Consumer Redressal

Dear Sir / madam, I have booked flight Ticket for my son to Travel from Hyderabad to Frankfurt by British Airways from its website (not through agent) For Date 18th Oct 2020 morning (BA0276 to start at 7.15am) from Hyderabad via London to FRA. Booked on 16th Oct 2020 London to Frankfurt by BA0912 with a layover of about 1hr 50mts at London. There is no Airport change, No Terminal change Next we booked one extra Baggage by paying the requisite fee in advance Next we booked paid seat from London to Frankfurt flight. That is needed to book the Covid test online at Frankfurt airport. We checked BA website for any special documents required for travel. We could not find any. We checked the UK Govt website. There we found some restrictions and Exemptions. In the Exemptions part they said clearly, If a person is holding D Category Visa of Europe, they are exempted. Our son is having German D Visa. We carried that print out. Web checkin we tried, it said you have to collect the boarding pass at airport only. BA has not alerted us through mail or Message on any kind of restrictions to travel. We reached Hyd (RGIA) by 2.30am on 18th Oct 2020. Security staff advised us to wait as BA staff have not come. After some time the staff came and asked for the documents. We presented all documents. Now they said Transit Visa is required. We said we are willing to pay for that if it can be arranged even as Visa on arrival etc. As you have not mentioned any where, we didn’t try for that. After lot of argument, they denied boarding and advised us to contact some email to get full refund of the ticket. They didn’t put it in writing. They also said Sund is holiday so contact on Monday. We returned home and contacted BA through mail for refund: They said it is No Show so it will be processed as per that if you agree on that. - We explained it is no No Show Then they said Transit Visa is not there - We explained about D Visa of Germany Then they said you upload all the documents carried - we uploaded Then they said, Your boy has carried all the valid documents but we have denied boarding as we have to follow MOCA Orders. - We asked what is that MOCA Order and why you have not alerted us on that by any means They say it is passenger’s responsibility to find out what is required and comply - We questioned, don’t you have any responsibility to alert us at the time of booking the ticket or extra baggage latter or booking the seat latter. They say this is final we can’t do any thing, we advise you to contact CEDR. I think it is Europe based commercial organization. So impartial opinion may not come from them We will be happy if you can advise and guide us on how to get the full refund. We suffered a lot because of BA - Our boy could not perform journey that day. - Lot of onward (train booking, appointment with University, Municipal etc) reservations have to be cancelled. - Finding alternate airline to travel etc JRL Sarma