I had booked my flight to Muscat via Sharjah through Air Arabia last month.
My travel date was last week. When I reached the airport ,the
Air Arabia check -in team told me that my visa had been cancelled and there was no way that my daughter ( 4.5 yrs old ) and I could travel. Though I had a valid visa as per the dates , according to the 180 days rule( me and my daughter had stayed in India for more than 180 days) our resident visa had been cancelled. I am surprised that I was not informed about the same when I booked my ticket at the Air Arabia office in Andheri .
I could have very well booked my tickets through internet ( and paid less transaction fees ), but to be on the safe side I had booked through the Air Arabia office. I was suppossed to have a 4 day halt at UAE ( transit visa , which was also booked through Air Arabia office ). They gave me a UAE visa without a valid Muscat visa ( any Gulf country visa ).They had even reviewed our passports before booking our ticket and UAE visa.
Now all our family holiday plans have gone awry , not mentioning the cost and hassles we went through for the same.I have already called the Andheri office
a couple of times and the answer I get is that , they can give me only part compensation , because I missed the Sharjah flight ( though it is due to their mistake ).The other answer is that Seniors are not around , so they cannot do anything better than give part compensation.They agree it is not my fault , but at the same time they do want to compensate me for the entire cost. Was this information helpful? |
1- Visa to a country is the sole responsibility of the traveler, the airlines do not have the obligation to do these checks at the time of ticket sale. There are several instances when a traveler procures the ticket before arranging for the visa. Due to such variances that part is left to the traveler's ownership
2- The UAE visa is issued to you on the basis of the Indian passport and not of you being a resident of Oman. Hence at that point too your Oman residency does not go through a check.
Wishing you all the best for your future travels!