Siempre Viajando

I got quite a shock yesterday when I arrived to EZE to check in for SA227 from Buenos Aires to Johannesburg, and was denied a boarding pass because I was unable to provide an original yellow fever vaccination certificate. I carry with me a list of my vaccinations but this was not enough. Seems that Argentina is a yellow fever-infested country (?!!?) and so all travellers on direct flights from EZE to JNB must provide said certificate. Same goes for GIG, the SAA manager informed me.

What to do? I walked over to the TV departures display, called my travel agent and cited every flight from EZE to countries not on the yellow fever hit list, where connections to JNB would be available. The solution we landed on was EZE-CDG-JNB with AF, arriving a day later than I had planned. I had a scarce hour to book and ticket the flight, change terminals, check in, pass immigration and security and board the plane. But I made it, and that first pastis on board tasted oh so good.

After booking the flights on AF the SAA lady assured me that they wouldn't bother asking for the yellow fever certificate if I was on a flight from Paris, and so far she's right, I got my boarding pass to JNB with no questions asked. I pointed out the irony of the situation to her and she responded with a nice smile, downcast eyes and a shrug of the shoulders.

By the time I get to JNB tomorrow morning I will have set a personal record of three consecutive red-eyes, taking into account the flight from LIM to EZE on Thursday night. At least the last two legs are long-hauls. But I will be one happy camper to sleep in a real bed tomorrow night!

SAWorldVoyager

There is much more to this story.

SAA has had a lot of people turned back to Lagos recently. Nigerians have been arriving in SA with falsified yellow fever injections and been turned away. The are then flown back at SAA expense on the next flight. No wonder they want originals.

The issue has been in the news globally recently as it even caused a standoff between the governments, with Pretoria and Abuja not at all on good terms over the matter. In the end South Africa apologised (wrongly IMO) to Nigeria.

I would imagine all airlines operating from yellow fever area's to JNB will be applying the original rule very strictly going forward.

For you to blame SAA in this instance is wrong.

What is of worry is that you were able to short circuit the system.

Siempre Viajando

You're quite right and I didn't mean to blame SAA, but I was in shock yesterday. For those of us who don't travel often to Africa this comes as a surprise, and the requirement for an original certificate is not well publicized, at least for travelers coming from the Americas.

The ease with which I short circuited the system is indeed worrying. I am now in Joburg and had no questions at all regarding yellow fever, either from Air France or from authorities on entry at JNB, this despite the fact that I flew on a single tickes from EZE with a single connection at JNB.

B747-437B

Sorry, but I cannot understand how someone can think that anything other than the original document would suffice. Do you travel with a photocopy of your passport as well rather than the original?

The issue with the Nigerians was not that they didn't have their original yellow fever vaccination certificates, but rather that someone at South African Port Health simply refused to accept their original yellow fever vaccination certificates on the "suspicion" that some might be fake. I flew in to Joburg from Accra on the same morning that the "big deportation" of the 125 passengers from the Lagos flight occurred and it was pandemonium. The Nigerians being denied entry were not taking the decision particularly well. Interestingly enough, it appears that non-Nigerians on the same flight who held Nigerian issued yellow fever vaccination certificates were permitted entry but only the Nigerian citizens were denied, even if they held yellow fever vaccinations issued in other countries (except those issued in South Africa). Definitely more to the story than simply questions about their paperwork, which was why the SA government quickly apologised.

Having been a station manager at Joburg for an airline with flights to West Africa in the past, I've had plenty of firsthand experience of the blatant discrimination shown by immigration, customs and port health in Joburg against Nigerians in particular. I've commented about this on many threads in the past. While I don't doubt that some certificates may have been fake, the ridiculous approach of the South African authorities rightly left them with egg on their face in the end.

Siempre Viajando

Three points here:

1) A yellow fever certificate is not a passport.
2) The issue here is not the requirement itself but rather the practical aspects of its application. Evidently, anyone with the time and resources (and, perhaps, the right nationality and/or skin color) can easily circumvent the requirement to provide an original yellow fever certificate by traveling from a country on SA's yellow fever hit list to JNB via a country not on the hit list. This does little enhance legitimate yellow fever risk management efforts of the gov't of South Africa.
3) The requirement is poorly communicated to travelers, at least those of us coming from the Americas.

Anyway, for me, lesson learned. On return from JNB my first priority will be to obtain said certificate, and I will carry the original with me on all international trips.

johan rebel

That assumes there is actually a risk to manage. Unless yellow fever has reached epidemic proportions in Argentina, I would think that the SA goverment has far greater (health) risks they should worry about, but don't.

Johan

Svante

Just wanted to share some experience on this topic.

Happy I did not have to fly a big detour like the OP.

Have made 2 trips from Nigeria to SA.

1: Arr JNB for transit to Vicfalls. No Yellow card. No questions asked. Arrived back one week later from Vic Falls, entered, no yellow card needed from ZIM:-)

2: Arr JNB for onward to Livingstone. This time I had check baggage that I wanted to check in again in JNB. Arr with Arik air, and onwards with BA. Did not trust Arik that much. Forgot my yellow card at home. No chance to enter. I said, well, I only want my bag to check in again. No way. Fine, mannaged to transit, find BA staff that found my bag in the lost and found and check it in for me while I was in transit. THis made them maybe feel sorry for me, dont know, but I was upgraded to C on the flight to Livingstone:-) One week later coming back to JNB, but from Vic Falls, no questions asked:-)
I even told the officer when enetering that you refused me one week ago, Im still the same person, I still came with a flight from Nigeria one week ago, even flew to ZAM were one needs to have a yellow card if coming into SA, but since Im on a flight from ZIM your not asking for it...

There you go, many ways to go around it I suppose...

RichP

To OP - the requirement for yellow fever certificates, and the way to deal with it applies also in Latin America, indeed I have only ever been asked for the certificate in LatAm. In the past 5 years I have encountered the following: 1) Quito to Sao Paulo on Taca, not allowed to check in without the original, despite copy faxed from my GP to the station manager's office. Re-routed by Taca, FOC from Quito to Lima to Buenos Aires to Sao Paulo, no need for yellow fever certificate. 2) Lima to Caracas, on LAN, I couldn't find the certificate, was sent round the corner from check-in to the medical centre where I explained what had happened, they offered me, I kid you not, a certificate for $15 or the vaccination and certificate for $30. I took the former and made my flight with no problems. On arrival at CCS, no one mentioned yellow fever certificates, but I did find the one I had lost; I have since binned the one I got in Lima. 3) Caracas to San Jose on Taca (maybe it's the airline?) turned away at check-in due to no certificate (you'd also think I learned my lesson, but it was a last minute trip and I forgot to carry over my travel wallet from one bag to the next). The kind ladies there had a word with Copa who agreed to accept my endorsed ticket and routed me CCS-PTY-SJO. On arrival in SJO, no question about yellow fever.

Annoying more than anything else, but the craziness is clearly not restricted to Africa.

B747-437B

As a data point, Ghana has now started zero tolerance enforcement of the yellow fever certificate requirement for South African passport holders only. There are Port Health authorities asking all RSA passport holders for their cards while other nationalities were waved through.

Evidently this is being done in retaliation for South African Port Health targeting Ghanaian passengers arriving from non-yellow fever zones and requiring them to produce yellow fever certificates.

Looks like the pi$$ing contest is continuing but with different players...

cmcbugg

A friend had this same problem on a flight from EZE-JNB last year. SAA wouldn't let him check in and he was about to make plans to return to the UK. Luckily it came up that SA citizens did not need the certificate (and he was SAfrican but without a passport). SAA staff finally accepted an SA ID book as confirmation of citizenship (after first checking with another passenger because they'd never seen one before ?!?).

On arriving in JNB, Immigration wanted to deport him back to EZE because of the missing certificate, and they would not accept his citizenship because he was travelling on a British passport. Anyway, after a big fuss (obviously deporting your own citizen to a country they have no right of abode in is ludicrous)... they finally settled on sending him to the nurse at the airport. She made him fill out a form and said she'd phone in a week to see if he had any symptoms. Needless to say, they never phoned.

The fact that SA citizens returning from yellow fever areas don't need a certificate again just highlights the ridiculousness of their yellow fever risk management.

holtju2

SA denied me boarding @ GRU the other week when I didn't have my Yellow Fever vaccination proof with me. Luckily, I got them to change my ticket to fly 2 days later to only have a connection @ GRU. This was BMI redemption.

I had my Yellow fever done couple of years ago at the Abidjan airport upon arriving. No idea where the booklet is, however,

Just had it done again in Bangkok this week with hepatitis A, and influenza as well.

JDiver

A Yellow Fever pinch is different from most other vaccinations. It must be administered by a proper official center with the official stamp, is valid for ten years and many countries require the original certificate or "ICVP" with stamp. The regulatory reference for the Yellow Fever vaccination is the International Health Regulations (IHR) published by the World Health Organization (WHO)


Read more here


SAA is merely protecting itself from having an unvaccinated passenger be turned away by authorities and have to provide for their carriage, not to mention possibly fined.

Yes, Argentina does have Yellow Fever in some areas, most likely the north in rainy season when the Aedes aegypti mosquito vector is quite common.

And yes, countries have been known to play politics with health issues.

I keep my "yellow card" with my passport and take it whenever necessary, because there are some places one can get hassled or be required to get a vaccination from dodgy sources I would not trust to be entirely sterile single-use etc.

dparkinson

If I'm doing AC SCL-EZE followed by SAA EZE-JNB does that mean I'll need the paperwork or just if my journey begins in EZE? What happens if I'm on a *A ticket and don't have the paperwork, will they rebook on *A or on other airlines or am I stuck?

holtju2

You most likely need it. I am not 100% sure if the requirement applies if you only have a transit in Argentina. Contact SA.

If you don't have proper documentation, it is up to you to have yourself rebooked. It is not South African Airways' responsibility if you don't have proper docs.

miikkak

Don't forget that the requirements depend on the countries visited during the last 10 days besides the point of embarkation. It goes without saying that having the documentation with you is a good idea always when possible... Check the requirements for the leg from SA as reciprocity rules might cause problems when travelling from SA...