I had travel plans with my older son for a 2 day holiday to Austria and we had done early check-in 2 days before. At the airport, we were denied boarding because his passport expired in a month (an oversight on our part) My question is.. when I asked if I can just travel then and my son just go home, they said no. We had to lose money on a pre-paid car, hotel, phone plan, etc... I can't find any law that would prevent me from continuing to travel without my son.Anyone have any insight? Thanks!
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1What was the origin airport, and what are your respective citizenships and residence/visa status related to Austria? If for instance your son had an EU citizenship you didn't have, it could affect what kind of documentation you would be required to have (definitely not saying this was the case here, just trying to find out if there is a non-obvious reason for what happened).– jcaronCommented Mar 4, 2020 at 16:35
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3How old is your older son?– DavidRecallsMonicaCommented Mar 4, 2020 at 18:48
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1@Kyralessa Passport validity requirements usually depend on the traveller’s nationality. For Austria, it is 3 months beyond the length of stay for some eg worldtravelguide.net/guides/europe/austria/passport-visa– TravellerCommented Mar 4, 2020 at 21:17
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1I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because the OP has not returned to give the key information requested in comments, making the question impossible to answer– TravellerCommented Mar 4, 2020 at 22:15
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3Thanks for responding. From Tel Aviv, no visa needed. The airline is Wizzair. I realize that the requirements are at least a 3 month validity now and accept that. My son is 17. We were both travelling on Israeli passports (I also had my US one with me). Mine being perfectly fine and valid I couldn't understand why I was denied boarding also. He gave no reason, just saying no...you both can't fly. I want to now pursue a claim but didn't know if there was something I was missing.– Rhonda LloydCommented Mar 5, 2020 at 20:14
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1 Answer
I can't find any law that would prevent me from continuing to travel without my son.
First and foremost this is governed by the contract of carriage of the airline and the terms and conditions of your specific ticket (that you agreed to when you bought it). I suggest reading up on those.
we had done early check-in 2 days before
Often on-line check includes document validation or at least a reminder that you need proper documentation to travel. Did that not happen ?
The only thing that the airline could have done would be to split the reservation, cancel your son's reservation and let you travel. That takes a non-trivial amount of time, so whether this was an option or not, really depends on when you got "denied". If they caught it at a check in counter, they might have been able to do something, but if you were walking onto the plane with 10 minutes left before gate closing, you were probably out of time.
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10Nope. One passenger on a reservation not travelling is a common practice, and isn't anything like what you've described.– DocCommented Mar 4, 2020 at 23:01
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Thank you for the early check-in response. Yes we had to put in our passport numbers at early check in and think it was a big oversight and could have been avoided. Because we did early check-in and had no luggage to check, we went right to the gate, so maybe the idea of it just being too late is the right answer Commented Mar 5, 2020 at 20:22
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@Doc: There's a difference between "one person on reservation not travelling" and "one checked-in person not travelling". As Rhonda notes, they arrived at the gate checked in with an invalid passport.– MSaltersCommented Mar 6, 2020 at 14:46
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@MSalters No, there really isn't. Each passenger has their own ticket.– DocCommented Mar 6, 2020 at 17:24