This begs the question of just how closely staff look at boarding passes.

10 years ago I boarded a QF CNS-SYD flight and was seated quietly having a read waiting for take off when a passenger approached my seat and claimed it was his. We double checked each others boarding passes and they were issued for the same seat.

Called the F/A to sort it out and after a good 30 seconds of head scratching she figured out that the passenger claiming my seat was actually on the CNS-BNE flight parked adjacent to the CNS-SYD flight.

Passenger who claimed my seat quickly departed a little red faced. However the story did not end there. 5 minutes later the captain
announced that his aircraft was Sydney bound and if there were any passengers on his flight who were bound for Brisbane would they kindly disembark and join the adjacent aircraft.

4 pax did so !!!!

This was pre-security conscious times so a great laugh was had by all. But it does raise the question of how much notice F/A's take of boarding passes other than looking at the seat number and indicating which aisle is quickest to reach an allocated seat.

QFF

[This message has been edited by QFF (edited 07-08-2003).]

um, ok, so it happened and she is probably right to be a little irked...however don't you think she should take some accountability in this...even just a little?

I mean, at what point was she....

a) unaware of the flight time of her actual flight
b) unable to read the monitors
c) ignorant of the dirty great kangaroo on the plane and the emblazoned letters "QANTAS" on the side
d) vaguely aware that most, if not all, cabin staff were caucasian
e) not bothered by things like "ladies and gentleman welcome abord Qantas flight 94 to Melbourne" and "today, you are travelling on a Qantas Boeing 747.."
f) everything in the seat pocket in front of her labelled Qantas, and
g) there was a significant lack of conversation and announcements made in mandarin????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Difficult? At times.

Impossible? Never.......



[This message has been edited by shillard (edited 07-08-2003).]

Shillard, what's your secret?? I start muttering under my breath and give them a hard stare....

(edited for retraction)

[This message has been edited by QF WP (edited 07-09-2003).]

[This message has been edited by QF WP (edited 07-10-2003).]

No apology or compensation necessary.

Passenger error.

[retracted]

[This message has been edited by QFAA (edited 07-09-2003).]

QFAA, retraction made...I made the comment very tongue in cheek, however was unaware that you and perhaps others may not have taken it the same way...

If the interpretation of irony is at question, just check out the debate on PPrune about the Sudanese 737 crash!

How many flights these days are code-share? It's entirely possible that you travel on a QF flight, on Iberian metal, with Spanish speaking cabin crew, and face the same issues.

It's the responsibility of the airline to ensure that only the people that access the plane, have the right to access the plane.

I wonder if QANTAS were fined for letting a passenger potentially without an Australian visa arrive in Australia.

Oh yes, heavily...I remember my parents flew to US on BA years ago without valid visas...BA got fined $25K per pax.

But, perhaps she had Aus visa...therefore it didn't cause a problem when she was boarding manually...

Interesting... I always thought all airlines do are to check whether you've have a valid and not-near-expiring passport and whether it's you... They don't necessarily check whether you've a valid visa to enter the destination country...

To put it another way, I don't recall any airline staff checking the visa pages in my passport...?

Isn't that what Immigration is for when checking for valid visas?

They will definitely check for any necessary visas, esp for travel to countries which fine defaulting carriers. At LHR I've frequently had to show the check-in agent which of my Australian visas is the current one.

Last year, on a OWE, we made a last minute change. Cancelled our SCL-EZE-SCL flight sectors to SCL-GRU-SCL. We arrived at airport made it thru immigration, and past the first lot of personnel checking BPs. Then there was another LanChile officer checking passports. He looked at my passport and asked how I intended to enter Brazil. He then clarified by asking where my visa was? As my husband and daughter wher on Spanish passports no visas needed. My passport is Australian and we had completely forgotten to check if I needed a visa. Oops.

So we had to wait for the officer to finish boarding the plane and then he took us back thru immigration, and helped us collect our bags of the plane. he was quite apologetic, and explained that his job was to ensure nobody entered Brazil without visas as LanChile would be fined heavily.

As explained, many countries have put the onus on the transporter to ensure that passengers are able to enter the destination country.

Most of it is straight forward e.g. Australian flying SYD-LHR needs no visa for the UK so if they see you are an Australian passport holder they won't check to see if you actually have a visa e.g work permit, right of abode etc.

However if it is a Jamaican National (for example) checkin at SYD for LHR, the CSA will look for a valid visa, and if one is not their confirm if Jamaicans need visas for UK entry with their handbook as the CSA probably does not get many Jamaicans cheking in at SYD for LHR. (Jamaicans now need Visas for any UK entry)

If the Australian then turns up to Heathrow but is disallowed entry to the UK by Immigration for whatever reason, the airline has not broken the law and is not responsible for repatriation costs.

However if the Jamaican turned up at LHR without the visa, the airline is breaking the law and may be fined and suffer the costs of repatriating the passenger.

How do airlines handle ETAs for Australia? A pax could quite easily tell a check-in agent they have an ETA, and then be on their way.

Regards,
Alex