Adamant airline puts City teen in a corner

Insistence on transit visa

 A teenager from Bangalore was forced to spend 18 hours without food and water inside the airport at the Venezuelan capital of Caracas, last fortnight.

Reason: Despite rules stating otherwise, Copa Airlines, insisted on a transit visa for a stopover destination, Panama, from where he was to take a connecting flight to his final destination, San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica. Two weeks after the ordeal, he and his parents are nowhere near getting any compensation for his agony.

On August 22, Chirag Ganesh Koundinya was booked on the route Bangalore-Frankfurt-Caracas-Panama-San Jose. He had a ticket on Lufthansa Airlines till Caracas, from where he was to fly to San Jose by Copa Airlines.

Once he reached Caracas, Copa said he could not board the next flight as he had no transit visa for his stopover destination (Panama), before heading to San Jose. This, despite immigration officials at Caracas and the Panama Embassy not insisting on a visa.

The Copa Airlines website shows there is no requirement for passengers to apply for transit visa for Panama City, if the stopover is less than 12 hours there. The Panama Embassy too had issued an order to all airports in South America in this regard. Chirag was scheduled to stop over for only one hour four minutes.

With both Copa Airlines and Lufthansa Airlines coming under the banner of Star Alliance, a network of 27 airlines, the tickets were generated by Lufthansa. The latter had also issued the e-boarding pass on its letterhead for the 18-year-old to travel till Panama City.

Relying on Lufthansa’s reputation, Chirag had checked in his luggage till San Jose, with the luggage tags also issued at the spot.

However, when he landed in Caracas, the Copa staff denied him a boarding pass as there was no transit visa for Panama.

Despite local immigration officers of Venezuela vouching for his case, Chirag was not allowed to board the plane. He was forced to stay within the transit area. With no water or food, he was left to fend for himself. His only respite was the free Wi-Fi connection for his smart phone. This gave Chirag the sole form of connectivity to the outside world.

Chirag’s father Ganesh booked a flight of another airline which flew directly from Caracas to San Jose, spending an additional Rs 65,000 for the ticket. The ordeal for the teenager did not end there.

Soon after reaching his destination, Chirag was left with no clothes or accessories as the tags which were forcibly taken away from him by Copa Airlines officials at Venezuela left him with no claims over his luggage checked in at Bangalore.

An official mail sent to the parents by Lufthansa on Wednesday suggests they will cover “50 per cent of the cost of the outer wear and 100 per cent for inner wear and toiletries on submission of the original bills within reasonable amount,” as per their policy on delay in receiving the luggage.

“Lufthansa has asked us to follow up the matter with Copa Airlines and Copa has failed to respond to our pleas,” said Ganesh.