Whose responsibility is it to guide travelers about what visa they require, whether their visa is valid, etc. for international trips as per their booked itineraries? This has been a bone of contention in the civil aviation sector for years. Invalid or revoked visa is a significant reason for boarding denial and travel disruption for many travelers booking best flight deals from India to USA and other countries. Denial of boarding over visa revocation had been a tug of war for over 2 years between an Indian couple and a major airline at a consumer court in Gujarat.
Early in January 2024, the Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission of Navsari, Gujarat gave the verdict in favor of the senior citizen couple and ordered British Airways to pay Rs 2.93 lakh to them, stating that it was the airline’s responsibility to check whether they had a valid visa to travel to USA.
It all started when 72-year-old Hasmukh Mehta and his wife were denied boarding to the connecting flight from London Heathrow to Atlanta, USA on 15 December 2021. Their son had purchased flight tickets to Atlanta from Mumbai for their travel on British Airways. On 14 December, British Airways onboarded them for the first leg (Mumbai-London) of the itinerary without any hassles. The trouble surfaced at London Heathrow Airport where the airline did not onboard them for the connecting flight as their B2 visa was revoked by the US government.
The elderly couple were issued a B2 visa for 10 years, from December 2012 through December 2022. They visited their son, who lives in the United States, three times between 2012 and 2018, according to news reports including the one by the Economic Times. Reportedly, their overstay on the visitor visa during their last visit to the US resulted in revocation of the visa, thereby barring their re-entry to the States, which they had no knowledge of until British Airways told them at London Heathrow Airport.
Consequently, Hasmukh Mehta and his wife were sent back from London to New Delhi Airport where they underwent the COVID-related arrival procedure (as India was battling the third wave of the pandemic then) before they took a domestic flight to Surat Airport. They reached their hometown, Navsari in Gujarat, after 58 hours of inconvenience, confusion, anxiety and hassles. The lack of correct information about the visa status not only ruined their trip to USA, but rattled their senile bones.
Subsequently, the matter advanced to the Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (CDRC) in Navsari as the couple filed a complaint and demanded a hefty compensation from the airline, including the Rs 1.3 lakh Mumbai-Atlanta airfare, Rs 25,000 for the Delhi-Surat flight, the Rs 13,500 baggage allowance incurred during their Delhi to Surat travel, and Rs 50 lakh for 58 hours of physical as well as mental distress.
The defense lawyer of British Airways argued at the consumer court that the Mehta’s knew about their visa status and that they should approach the US Department of Homeland Security for a compensation. The argument was countered by Hasmukh Mehta’s lawyer who proved that the couple did not get any intimation about revocation of the visa from the US federal agency. He further questioned why British Airways confirmed their travel without checking the visa status and why they were flown from Mumbai to London in the event of visa revocation.
The airline’s lawyer put a defensive foot forward saying that the airline got intimation about the couple’s visa status after the London-bound flight carrying them left Mumbai. On hearing this, the commission said that undoubtedly, the airline allowed them to travel to London from Mumbai without checking their visa status and that the lack of pre-boarding verification showed “the airline’s carelessness”. Since the airline could not prove that the elderly couple had the updated information about their US visas, the commission resolved the dispute in favor of the complainant.
“At the same time, the onus of checking the visa validity does also fall on the traveler. They must evaluate their visa status to meet the visa requirement of the destination country before or after booking international flight tickets online,” said the chief travel advisor of IndianEagle.com, a leading travel-booking portal that America’s Indian Diaspora trusts for the best deals and service.
Suuuper, we also got stuck and came back halfway
This is not a good sign for all travelers. The airlines will now ask for proof of a valid visa before confirming any foreign ticket. The travel agency may end up confirming this for the airlines, before booking a ticket. Or conditions may be introduced where traveler will lose money if they provide incorrect information when booking a ticket. So, another hurdle for travelers.
Hi Vundyala! The travel-booking process is unlikely to be so complicated now or in the near future. We are a leading international travel agency trusted by overseas Indians. As a travel agency, we have no role in travelers’ visa confirmation before, during, or after booking their flights. However, international airlines may make it compulsory for travelers to show visa validity proof during check-in or boarding.
Why they overstayed in the earlier visit is the root cause of revoking of visa. No payment should be done to couple as they violated like most people do not follow rules and blame the system.
There is a simpler way for airlines to get around this. They will include in the ticket agreement that they are not responsible for for any visa revocation and only allow boarding based on stamped dates on the passport. I am pretty sure they have no way of checking if someone overstayed.
In December 2021, my older one who was 15 at that time and my younger one who was 13 at that time, were booked on a BA flight from JFK to Delhi. The tickets were issued with that fact that there was no adult accompanying them both. The airlines flew them from JFK to London. When they reach London, we then get a call from Heathrow saying that since my younger one is an unaccompanied minor, they cannot fly him from London to Delhi 😀. So they told us that either they will fly him back from London to JFK (unaccompanied 😂) or an adult comes to Heathrow and then accompanies him to Delhi. Seriously…were they sleeping while booking or sleeping while boarding him as an unaccompanied minor from JFK to London 🙄. We put our foot down that neither we are coming nor can they send him back to New York. It’s their oversight. They should have stopped him at JFK itself. So after a lot of back and forth, they agreed to book them on Air India and both my boys safely went to India and returned.