British Airways — boarding denied - ba helpline had told otherwise when inquired after booking the ticket

Address:

560084

Dear sir/madam,

I am an indian citizen and i had booked a flight for two o[censored]s on british airways.com for a return trip from amsterdam to bangalore via uk to mumbai. (Ticket details attached)
Once i booked the ticket i had made a point that i called the british airways customer care (+[protected] ‎on wednesday, ‎august ‎2, ‎2017, around ‏‎12:25:12 pm and spoke to the personal and the conversation i could remember of (Mentioned at the end)
When we reached the amsterdam airport, we were denied boarding. I was very sure that the ba personal at the airport might have some confusion regarding their regulations as i was very sure that i'd be allowed after the conversation what i had earlier with the ba helpline.

There were lots of confirmations made within the team at the airport, i explained to them that i already had spoken with ba helpline and that should be clear. I requested them to call the immigration office and immigration office personal said we cannot board the flight as we have a schengen c visa and not d category visa. (These terminologies were new for us)

We were really blank at that point of time, not knowing what to do. I requested ba if they can change our flight but no. All the flights travel via uk and we cannot take any of them. They suggested us to take emirates flight for the night, i asked if they can transfer the booking, but no again. They cannot do it. The emirates flight costed us 1.3 lac for two o[censored]s.

We were clueless there standing for an hour, they gave me the number to directly contact the ba but i cannot make a call as i did not have the sim card nor i can book the next flight as i really had no money in my account since that was the last day of vacation. No hotel booking to stay overnight.

It made no point standing at the airport and starring at the counters but also did not have money to travel back to the hotel (As that was the last day for ov chipkart). We somehow managed to call my brother and sister to arrange some money for us so that we can go back and think of what can be done.

We stayed near the train station for almost two hours and waiting for a message that money was deposited. But this experience made us forget all the good days we had. The last day ruined our vacation when we were really tired and wanted to go home.

We finally took next day’s flight back to india.

It took me a day to come back and loads of frustration to write this email. I'm sorry.
The time mentioned in the email might not be the exact time, please be advised to check the call logs of ba helpline and get the details on incoming call from '+91 [protected]' for that day or even the recorded call when you say that the call might be recorded to improve the services.
I request british airways to refund our ticket prices and hotel stay prices (Bill attached 48522.00 + 5156.74) asap as i have to pay back the credit i had taken for my new tickets. If not please do let me know if i have to get this sorted with a legal procedure.

Conversation:
Cust care: hi, you have called to british airways support helpline and you are talking to xxxxx. How may i help you?
Me: hey, this is ruqsar. I was looking for an information on ticket that i have booked from amsterdam to bangalore via uk, i went through the information online but was little confused to conclude if we need a transit visa for uk?

Cust care: alright, let me help you on that. Could you please provide me your flight details?
Me: okay, so i had booked it from ibibo, i also had called to ibibo.com asking for the same information but they redirected me to your airlines customer care, anyway the pnr is smcmw6.

Cust care: sure, just a moment while i pull your ticket details.
Me: sure,

Cust care: yes, i see that you are travelling via uk, let me quickly pull out the details for you. But before that could you please tell me if you already have schengen visa?
Me: i have applied for one, should be coming to me shortly.

Cust care: okay, i looking for the information for you, meanwhile i will put your call on hold.
(Silence for almost 3 minutes)

Cust care: thank you for waiting, okay so you might not be requiring the visa as you are not staying there and it would just be transition from uk and you have a schengen visa and if you would have travelled in one of the 27 countries included in the schengen visa.
Me: are you sure? Because when i read online, i got mixed information and that is the reason i'm calling you.

Cust care: yes, what i read is telling me that, let me also confirm once more
Me: sure,

Cust care: okay, you do not need one. You are good to transit if you have a valid schengen visa.
Me: that's great, thank you very much. That was reliving to hear that i do not need one. Can you please send out an email to me mentioning the same? As this is the first time i would travelling outside of india.

Cust care: i'm sorry ma'am but i won't be able to do that, but let me just show you where i got the information from
Me: okay,

Cust care: can you please type https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa in your browser
Me: right, did that.
Me: oh, this one, i was here already but was skeptical. Anyway, i'm on that page.

Cust care: great, now can you select which country you would be travelling from? (He asked me to select relevant details from the options given and finally there were points which said "you are exempted if:" and made me read two points from that which said:
1) a schengen approved destination scheme (Ads) group tourism visa where the holder is travelling to the schengen country that issued the visa
2) a flight ticket from the schengen area, if you can prove that you entered the schengen area in the previous 30 days on the basis of a valid schengen ads visa
Me: (After reading) okay, i had read this but i was still not convinced. How bad that i had all the information in front of me already but did not realize. Thank you very much for this.

Cust care: not a problem at all. Wish you a happy flight with british airways.
Me: thank you, but i really need some sort of confirmation when they ask me in uk or amsterdam.

Cust care: i'm sorry that i cannot send an email to you, i doubt if they would ask you if you have a schengen visa, but as an alternative you can take this print out of the exemption list and show the highlighted items to the airport personal and they should be good with it.
Me: sure, i'd do that. This helped a lot. Thank you.
Cust care: anytime. Anything else i could help you with?

Me: how about the immigration and the luggage?
Cust care: once your luggage is checked-in in amsterdam, you'd directly get it in mumbai.
(Few more doubts around that and call was concluded)