PTY-MIA-UVF yellow fever - denied boarding
Jun 19, 2016, 12:01 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2011
Posts: 239
PTY-MIA-UVF yellow fever - denied boarding
Hello all,
premise: I'm not complaining as the mistake was made by me.... so no flaming please. I just would like to post this in order to help others avoiding this mistake!
We have one ticket containing UVF-MIA-PTY-MIA-UVF.
Yesterday we flew PANAMA-MIAMI with AA directly. We landed in the afternoon, went to our usual airport Hotel.
This morning we went back to MIA International airport where we got bad news: "denied boarding because we could not prove to have the yellow fever vaccination". Luckily we have both the vaccination, but we did not carry our certificate with us (very stupid I know but we just forgot this time to have it with us).
We are stuck in Miami (which is ok) for 7 nights now, since this is the time (at least AA requires it) inbetween the arrival from PTY and imigration to UVF if we can not show the certificate. During this time any yellow fever would arise here in the US. So the strict policies of St. Lucia are fullfilled. We are immune but ... well.. no certificate with us.
Funny: if it was a connection flight without leaving MIA airport we would not have had any problem at all, the agent told us. Since it would be fully on PTY responsability.
The supervisor also showed us the documentation that St. Lucia requires a yellow fewer vaccine if you were in Panama within a 7 days period before arrival - something we did not know.... we made our vaccinations for other trips.
We called home trying to reach somebody able to find the certificate for us, even the doctor... but since we are still unable to do so we decided not to fly and stay in MIA for the required time.
The supervisor of MIA was very, very friendly and helpfull - still wasn't able to check us in. He gave us the following options:
a) provide the certificate asap beeing rebooked for tomorrows flight (not an option for us since unable to privide it).
b) get re-vacinated against yellow fewer but it requires 10 days to be immune (not an option again)
c) calling the embassy of St. Lucia asking for a waiver, calling our embassies of our homecountrys (we did decide not to waste time doing this as it is very speculative).
d) wait for 7 nights (fees might apply for changing the flight). This is what we opted for since we have the time and MIA is always nice. The agent printed us a document stating that our flight was not cancelled but since it needs to be reticketed it might get expensive.
e) just booking another flight not with AA is not an option for us. We know nobody would ask us about the vaccination since another airline does not know we came from PTY but this is not the way we solve problems (nobody should I guess since rules and policies are here to be observed).
What do you think about this? Again, please no flaming... I want to share this with you in order to avoid others making the same mistake ^
premise: I'm not complaining as the mistake was made by me.... so no flaming please. I just would like to post this in order to help others avoiding this mistake!
We have one ticket containing UVF-MIA-PTY-MIA-UVF.
Yesterday we flew PANAMA-MIAMI with AA directly. We landed in the afternoon, went to our usual airport Hotel.
This morning we went back to MIA International airport where we got bad news: "denied boarding because we could not prove to have the yellow fever vaccination". Luckily we have both the vaccination, but we did not carry our certificate with us (very stupid I know but we just forgot this time to have it with us).
We are stuck in Miami (which is ok) for 7 nights now, since this is the time (at least AA requires it) inbetween the arrival from PTY and imigration to UVF if we can not show the certificate. During this time any yellow fever would arise here in the US. So the strict policies of St. Lucia are fullfilled. We are immune but ... well.. no certificate with us.
Funny: if it was a connection flight without leaving MIA airport we would not have had any problem at all, the agent told us. Since it would be fully on PTY responsability.
The supervisor also showed us the documentation that St. Lucia requires a yellow fewer vaccine if you were in Panama within a 7 days period before arrival - something we did not know.... we made our vaccinations for other trips.
We called home trying to reach somebody able to find the certificate for us, even the doctor... but since we are still unable to do so we decided not to fly and stay in MIA for the required time.
The supervisor of MIA was very, very friendly and helpfull - still wasn't able to check us in. He gave us the following options:
a) provide the certificate asap beeing rebooked for tomorrows flight (not an option for us since unable to privide it).
b) get re-vacinated against yellow fewer but it requires 10 days to be immune (not an option again)
c) calling the embassy of St. Lucia asking for a waiver, calling our embassies of our homecountrys (we did decide not to waste time doing this as it is very speculative).
d) wait for 7 nights (fees might apply for changing the flight). This is what we opted for since we have the time and MIA is always nice. The agent printed us a document stating that our flight was not cancelled but since it needs to be reticketed it might get expensive.
e) just booking another flight not with AA is not an option for us. We know nobody would ask us about the vaccination since another airline does not know we came from PTY but this is not the way we solve problems (nobody should I guess since rules and policies are here to be observed).
What do you think about this? Again, please no flaming... I want to share this with you in order to avoid others making the same mistake ^
Last edited by tortellini; Jun 19, 2016 at 12:08 pm
Jun 19, 2016, 4:21 pm
#3
Join Date: Dec 2004
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Posts: 4,432
Jun 19, 2016, 4:24 pm
#4
Community Director Emerita
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Anywhere warm
Posts: 33,746
I appreciate the post. It's useful to learn about travel predicaments. I would never have thought about this one.
As to the solutions offered by others, are there other carriers to UVF? Is your passport stamped by Panama? On buying your ticket, do you have to declare whether you've been in PTY within the past 7 days?
As to the solutions offered by others, are there other carriers to UVF? Is your passport stamped by Panama? On buying your ticket, do you have to declare whether you've been in PTY within the past 7 days?
Jun 19, 2016, 7:33 pm
#5
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: ATL
Programs: Delta PlM, 1M
Posts: 6,363
OP, thanks for the note.
Certainly this is more common than this exact country pair. So the useful takeaway is, as always, read the rules.
As far as the 2 posters who suggested another airline. not saying I would never do such, but disagree with this as "advice"
This would be deliberately violating a countries immigration code in doing this. True the airline would almost never catch it, but it is certainly possible that the officer processing the entry might.
Certainly this is more common than this exact country pair. So the useful takeaway is, as always, read the rules.
As far as the 2 posters who suggested another airline. not saying I would never do such, but disagree with this as "advice"
This would be deliberately violating a countries immigration code in doing this. True the airline would almost never catch it, but it is certainly possible that the officer processing the entry might.
Jun 20, 2016, 11:35 am
#6
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Trenton, NJ (PHL, EWR)
Programs: A3 Gold, BA Bronze
Posts: 1,633
I ran into this issue one on a ticket from MDE-PTY-TGU on Copa. Was just stopping in Honduras on my way from a trip to Medellin, where there is no yellow fever, and I just didn't think to bring my certificate. I offered every possible solution to the agent possible, but they wouldn't budge. I eventually worked my way through it (involving a last minute run into the nearby city to a few clinics to convince a nurse to give me the shot and pre-date the certificate), but I understand the OP's frustration. Especially since almost no one asks for the certificate outside of Africa. The concern is the potential fine for the airline, which would probably result in discipline for the agent who allowed you to board.
For me, cheapest solution would probably have been a new ticket to UVF originating in the US, but I think what you ultimately did was reasonable, especially if you were unable to get proof that you had the certificate. We all make mistakes, I look at mine as a great story about how I got to see a lot of Rio Negro, Colombia in under 2 hours and how the people I encountered were willing to help in any way they could, refusing every attempt I made to offer something in return.
But man, I felt like an idiot.
For me, cheapest solution would probably have been a new ticket to UVF originating in the US, but I think what you ultimately did was reasonable, especially if you were unable to get proof that you had the certificate. We all make mistakes, I look at mine as a great story about how I got to see a lot of Rio Negro, Colombia in under 2 hours and how the people I encountered were willing to help in any way they could, refusing every attempt I made to offer something in return.
But man, I felt like an idiot.
Jun 21, 2016, 2:20 pm
#7
Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,154
Somewhere along the line back when we got the YF vaccine it was recommended to us to keep the certificate with our passports in case we ever needed to prove it. So we've always ended up keeping them in the same sleeve that we have the passports stored in.
Interesting, wikipedia says that the WHO says that a booster dose is no longer needed after 10 years? Wonder if immigrations folks in various countries are following that or not. (Mine is right at that 10 year period sometime later this year I think).
Interesting, wikipedia says that the WHO says that a booster dose is no longer needed after 10 years? Wonder if immigrations folks in various countries are following that or not. (Mine is right at that 10 year period sometime later this year I think).