Questions asked by Emirates Airlines before departure fromUK

[GordonP]

On my way back to LoS today, however when checking in with Emirates with a return for next April, I was asked, if I had a valid visa. When pointing out my retirement visa that expires at the end of November, I had to explain the entire process of renewal before I was allowed to check in my bags.

Anyone else had this?

 

PS - Also disappointed with the service, food and staff attitude on the EK0012 to Dubai. Hope it's better on the BKK flight!

 

[nicolas18]

That's standard procedure for most airlines when checking in for a flight to Thailand.

 

If, for some reason, they fail to check if you have a valid visa (or a return ticket if you plan to using a visa exemption stamp) and you get denied entry into the country, they are responsible to transporting you back to your original location.

[david555]

why not pointing them  to you'r re entry stamp (i suppose you have one ...)

[rebeccax28]

I'm flying with them next weekend to bkk, 3 week holiday, I've had tourist visas in the past, 1 gap year and last year a double entry and a single from Malay, never done a border run in out apart from re-activating my 2nd entry, hopefully not going to have any problems at Immigration, I'm hoping to get the visa exempt 30 day, so hopefully Emirates are cool with this...

[balo]

Same problem with Korean airlines, I was asked a lot of questions after my vacation in the US flying back via Seoul . They wanted to se a valid visa and I had to explain to them my re-entry stamp , it took about 10 minutes before they let me check in .

,    

[moobie]

Just for the record. I fly in and out of Newcastle upon Tyne (via Dubai) on Emirates and when the return ticket is within the 30 day visa waiver period I've not been asked any questions.

 

However, for longer trips I have been asked to show either my visa or onward flight details at check-in.

[rebeccax28]

Yea I'm flying from Newcastle too.. never had a problem before. So looking forward to it!

[nickmanchester2]

yeah, check in girl asked me on sunday if I worked or lived in bkk and I said I am a student.

 

she asked to see my student ID card, but I said that there is a visa in the passport and she found it and held it up with a big smile on her face - and I said, yeah, thats is.

 

 

[Yahooka]

That's standard procedure for most airlines when checking in for a flight to Thailand.

 

If, for some reason, they fail to check if you have a valid visa (or a return ticket if you plan to using a visa exemption stamp) and you get denied entry into the country, they are responsible to transporting you back to your original location.

Must be most airlines except from Norway then.Im flying 5 times every year to Thailand and have never been asked about visa details(neither have they checked my passport).

[Richard W]

Must be most airlines except from Norway then.Im flying 5 times every year to Thailand and have never been asked about visa details(neither have they checked my passport).

If you have a return flight within 30 days they will already know that you have a flight out!

[lumply]

 

That's standard procedure for most airlines when checking in for a flight to Thailand.
 
If, for some reason, they fail to check if you have a valid visa (or a return ticket if you plan to using a visa exemption stamp) and you get denied entry into the country, they are responsible to transporting you back to your original location.

Yes, and they will pursue you for any extra costs involved in transporting you back.

[OJAS]

Yes, had a similar experience to the OP's with a miserable jobsworth Emirates check-in assistant at LGW in April 2010. Initially she refused to check me in on the grounds that my OA visa had expired the previous August. Fortunately she eventually accepted that the re-entry permit stamped in my passport constituted the necessary live "visa" for her purposes and allowed me - albeit reluctantly - to board the initial flight to Dubai.

 

Since then I have flown 3 times to Paris instead of the UK (but not with Emirates, I should hasten to add), and have never experienced similar problems when checking in for return flights at CDG.

Edited August 13, 2014 by OJAS

[darkian]

The carrier is obliged to get you out of Thailand (at their expense, don't ever pay) if you are denied entry, which is why they are keen to know if you've got a visa or onward travel plans. Unfortunately it's a pain if you're going to be entering on a visa exemption then buying a bus ticket elsewhere. I've been asked by Quantas, AirAsia X, Qatar and British Airway. I think it was only Quantas that actually made me go away and book an onward flight before they'd check me in. It seems ridiculous but I guess this is the rules they have.

 

One option is to fake a boarding pass to show them. However don't ever be stupid enough to use with border/immigration guards. I can't imagine they'd be pleased if they found it was fake.

 

One last thing, some airlines do weigh cabin baggage. Emirates weighed mine at Heathrow once, but as with most airline experiences it's different for every person on every day.

[Boo]

Some deliberately unhjelpful posts & replies to them removed.

[PaPiPuPePo]

I've had this problem exiting Japan numerous times, when I've had a one-way ticket due to having flexibility in my schedule thus desiring to buy my return or onward ticket after arriving in Thailand. The last time flying out of KIX, I was staying over for three days in Shanghai on a Osaka-Shanghai-Hong Kong flight. As they've done before, they handed me a form in Japanese (no English) and demanded I sign it in order to be checked in. My argument against this is three-fold in general, four in this case:

 

First, in this case, this was not a concern of the agent in Osaka, since I was flying to Shanghai and had an onward flight; it was a concern of the agent in Shanghai. The staff person agreed, but still demanded I sign the form.

 

Second, the form is in Japanese, and it's ridiculous to expect anyone to sign something in a language they can't understand. 

 

Third, once they produced, magically, a bilingual version, the form says "all costs and expenses." So I'm expected to sign a form with no limit on my liability. SImply ridiculous.

 

Fourth, any airline company that can build and manage a complex booking website (never mind maintain and fly complex airliners) should be able to either warn the ticket purchaser when they book that they will need to have an onward or return ticket out of the booked destination in order to check in, not spring this on the passenger at check-in, or refuse to sell the ticket; of course the latter would hurt their bottom line so that won't happen. And the warning would considerably lessen their leverage, so no real surprise it doesn't happen either.

 

All of these are valid arguments, but none of the last three evinced the slightest agreement from the staff or the supervisor who I had called over. In fact, the first time this happened, at Narita, the supervisor, a man, got snarly and threatening with me (that veneer of Japanese politeness is wafer thin, believe me). 

 

In this case, I managed to get checked in by insisting that this was not an issue at KIX, and that the staff at PVG were welcome to try to get me to sign an unlimited-liability form (in Chinese) if they wanted to. As it happened (and I knew it would), they didn't bring it up at PVG. 

 

At KIX they also asked where my visa for Hong Kong was. What a joke--better in fact was an earlier instance where I had a visa for mainland China, was flying to Hong Kong then going by train to China. That time the agent asked me "but how will you get from Hong Kong to China?" as if it were separated by an ocean.

 

So, to the moral of this story, and another solution (which I reserve until I need it): this is not a legal issue, as they will claim, it's about them covering themselves against loss, should the passenger be refused entry. Fair enough; but to spring it on the passenger at check-in is an obvious ploy to use that leverage, and beyond that, to present a form with no limit on the liability, when it would be reasonable to cap it at a very generous USD $3000, is equally unprofessional, to be charitable about it. This is why I only use the following if necessary, because this kind of behavior by the airlines (the last-minute no-limit and foreign-language strong-arming) needs to be resisted, not meekly gone along with.

 

So, that ace is this: cheaptickets.com will allow you to cancel your booking within 24 hours for about USD $11. So either right before you go to the airport, if you want to avoid a possible argument, or if it's demanded that you have an onward flight, go onine, buy one from them, then cancel it later; probably best to wait until after arrival. 

 

Considering some of the questionable characters I see let into Thailand, being a law-abiding and upstanding citizen, I have almost zero concerns about being refused entry into Thailand (not zero because these days who knows about anything for sure?).