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If the airline sends you to a country where you don't have the right credentials to enter, it becomes their responsibility to fly you back out again. Which they will do ad probably charge you at the insanely expensive unrestricted coach fare rate. In addition, the airline is also subject to fines from the destination country for passengers turned away for documentation reasons, and some of those fines are both quite high and not as easy to reclaim from the passenger denied entry.
So any airline that's doing their job right will have multiple checks in place for the passport. I've recently had to scan my passport into the kiosk before printing out boarding passes, show it again when checking baggage, and then show it a final time at the gate, presumably to verify that I hadn't lost it between ticket counter and departure lounge.
And in the semi-tinfoil hat world, there's no way that Edward Snowden got from Hong Kong to Moscow without Russian immigration officials knowing what was happening and putting their fingers on the scale. At that point, his passport had been revoked and even though you technically don't need a Russian transit visa for less than 24 hour periods of time if you don't leave the airport, his name would have been radioactive on any passenger manifests.
Not to derail the thread, but Snowden's passport was canceled at the same time he was transiting to Russia, where he had a ticket to go on to Cuba if I recall correctly. By the time he landed in Moscow, the canceled passport became known, thus not allowed to transit to Cuba. Canceling passports is not some instant event where everyone and their brother knows around the world. I doubt anyone working at the airports even knew who he was at that time as the info about him was just coming out in popular media, and legally, they would have no reason not to let him through.
Like others have said, I'm sure, it totally depends on the country!
True story: I was going to Costa Rica (about 15 years ago), and realized upon arriving in San Francisco that I'd left my passport back home in South Lake Tahoe - which is 4+ hours away. I called my mom's friend who was a travel agent, and he said it might not matter because of their lax policies. So I flew to Costa Rica without my passport, told the customs agent upon arrival, and her reply was "Just give me 12 dollars." Huh? Of course I didn't have that exact amount, so I handed her a $20 bill, which she pocketed (no change offered, big surprise) in exchange for a stamped piece of scratch paper. And people say the US border is easy to cross illegally? LOL.
Arrived at the Hong Kong-China border without a visa for the mainland. We somehow got on the wrong MTR and ended up at Lok Ma Chau station (where you can't get a visa on arrival) instead of Lo Wu station (where you can get a visa on arrival). The rather grumpy mainland border guard didn't speak any English, but he made it pretty clear that he wouldn't allow us into the PRC.
A very friendly Hong Kong police officer came to our rescue and explained to us in perfect English that we have to go back to Lo Wu in order to get a visa.
Good old days. Pre 9-11. Remember when your family could meet you at the gate? And international departures could be in the same terminal as domestic departures? I can see how the scenario could happen.
Would be impossible these days. You cannot take an international flight without going through US customs and as such you need a valid passport just to leave the US. Most if not all airports now bundle the international flights in the same terminal and your passport is checked before you're allowed to enter the terminal for homeland security reasons.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gizmo980
Like others have said, I'm sure, it totally depends on the country!
True story: I was going to Costa Rica (about 15 years ago), and realized upon arriving in San Francisco that I'd left my passport back home in South Lake Tahoe - which is 4+ hours away. I called my mom's friend who was a travel agent, and he said it might not matter because of their lax policies. So I flew to Costa Rica without my passport, told the customs agent upon arrival, and her reply was "Just give me 12 dollars." Huh? Of course I didn't have that exact amount, so I handed her a $20 bill, which she pocketed (no change offered, big surprise) in exchange for a stamped piece of scratch paper. And people say the US border is easy to cross illegally? LOL.
How long ago was that? I don't see it happenening post 9-11.
I don't remember exactly how long ago it was, could have been before (we've been together for 30 years, so sometimes the past seems a little cloudy and dates aren't always precise). They *did* have a good sob-story about a dying relative, which was true, and he did in fact expire before they reached the village.
Suppose you forgot to apply for entry visa to a country (or maybe you though you didn't need it), and you took a flight and got off the plane in that country. Maybe you realized during the flight or upon arrival that you should have applied for visa. What will happen? Is it possible they'll process a quick visa after you provide enough documents and maybe pay a hefty fee? Or will you ask you to take a flight back to where you came from?---in which case, will you have to pay the airfare for the return trip? Just curious.
I would say you would have to be a dumbass not to research whether you needed a visa to travel there in the first place. And even more of a dumbass for not applying before you tried to leave.
Some countries allow for on demand visas and can probably accommodate you if you somehow made it there without a visa. Vietnam, for example, allows Americans to get visas at the airport although they cost more. Others, like China, will not and if you get there without a visa they will turn you away. You don't necessarily have to go back where you came from though, and of course you have to pay for your travel.
That is not correct. You need an approval letter for Vietnam, and you have to get it before you depart. No approval letter means no visa.
Good old days. Pre 9-11. Remember when your family could meet you at the gate? And international departures could be in the same terminal as domestic departures? I can see how the scenario could happen.
ATL still throws domestic and international departures together in the same big post-security playpen even though they designate terminal F and part of E as the international ones because they can tunnel you into customs on arrival from those gates.
And if you've got time to kill during a long domestic connection, this is a Very Good Thing because the only non-lounge space with free wifi is by the terminal E food court.
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