Denied boarding - Lufthansa

ncmscnc

The passenger desk did not give us the boarding pass saying one of us (Two tickets, me and my partnet) does not have a visa for Germany. 

I was told by Lufthansa customer services several times over the phone 1-2 weeks before the flight that the visa is not necessary if we are not going outside the airport and we have a connecting flight straightaway. 

The desk wouldn't listen and still denied us an entry. I am UK citizena and my partner is an Indian citizen. 

What is even more frustrating is the Lufthansa customer services were very clear that the visa is not needed if we are only taking the connecting flight and less than 12 hours Had they informed us when I called them well before the flight date, we could have applied for one! 

This was journey from Heathrow to Frankfurt and then on to Chennai, India. Back in April 2023. 

Paid over £1100 for both us including a baggage ticket. 

I am unsure how to go about approaching this. 

Caz3121

without knowing what visas your partner has in their passport makes it impossible to know whether the denied boarding was correct or not.
This article here matches the information that is shown in Timatic
https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/en/visa-service/buergerservice/faq/33-transit/606710
(transit visa required unless certain visa(s) in passport)
Travel companies often direct passengers to check with official sources rather than risk giving incorrect information (which looks like may have been the case here) 

Ballard

I do sympathise but I think that ultimately it's you and your partner's responsibility to ensure that you meet the requirements to travel so recourse to Lufthansa would probably be fruitless. I'd definitely complain to them, though, as they may be able to offer something.

I'm guessing that you're due to return in April 2024 (rather than 2023) so if you can sort things out and get over there soon it won't have impacted you intolerably,

DullGreyGuy

ncmscnc said:

The passenger desk did not give us the boarding pass saying one of us (Two tickets, me and my partnet) does not have a visa for Germany. 

I was told by Lufthansa customer services several times over the phone 1-2 weeks before the flight that the visa is not necessary if we are not going outside the airport and we have a connecting flight straightaway. 

The desk wouldn't listen and still denied us an entry. I am UK citizena and my partner is an Indian citizen. 

What is even more frustrating is the Lufthansa customer services were very clear that the visa is not needed if we are only taking the connecting flight and less than 12 hours Had they informed us when I called them well before the flight date, we could have applied for one! 

This was journey from Heathrow to Frankfurt and then on to Chennai, India. Back in April 2023. 

Paid over £1100 for both us including a baggage ticket. 

I am unsure how to go about approaching this. 

Speak to customer services... though why have you left it 3 months?

T&Cs of almost every airline is that it's your responsibility to check entry requirements and make sure you comply with them. Its a highly complex thing when you consider how many different countries, states etc there, different passports issued globally and different visa/residency type cards... you get companies that specialise in nothing but dealing with it all.

When we arrived at check in desk and discovered we were short 1 passport the desk somewhat naturally just turned us away but a phone call in the taxi on the way back from the airport the airline offered to push back the flight by a week free of charge. Now these were covid times (though the flight was fairly full) and so maybe they were more generous but it was clearly fully our fault but they helped us out (as did our accommodation but then they were really quiet so no big thing for them.)

tightauldgit

It looks as if citizens of India DO indeed need a transit visa for Germany

https://uk.diplo.de/uk-en/02/visa/airport-transit-visas/2442170

So that would suggest that the were correct to deny you boarding. 

Now the question seems to be to what extent Lufthansa customer services are responsible for giving you the bad information. Certainly worth a complaint, i'm sure their position would be that passengers are responsible for ensuring they have the right visas but if they've explicitly told you that you don't need one that would seem to be negligent on their part. 

CKhalvashi

Indian citizens require a transit visa for Germany. This is well published and based on the risk to the internal German and wider EU job markets.

There is no right for Indian citizens to exercise visa free transit in Germany to non-EU countries and never has been. This was extensively covered in Indian press in 2021.
There is no longer a right to a free visa for spouse of UK passport holders to Germany since 1 January 2021.

It is the responsibility of the passenger to meet any requirements a country places on foreign nationals entering or transiting their territory. Your wife unfortunately failed to contact the German embassy and therefore was correctly denied boarding to prevent her forced return to the UK at Lufthansa's expense.

There is the right to complain to Lufthansa however there is no right to compensation or a refund above any goodwill gesture they may wish to give you.

eDicky

At Frankfurt transfer from a short haul to a long haul flight is likely to involve change of terminals and passing through immigration (technically entering Germany), whereas transit from a non-Schengen arrival to a non-Schengen departure in a better designed airport such as Amsterdam Schiphol would not involve such complication.

tightauldgit

eDicky said:

At Frankfurt transfer from a short haul to a long haul flight is likely to involve change of terminals and passing through immigration (technically entering Germany), whereas transit from a non-Schengen arrival to a non-Schengen departure in a better designed airport such as Amsterdam Schiphol would not involve such complication.

Apparently Frankfurt is one of a handful of (4?) German airports where there is a separate Schengen and non-Schengen area and so it is possible to do a transit without a visa for certain citizens/visa holders.

Prior to Brexit it would have been possible I believe for an Indian citizen who had a visa to reside in the UK to transit without a visa but now it's not. 

In this case I have sympathy though because if they've called the airline and they've told them they're fine then really i think they should accept responsibility for that - the correct response should have been 'you need to check the entry requirements with the appropriate authorities'. Of course it still doesn't get you on the plane but I would expect some goodwill to refund the flight or offer them another flight or something. 

Provided of course the conversation went down as suggested 

ncmscnc

Okay. Raising it with Lufthansa now. Thanks all.  

I do understand that it’s our responsibility to have all the paperwork for our full travel. 

None of us had ever visited or transited a EU country before. Arab and south Asian transits don’t work this way. 

You walk out of a plane with a plan to walk into a plane. We don’t even have access to luggage. One would assume it’s reasonable to think we don’t need a two week wait, paperwork, convoluted application forms, nail biting wait and a visa. Especially if they wanted people to arrive, spend time and money in the airport. 

I am quite unsure what convenience it adds to other travellers having all this “walk out of airport system” for transiting travellers. 

eskbanker

ncmscnc said:

I am quite unsure what convenience it adds to other travellers having all this “walk out of airport system” for transiting travellers. 

Unsurprisingly, governments don't define visa rules with traveller convenience as an objective!

CKhalvashi

ncmscnc said:

Okay. Raising it with Lufthansa now. Thanks all.  

I do understand that it’s our responsibility to have all the paperwork for our full travel. 

None of us had ever visited or transited a EU country before. Arab and south Asian transits don’t work this way. 

You walk out of a plane with a plan to walk into a plane. We don’t even have access to luggage. One would assume it’s reasonable to think we don’t need a two week wait, paperwork, convoluted application forms, nail biting wait and a visa. Especially if they wanted people to arrive, spend time and money in the airport. 

I am quite unsure what convenience it adds to other travellers having all this “walk out of airport system” for transiting travellers. 

That is the choice of the sovereign nations in question in relation to their immigration law decided by their respective governments.

It is Germany's choice as a sovereign nation to require a visa in this circumstance. The only people with clarity who can answer the question of visa requirements is the German embassy. Lufthansa is in no way affiliated with the German government, nor is under (substantial) ownership or control of any government.

Germany considers Indian citizens from non-EU states and with no right to be in the EU to be a high risk category for illegal migration/humanitarian claims with a likely rejection. The cost of a transit flight is minimal when it can gain access to Germany for months while a case is decided. This is not a new policy on Germany's part.

I've travelled into the EU on 'high risk' flights quite frequently in recent years (where e-gates are not available), mainly from Georgia and Armenia. I have an EU passport but have informally translated from Georgian/Russian to English on more than one occasion for immigration authorities in the EU as a gesture of goodwill, so even a visa won't guarantee entry in itself.