) He left the airside zone in GRU.

urww

Well... this is simply your assumption, isn't it? There is literally nothing in timatic saying that the transit must be airside / without entering Brazil (or other mentioned countries). The only thing mentioned - being in transit in Brazil for less than 12 hours. It was followed through. Nada. Many of the countries in the list wouldn't even provide the opportunity of airside transfer (Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania - aha, yeah).

These rules are not open for interpretation. Airline reps must follow the rules as they are published. They are normally written in a very clear language. If it were to happen the rules do require not leaving airside that would've been written (like in case with transit via UK, where it's clearly written in which case you can't leave airside, in which case you can and for how long the airside/landside transfer is allowed).

I would assume a check in agent might have been making up the rules the same way you do (which is nothing new).

Dog250

Yes, I was fairly persistent but it was a loosing battle.
The main issue was the language barrier. My Portuguese is pretty much non existent and the check in agents had limited English (resulting in us having to use Google translate).
The initial QR check in agent wouldn't listen to me at all. She gave me Denied boarding paperwork and told me to go to the LATAM desk to "fix it". I pushed back numerous times but to no avail.
At the LATAM desk I again told them that I'm only transiting Brazil (I even showed them the Egyptair web page detailing the 12 hour exemption). I was simply told "I'll send you back to Montevideo. This is your new route - GRU-SCL-MVD. Come back at 17:30 for your tickets." They weren't answering any of my questions at all at this point.
I probably could've been more firm but at the time it felt like it would've got me nowhere (at least at the time).
I was also concerned that I would eventually go over the 12hrs and be stuck even if I could escalate it and get it fixed.

​​​​​​I agree with you. It will not be easy but I'll try my best at the LATAM office tomorrow. If no luck there then I'll call them.

When I told the QR check in agent that I'm allowed 12hrs to transit, she replied 'well they won't know how long you've been in Brazil for." I replied well I have my boarding pass from MVD... "Well Egypt are very strict".
Thanks for your help!

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SK AAR

As stated above GRU check-in agents (landside; I have no idea about transfer desks/airside) are notorious for asking for YF vacc. proof. Been there, done that.

heliot2009

QR agents at transfer/check-in desk in GRU (airside, near the gate) don't ask for anything related to vaccinations.
And one important advice for people who will travel from MVD to CAI: do your homework and check in at the airport to get all 3 boarding passes (MVD-GRU-DOH-CAI) from LA agent.

sony2012

I have a ticket with egypt air to europe with a loooooong stopover then with Latam. Did anyone ever skipped the first leg and had no issues with Latam? I know usually it is not advisable but I feel like with Egypt Air and latam, 1x seems possible...

Dog250

Quick update.
Spoke with the lady at the LATAM ticket office at Santiago.
After a long queue and numerous back and forths with Google translate. I was making progress. At first she said I had to pay the fare difference (about $800 USD). I explained the yellow fever certificate issues (which she had no clue about and openly admitted to not knowing). I explained that it was not my fault so there should be no fare difference to pay. She was going to call a supervisor (was looking promising) .Unfortunately my Avios flight leaves in about 1hr and didn't want to risk missing it so I had to bail. She said I could call the booking centre and they'll help.
I'm hopeful.

Side note: looks like my premium economy avios booking has been upgraded to first... If my boarding pass is to be believed. I'll believe it when I'm in the seat!

Thanks all!

sony2012

after departure, I thought the changes were free if I remember the fare rule correctly, isn't that the case?

fridgy

i flew on this ticket 5 days ago, changed my MVD-GRU sector for free to an earlier flight as well.. (I was fighting with the agent for 20mins to get waiver on fare difference - in the end i asked him what the fare difference is - there was none and it was for fact - free haha)

ScienceTeacher

Why is nothing easy?

I was in a back and forth with LATAM over a schedule change on one of the trips I booked. They wouldn't rebook QR, so I thought, fine, fully refundable, I'll take a refund and rebook the MAD-BOG fare.

Refund confirmation has come through for this amount! Where are boarding fees on the e-Ticket print out?

ScienceTeacher

Update: Seems they are refunding the taxes and fees element. Thought it was fully refundable, unless the ticket component will come later?

fridgy

yes, it is fully refundable. Just call them, they fixed it for me within 20mins on the phone.

urww

ScienceTeacher, sorry to hear about your troubles. That is just insane. I would expect horrific customer service from LATAM, but not to this level. I feel like we have it easy with Turkish Airlines . Please keep us updated.

Dog250, any update on your side? If you already made your way back to Europe tho I dunno what a resolution supposed to be.