Mum accused of trafficking daughter in airline blunder

The Reid wrote:

Following up to mrtravel


Why did she trust thier advice for the second journey?


it seems improbable, perhaps a journalist is exaggerating or
slanting something for a better story?


Other than her saying she asked the airline both times, why do we have
reason to believe it? It is obvious that the person checking her in the
second time knew the correct answer.

Following up to poldy :


Isn't EU suppose to be all integrated? Why require passports for moving
a few hundred miles?

For the same reason everyone needs a passport to cross into a different
country, with some exceptions.
--
Tim C.

On Mon, 27 Feb 2006 16:03:15 -0800, "EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)"
wrote:

I'm not sure I can agree. At least here in the U.S., one
assumes that an airline employee entrusted with booking
overseas flights knows the basic regulations for same.

Then you would assume wrong. Reservation staff assume that the person making
the booking has checked that they have all, or will be obtaining all, the
required documentation to travel to the destination they are booking to.
Another wrong assumption.

The only time a reservation agent/travel agent normally checks is if there
has been a very recent change in the regulations, in case the intending
passenger has overlooked to double check.
--
Lansbury
www.uk-air.net
FAQs for the alt.travel.uk.air newsgroup

"The Reid" wrote in message
...
Following up to Miss L. Toe

Who were they supposed to ask for advice ?

I would ask a branch of the British government or the Italian
embassy, not a moonlighting student working for Ryan.

Should one enquire if the person you are talking to on the phone is a
student or not when you call to ask for advice?

In message , at 09:05:20
on Wed, 1 Mar 2006, mrtravel remarked:
So perhaps the lady asked the airline, and they erroneously said "a
birth certificate is OK for a newborn infant".

She claimed that originally the airline said no documentation required.
Given the trouble during the first trip, do you think she should have
verified the info from another source?

With hindsight it's always easy to say that "more should have been
done". For example, I know that a European (EU) country I visit fairly
often has a stipulation that you must have both travel insurance (for
health costs) and $50/day of their local currency, in *cash*. I doubt if
more than 1% of the people arriving in that country realise these
restrictions exist (and the airlines certainly never mention it), and
would get quite cross if turned away. On the other hand, no-one has ever
asked me to demonstrate that I was complying with either of these
requirements.

In this instance, given that the airline was happy to continue giving
advice I think it was reasonable for her to rely upon it.
--
Roland Perry

"mrtravel" wrote in message
m...
Roland Perry wrote:

So perhaps the lady asked the airline, and they erroneously said "a birth
certificate is OK for a newborn infant".


She claimed that originally the airline said no documentation required.
Given the trouble during the first trip, do you think she should have
verified the info from another source?

She phoned again and they said "birth certificate". So perhaps she thought,
well I've finally got to talk to someone who knows what they are talking
about, so again, she had no reason to doubt the advice she was given.

In message , at 09:07:15 on
Wed, 1 Mar 2006, The Reid remarked:
Isn't EU suppose to be all integrated? Why require passports for moving
a few hundred miles?

They aren't required for the majority of border crossings. A national ID
card (which is compulsory in many EU countries just to live there) will
suffice.

the majority of border crossings I've made recently didnt require
anything, not even stopping the car.

In practice, I agree. However, the border police are *entitled* to stop
the car, search it and check your papers. You were simply lucky not to
be stopped (as are most people).
--
Roland Perry

"Lansbury" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 27 Feb 2006 16:03:15 -0800, "EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)"
wrote:

I'm not sure I can agree. At least here in the U.S., one
assumes that an airline employee entrusted with booking
overseas flights knows the basic regulations for same.

Then you would assume wrong. Reservation staff assume that the person
making
the booking has checked that they have all, or will be obtaining all, the
required documentation to travel to the destination they are booking to.
Another wrong assumption.

The only time a reservation agent/travel agent normally checks is if
there
has been a very recent change in the regulations, in case the intending
passenger has overlooked to double check.

In which case if they are asked for advice they should refuse to give it,
rather than giving incorrect advice.

Following up to B Vaughan

Are you saying Aussies can't understand the King's English, so to
speak?

The Queen died? Nobody told me!

The word for passport in Italian is "passoporto", which is
sufficiently similar to "passport" that there should no doubt as to
the meaning.

the police were probably saying "no passoporto" and she assumed
she was being held by "armed police" to impress on her that she
didnt need one and that the trip back to UK was to,
er............
--
Mike Reid
Walk-eat-photos UK "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk" -- you can email us@ this site
Walk-eat-photos Spain "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" -- dontuse@ all, it's a spamtrap

Mark Hewitt wrote:

"mrtravel" wrote in message
m...

Roland Perry wrote:

So perhaps the lady asked the airline, and they erroneously said "a birth
certificate is OK for a newborn infant".


She claimed that originally the airline said no documentation required.
Given the trouble during the first trip, do you think she should have
verified the info from another source?


She phoned again and they said "birth certificate". So perhaps she thought,
well I've finally got to talk to someone who knows what they are talking
about, so again, she had no reason to doubt the advice she was given.


Reread the article. According to the article, she was interoggated for
multiple hours by the Italians and then multiple hours by the British.
This is in addition to the time and money spent traveling to Italy on
the first trip and after being told she needed a passport by the
Italians. After all of this, she felt comfortable enough to trust the
airline for the answer before booking the second trip. Don't you find
this story a bit beyond belief?