Mum accused of trafficking daughter in airline blunder

Mark Hewitt wrote:

"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.


Let's forget, for a moment, what the airline should do.
What should you do, especially considering the immigration officials in
the other country are the ones that decide whether to let you in or not?
Should you rely on the airline the second time?

Roland Perry wrote:

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.

If you were turned away because of failing to comply with some law,
wouldn't you be very careful in what you do on your next trip?

The Reid wrote:

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!

Maybe he meant King James.
No goliath down, you looketh tired.



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............

Surely they have people at Italian immigration that speak enough English
to tell you you need a passport. After all, doesn't everyone speak English?

Following up to Mark Hewitt

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?

not a bad idea to try and get an idea how experienced and senior
a person you are speaking to is. The cleaner may have picked up
the phone.
--
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

Following up to Roland Perry

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).

indeed, on most crossings there are of course no border police in
evidence.
--
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

Following up to B Vaughan

What was the baby's Italian father doing while all this was going on?
Surely he should have been able to give his wife some advice, or
didn't they have telephones either?

the more you think, the less plausible it all seems, are we
supposed to believe she didnt speak to her husband and that he
couldn't ask in Italian what was required before the second trip.
--
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

The Reid wrote:

not a bad idea to try and get an idea how experienced and senior
a person you are speaking to is. The cleaner may have picked up
the phone.

Not at Ryanair........

In message , at
10:02:57 on Wed, 1 Mar 2006, mrtravel remarked:
If you were turned away because of failing to comply with some law,
wouldn't you be very careful in what you do on your next trip?

If I was a regular business traveller I might. In which case I might
also realise that Ryanair wasn't a "full service" carrier. Most people
who fly once a year aren't that sophisticated.
--
Roland Perry

In message , at 10:11:42 on
Wed, 1 Mar 2006, The Reid remarked:
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).

indeed, on most crossings there are of course no border police in
evidence.

Although the last such crossing I made (on the motorway between Geneva
and Lyon) the border police were *very* much in evidence. Maybe that's
because Switzerland isn't in the EU?
--
Roland Perry

On Wed, 1 Mar 2006 09:39:21 -0000, "Mark Hewitt"
wrote:

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

No they shouldn't refuse, what they should do is consult the online version of
TIM which most airlines have interrogated into their reservation system.

http://www.iata.org/PS/PUBLICATIONS/TIM.htm
--
Lansbury
www.uk-air.net
FAQs for the alt.travel.uk.air newsgroup