dhacker

http://www.testudotimes.com/2017/5/3...nited-airlines

"Maryland basketball’s Joshua Tomaic had a rough morning at a Madrid airport.

While flying back from Spain, though, Tomaic ran into some issues. Here’s what Maryland assistant coach Dustin Clark had to say Monday via Twitter:

- When leaving DC for Spain a @UNITED employee dropped @JTTomaic passport & then ran over it with wheel of desk chair and damaged passport.

- But @JTTomaic was told by @UNITED employee he was sorry and was allowed to Board plane to go home to Spain for 2 week break from college.

- Fast forward to today @JTTomaic arrives at 4am to Madrid airport to fly back to Washington. DC for summer school & he is denied check in.

- By one of @UNITED partners due to the passport page being "crumpled". So @JTTomaic missed his flight. Only to later be told by @UNITED...

- That his passport is actually ok to travel on. But now he is stuck in Madrid because @UNITED is trying to make him purchase a new $2k ticket

WineCountryUA

So the denial is not by UA but rather by a partner.
UA non-stop is about noon, early morning flights 1-stop are LH

Today's UA 164, which departed, has a few open seats on the seat map. Hope he was able to get on that flight.

dhacker

Agreed. My subject line is a copy of the linked blog's headline.

However, other tweets indicate that United itself hasn't been particularly helpful in resolving the issue. Not sure it's on them to waive the full fare, but they have some responsibility for their partner's mistake (or the original employee who damaged the passport, assuming the account of the incident is true). Then again the UMD athletic dept. can afford to pay the $2k if the NCAA allows them to pay it.

eng3

So if I understand, Spanish National had passport damaged by UA. He flew anyways. On return flight, UA PARTNER rejects passport. Passenger is trying to get UA to buy him a ticket on UA-metal to fly home? I'd be interested in hearing UA's sideof the story.

I wonder if he is claiming UA partner's error in not accepting the passport (in which case the partner is responsible) or UA's error in damaging the passport in the first place.

Its a tough situation. If UA had damaged my passport, I'd make a bigger deal out of it. However in the end, you either have to take your chances and fly or go get another passport and delay your trip by a day or so. Possibly incurring a large cost in non-refundable hotels/flights/etc.

wrp96

Not absolving UA from any of this, but knowing his passport had been damaged by the UA employee on the way to Spain, why didn't he get it replaced while he was home?

eng3

Whether a damaged passport is still good enough to get accepted by customs seems to be fairly subjective. One customs agent may accept it while another may reject it. Those are supposed to be experts. I bet it varies even more when it comes the airline agents looking at passports. Thus making it even harder for a passenger to know whether a passport is still good or not. For all we know, the passenger assumed that if it was good enough for the UA employee and entering spain, it should be good enough going the other way.

I wonder where he was rejected. At the checkin counter? exit customs? gate?

justsawaufo

a few years ago I flew IAD-CUN via UA
My passport was damaged, the first page was almost detached from the passport itself. Only becuse I forgot the passport in my jeans and my lovely wife gave it a nice run in the lundary machine.

Back to the story, I check-in at the airport, ask the UA rep if he sees a problem with this passport, he says no and it seems fine. I then asked, do you see a problem with getting in to Mexico with this passport? he said no, "i'll be fine".

Arriving to CUN only to find out that i'm denied entry due to the passport... back on UA flight to IAD, only to find CBP officer question the heck out of me and tells me that they can't let me in with this passport... it took some convincing and I was told to fix the passport asap and they let me in... I'm walking towards the exit and I recognize the same UA agent who told me "i'll be fine". I told him, you know... they didn't let me in... he then responded, "I told you so" ....

The blame is 100% on me... but.

eng3

Assuming you are a US Citizen, I don't think CBP and prevent you from entering the country. Just hold you up while they question and threaten you.

As for the UA Agent, I guess they were correct. You should have known better than to trust a UA agent

MSPeconomist

If the guy is a Spanish national, he probably should try to replace the passport quickly before leaving Spain, but this might be more complicated if his student visa is in the current passport.

If he's a USA citizen, he should be able to go to the USA embassy (consular section) and get a replacement passport within one business day, although that's likely to be a temporary passport that will need to be replaced soon after he gets home.

For a student athlete,missing the first few days of a required summer session could be a really big deal if it leads to a loss of academic eligibility for intercollegiate sports or for an athletic scholarship.

I'm amazed that the coach is so involved in this. The mess should be the student's responsibility since he seems to be old enough to travel internationally without a parent.

IMO if a UA agent damaged the passport, UA should pay the costs/damages of its replacement and any additional airfare or travel expenses, including hotel and meals during the extended stay in Madrid, but good luck getting the airline to pay.

JBord

Well, he was allowed to fly. Then he was let back into Spain. I've never flown into Madrid, and am not an EU citizen, so I'm not familiar with the procedures there, but I assume they'd at least check the picture, expiration date, etc. on the passport.

I can see why he would have just forgotten about it when he got home, effectively having used it twice after the damage was done. Pretty easy to think it would be OK a third time.

Someone, somewhere along the way, like the Madrid border officer, should have warned him to get it replaced.

WineCountryUA

Most likely, home town Lanzarote, Canary Islands, appears he did high school there also

Rejected at MAD on the return flight -- so most likely checkin. Cleared customs and immigration on arrival. So the Spanish authorities were not concerned, so the damage was probably slight. Appears an over zealous counter agent of the partner airline.

eng3

That is what I was wondering. If it were at the gate and he had cleared customs (leaving spain), you'd think they'd accept it since the spanish authorities accepted it. Ofcourse that is no guarantee the US authorities would accept it.

Still, I wonder if he should be seeking the partner airline for being overzealous and the originating airline responsible for getting him to his destination rather than go after UA for causing the damage. Seems like you need an exceptional understanding agent or supervisor for either.

notquiteaff

Maybe. Or the passport has deteriorated further (falling apart more?) during the time in Spain?

Also, the "over zealous" agent of the partner airline might be concerned about the cost of transporting someone who then gets rejected by US customs/immigration. The Spanish authorities may have been less concerned about letting their national in?

Often1

Clickbait for some blog.

This is the problem with threads based on blog posts and other third-party reports --- they are a game of unreliable telephone.

Lots of details missing and the OP has no way to provide them.

IF the guy is a Spanish national and IF UA damaged the passport, UA ought to pay to have the passport replaced. The guy was in Spain and had ample opportunity to do so as he was in possession of the damaged document.

But, the notion that UA is liable for everything that follows in life because of its action is absurd and contrary to basic principles of damages.

WineCountryUA

There is no exit customs in Spain, EU or most anywhere.