Airline tore my partner's passport

AaronL

Here's the short version:
Airline tore my partner's passport at the check-in desk, which prevented us from travelling. Airline now refuse to take responsibility for the loss of our holiday, other flights, expenses etc Claim they only have to refund the flight we booked with them and any other losses are our problem not theirs.


Longer Version:
On Fri myself and my partner arrived on time to check in for a flight to Thailand. At the check-in desk the airline staff member ripped my partner's passport while passing it through the keyboard scanner. She passed only the single photo page through, rather than the cover and photo page together.

Due to the damage to the passport the airline would not let us travel. Over the course of the next few hours they were extremely unhelpful (eg. I asked if an airline official could contact the embassy, they refused and said that no airline official would get involved. I also explained to the girl who damaged the passport that while I did not want to throw her under the bus, would I be able to have her name in order to ref the event at a future date, she also refused). To be clear, myself and my partner were very calm, knowing that losing our temper would not help the situation.

In the end the airline said they would probably refund our flights with them, but would not take any responsibility for us losing our onward flight, various hotels and other expenses. In spite of the fact the actions of a member of their staff were the sole reason that prevented our travel. They even said they would not pay for the renewal of the passport. The final twist in the saga; our insurance company say that given the circumstances we are not covered under our policy.

So, a pretty nightmarish experience.
Anyone have any thoughts or advice?

Thank you in advance

Vauban

Post in the right forum - this is "flight delays". There's a separate one for other air travel issues.

Davidvgoliath

Vauban wrote: »

Post in the right forum - this is "flight delays". There's a separate one for other air travel issues.

But surely this is a case of denied boarding, right? If so, EU261 applies and each is due compensation?

Vauban

Davidvgoliath wrote: »

But surely this is a case of denied boarding, right? If so, EU261 applies and each is due compensation?

No. It isn't.

Mark2spark

IMO this is a Montreal Convention Claim.