craz

Best response is fastairs experience;

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/22954944-post141.html

MSPeconomist

Where was the travel agent on the day of travel? Of course the travel agent (unless they used a large one with 24/7 emergency phone coverage) wasn't available when they were initially denied boarding at PHX early in the morning, but I would have called the travel agent as early as possible that morning. The travel agent might have had better luck calling UA and getting his/her clients onto a later flight to SFO that would still connect with their TPAC flight. The travel agent should have gone to bat for these people. In fact, even now, a good travel agent would offer to contact UA to make the situation right rather than letting the clients deal with this mess.

LilAbner

Yep, this subject of having international doc's prior to the first flight (domestic) was discussed for nearly 2 weeks just a week or so ago.

All of this advise to the OP and I really was sort a hopin' that he would return once in a while to give us an update as to what he is doing about this matter and if UA has even responded.

If it were me I'd skip even talking to or writing UA and I'd file an immediate DOT complaint.

Btw, for those that state UA owes the OP & his fellow friends and family a FULL refund ---
You betcha they do and a lot more for a ruined trip, all due to stupidity and hardheadedness!

There papers were in order and UA screwed their trip up big time!

Only one thing comes to mind re this airline and all of their new hires --- FUBAR!!!

mgcsinc

What disturbs me more than anything about this story and others like it is how little some agents seem to think through the fact that they're making a decision that will completely ruin someone's week. Top read these accounts, it's sometimes as if the agent thinks they're making some minor decision, like declining to give someone a free E+ seat. "Sorry sir, you can't go on your long, well-planned overseas vacation, please step aside and go home. Whomp whomp." If you're gonna do that to someone, you better be really, really, really sure that you're right.

Similarly, it's as if these people are not handling travel every day of their lives. It's like they deal with this issue with one customer, get educated about how it works, and then completely clear their memory banks before dealing with the next customer.

Only the ones from the "predecessor company in Chicago." The ones from Houston are, obviously, models of perfection.

gailwynand

This story is ridiculous, but it's not just UA that does this.

I once saw SQ contract gate staff at MUC almost deny an American boarding to SIN because her final destination was Jakarta. The reason for this was that she allegedly required an Indonesian visa for travel to Indonesia.

Anyone familiar with the region knows this isn't the case - Indonesia is VOA for Americans. She was only going there for 48 hours so length of stay wasn't the issue. And the intervention of multiple bystanders who explained this to the gate staff was not effective. (The argument got quite heated so everyone in the immediate area heard all the details.)

She was eventually allowed to board but I doubt that would have happened if she weren't ticketed in C and holding a first world passport.

I'd be interested to know what kind of compensation SQ gave for that screw-up..

jphripjah

I agree with this, but the OP probably should have been more assertive with an clueless check in agent who was obviously wrong. Explained her position clearly, insisted on a supervisor, insisted that it's not their concern because you're only flying them to SF, or just asked that someone google "china transit without visa." It sounds like the OP rolled over far too easily.

Duke787

Too bad the OP isn't Rory McIlroy or UA would've already reached out and apologized

OP - you did nothing wrong and ignore those that say otherwise. It's ridiculous that a non-frequent traveler should be expected to know every single rule and regulation before they step on the plane.

This is the only industry where it seems that companies force their customers to have complete knowledge of the situation in order to be a customer (which is ridiculous) and UA is particularly bad at it. Why should the customer, who is about to take a flight they paid for with miles or cash, be put in a position to question the employee for the company or demand a manager. It's just ridiculous.

gailwynand

Almost every other first world country has similar laws yet they don't have similar restrictions. This wasn't a serious issue before 9/11 and I doubt it would be an issue now.

craz

I guess you didnt view fastairs post I linked to a few posts above yours. Unfortunately if in fact the passenger/s did need Visas and UA (or any carrier) flew them to the Gateway where they were connecting onward with another carrier,UA (or whomever) would be held responsible for having flown the passengers to the Gateway. Thats why UA werent gonna let our OP fly originally to SFO.

It just so happens in the OPs case they didnt need VISAs for PEK

caverunner17

Not that it's relevant, but I had a DL agent check our passports before boarding an ORD-ATL flight when our final destination was DUB.

Not that it was an issue, but we got a lot of strange looks from other passengers as to why we were boarding first with our passports.

MSPeconomist

It happened to me last month on MSP-DTW connecting to Europe. When my boarding pass from OLCI was scanned, it indicated a problem and I quickly explained to the GA that I suspected it was my onward overseas connection needing my passport to be verified. I had assumed that this could be done at DTW. [IIRC in the past I've done the DL document check at the gateway airport when I had an overnight connection under 24 hours on a single ticket and single fare component.]

gailwynand

Final note: it's not stated what country the OP's passport was from.

If it's the Philippines, I'd consider the possibility that this might be discriminatory behavior on the part of the UA agents.

It is PHX after all..not a place known for friendliness to immigrants.

craz

I wouldnt be surprised at all to find out the TA was some Consolidator and maybe not even US based. With those guys you get exactly what you pay for = Zippo just supposingly cheap tkts with a small markup. I wouldnt expect any Consolidator to go to bat for me unless I was paying them a nice fee to do so

MSPeconomist

I don't think it matters why the UA agent denied boarding. Virtually any passport is eligible for China's 24 hour version of TWOV so the action was incorrect regardless of their passports and regardless of any potential motivations we might imagine for the action. Let's not get sidetracked into a discussion of race and possible discrimination by UA.

MSPeconomist

The OP said that the travel agent told them that visas weren't needed. I interpreted this to imply that they had either personal contact with a bricks and mortar travel agent or phone contact with an agent at a travel agency such as AmEx. However, the routing and region do suggest consolidator tickets so that one could not expect much customer service from the travel agent. Even so, a phone call to the travel agent should have been possible in time for the OP to catch some flight to SFO to make the TPAC flight.