Airport problem

Drummerboy2

Hi. My daughter who lives in NY came home for a holiday. She was also travelling to Asia then back to Dublin via London for a few days before heading off to New York again. Anyway she arrived back in London to catch her connection flight to Dublin only to be delayed for almost 3 hours by customs. She was questioned about her movements and her luggage searched. After 3 hours she was released without an apology or anything. Because of the delay she missed her flight back to Dublin with Aer Lingus. She explained about her ordeal to AL representative at airport but she was still made pay an extra €300 for a flight back to Dublin. Just wondering has she any rights as regards a refund. Thanks in advance.

Victor

I imagine travel insurance is the best way to sort this.

bardcom

I seem to remember an argument in the past regarding Ryanair, and why they don't issue a single ticket that might include a connection (e.g. Dublin -> Krakow (via stanstead)) but instead issues seperate tickets for each leg. As far as I remember, they don't have a liability for missed connections (their fault, not weather) if it's all seperate tickets. There was some european legislation passed but I can't remember what effect this has had since.

Anyway, if it was seperate tickets, the airline has no liability.
If it was a single ticket, the airline should have been more sympathetic.

But I've no idea what the rights are - and I'm just as interested as anyone in finding out...

tallaghtoutlaws

Drummerboy2 wrote: »

Hi. My daughter who lives in NY came home for a holiday. She was also travelling to Asia then back to Dublin via London for a few days before heading off to New York again. Anyway she arrived back in London to catch her connection flight to Dublin only to be delayed for almost 3 hours by customs. She was questioned about her movements and her luggage searched. After 3 hours she was released without an apology or anything. Because of the delay she missed her flight back to Dublin with Aer Lingus. She explained about her ordeal to AL representative at airport but she was still made pay an extra €300 for a flight back to Dublin. Just wondering has she any rights as regards a refund. Thanks in advance.

Was it customs or immigration that stopped her? And insurance would be the way to go. I remember reading somewhere before that airlines dont have to be held responsible if you miss your flight due to either customs or immigration. I could be wrong but if that is the case you would imagine the airlines are more sympathetic.

Slice

Why would UK customs hassle her if she wasn't a resident of the country with a valid onward ticket to Ireland?

calex71

Slice wrote: »

Why would UK customs hassle her if she wasn't a resident of the country with a valid onward ticket to Ireland?

I remember having a close shave at heathrow a few years ago, flight from dublin was delayed 45 minutes , leaving me 20 minutes to get from t1 to t2 . They have a scan when you arrive to go through to the other terminal and of course they want to dismantle my laptop made my flight to germany soaked in sweat :mad:

tallaghtoutlaws

Slice wrote: »

Why would UK customs hassle her if she wasn't a resident of the country with a valid onward ticket to Ireland?

Depends on what way she connected.

If she went straight throught the flight connections centre she would only have had to go through security for bags and stuff. She might have been stopped here for a search.

But if she couldnt use the flight connections centre and had to re-check in i.e she didnt have a boarding card to continue on she would have to enter the UK to re-check in and thus going through customs.

tallaghtoutlaws

calex71 wrote: »

I remember having a close shave at heathrow a few years ago, flight from dublin was delayed 45 minutes , leaving me 20 minutes to get from t1 to t2 . They have a scan when you arrive to go through to the other terminal and of course they want to dismantle my laptop made my flight to germany soaked in sweat :mad:

Man tell me about it done that many times lol Getting to the gate looking like I just came from the London City marathon.

astrofool

The UK usually require a transit Visa for anyone who isn't visa exempt. Starting the trip from asia likely made someone suspicious.

The UK is becoming more xenophobic by the day.

jackofalltrades

slice wrote:

Why would UK customs hassle her if she wasn't a resident of the country with a valid onward ticket to Ireland?

Customs stopped her because she fits the profile of a drugs mule. I know a girl in her 20's who was stopped travelling back from Australia on her own, and was travelling on to Ireland and UK customs gave her a hard time aswell.

Drummerboy2 wrote:

Just wondering has she any rights as regards a refund. Thanks in advance.

As Victor said she could try claiming off her travel insurance, if she has any otherwise I can't see why Aer Lingus would have to give her a refund.

snappieT

That said, surely it is a requirement for airport services (including customs) to be conducted in a prompt manner, and certainly not stop a passenger with tickets for an ongoing destination from reaching their flight?

Welease

snappieT wrote: »

That said, surely it is a requirement for airport services (including customs) to be conducted in a prompt manner, and certainly not stop a passenger with tickets for an ongoing destination from reaching their flight?

Nope.. if they have want to check you out, they will check you out and your flights etc. are of little relevance to them.
They obviously don't go out of their way to delay people, but (and i have had experience of this) they won't just let you through because you have a flight to catch, which in fairness makes sense.

snappieT

Welease wrote: »

Nope.. if they have want to check you out, they will check you out and your flights etc. are of little relevance to them.
They obviously don't go out of their way to delay people, but (and i have had experience of this) they won't just let you through because you have a flight to catch, which in fairness makes sense.

The point that I'm making is that there must be some threshold of time when it just becomes ridiculous. If they were to inspect you for a week would that be ok? 24 hours? 6 hours? Where is the boundary?
I would expect 3 hours to be far past it. 1 hour tops, unless they find evidence to support further investigation (drug residue, for example).

Welease

snappieT wrote: »

The point that I'm making is that there must be some threshold of time when it just becomes ridiculous. If they were to inspect you for a week would that be ok? 24 hours? 6 hours? Where is the boundary?
I would expect 3 hours to be far past it. 1 hour tops, unless they find evidence to support further investigation (drug residue, for example).

No idea what or if there is a limit.. but it would be far more than one hour...

With a lot of folks, they need to check up on stories, contact people to check visa, who they are visiting etc.. You can't just sit there for an hour and say nothing, then be let on your way..

Edit - Just checked online.. Immegration officers powers for detention are unlimited ... ulp

"Irish Refugee Council Correspondence, supra note 4; Mission Permanente de l’Irlande à
Genève, Response to LCHR Questionnaire on Detention of Asylum Seekers (Mar.
immigration officers unlimited powers to detain, though they must have reasonable cause
to do so.7 However, in actual practice, the use of these detention provisions is
exceedingly rare.8"

http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/refugees/reports/cntry_rev_02/Ireland.pdf

HarryD

Customs can't take connectng flights into account
"Our sniffer dog indicates that you could be carrying drugs, but since you have a flight to catch you better go or you'll miss it. Have a nice day"
However I'd be pretty pissed off if it happened to me.
That's why I don't carry illegal drugs in airports....... normally..

random_banter

Surely would customs not have to take responsibility for costing someone their flight because of a detailed search, if that person was then found to be completely innocent? Doesn't really seem very fair to me? If an innocent person then has to fork out 300 euro of their own money to continue on their journey because customs delayed them? Are they not held accountable?

Welease

As I understand it ... No

I have been held up before, and when I asked the officer he basically said they would hold me until they were done (he was pleasant about it), and there was no comeback if I missed a flight..

And the airlines probably have their side covered also.. they tell you to leave enough time between flights.. they would probably say its not their fault you did leave enough time for a long customs search

jackofalltrades

snappieT wrote:

I would expect 3 hours to be far past it. 1 hour tops, unless they find evidence to support further investigation (drug residue, for example).

One hour wouldn't give customs much time to investigate someones story or their personal belongings.

randon_banter wrote:

Surely would customs not have to take responsibility for costing someone their flight because of a detailed search, if that person was then found to be completely innocent? Doesn't really seem very fair to me? If an innocent person then has to fork out 300 euro of their own money to continue on their journey because customs delayed them? Are they not held accountable?

Making customs financially accountable for delays caused by investigating people who latter they found no evidence against, would seriously weaken their effectiveness.

The current systems fine, it's a necessary evil that effects very few innocent people.

astrofool

If you've booked a consolidated flight, you should be able to get the next available flight without a problem.

tbh

astrofool wrote: »

If you've booked a consolidated flight, you should be able to get the next available flight without a problem.

this is the nub of the issue - was it a point-to-point ticket or not?

snappieT

Welease wrote: »

No idea what or if there is a limit.. but it would be far more than one hour...

With a lot of folks, they need to check up on stories, contact people to check visa, who they are visiting etc.. You can't just sit there for an hour and say nothing, then be let on your way..

There's a difference between immigration and customs. I said customs shouldn't take over an hour unless something is very suspicious.

And if you have flights onwards from the same airport, I doubt immigration would look too harshly on you either, unless you've been refused entry before.