SOTC — egypt visa not issued for passenger - not allowed to board flight on may 5th and may 6th 2018

I am complaining of harassment faced by my daughter at turkey airport on may 5th because of non-availability of egypt visa, which sotc was supposed to organize for us. She was not allowed to board the flight from istanbul to cairo (Turkish airlines) twice at the istanbul airport. She spent 17 hours at the airport pleading with the airlines but they would not let her board without a valid visa.
Here are the details:
We are a group of 21 people, who booked a tour of egypt, greece and turkey from may 5th to may 17th through sotc, bangalore. We booked the tour almost 4-5 months before the date of travel. Out of the 21 people, 16 were traveling from bangalore, 4 from mumbai and 1 from san francisco, usa. All tickets including the return ticket from sfo was booked by sotc themselves. The name of our sales representative from sotc bangalore is jayashree suvarna.

We were told to arrange a greek visa ourselves for my daughter, while sotc would take care of turkey and egypt visas (Copy of mail from jayashree available). We got the greek schengen visa from sfo issued on mar 20th 2018. A few days before the travel, we got the turkey e-visa. We got a letter of guarantee from a travel company (Elegant group) in egypt (On 27th april) containing names of 21 passengers on that letter. This letter would apparently entail us to get egypt visa – this is not a valid visa!!

On enquiring about pickup arrangements for my daughter as she was reaching 2 hours after us, we were suddenly informed on may 2nd that it is impossible for my daughter to get egypt visa if she arrives alone and hence we both should stay back in the airport and do the immigration with aditi (Min 3 people required). I asked for a separate letter for the 3 o[censored]s which sotc refused to give. On may 3rd, while checking flights we realized that the two o[censored]s are landing in terminal 2 (Oman airlines) while my daughter is arriving via turkish airlines in terminal 1. There is no way to exit from a terminal in cairo without clearing immigration. We panicked. Please note that instead of sotc informing us about this, we the passengers found out and informed sotc (Mail dated may 3rd). My husband and a friend spent the whole day at sotc office on may 4th trying to come up with a solution for this problem. We asked them to book both of our tickets on lufthansa which arrives in terminal 3 (1 hour before turkish airlines flight lands) and hence will solve the problem of terminal atleast!!

After a full day of negotiations, as soon as my husband left the office around 5 pm, sotc informed us that they will issue a letter of guarantee and guarantee us visa for my daughter and assured us that their agent would be waiting at the airport for her and “try their best” to get her into egypt. Since friday was a holiday in egypt, they could not get us the letter and would send it the next day (We were traveling next morning and my daughter was traveling in the next 10 hours). We did not want to take a risk and asked for cancellation for the 3 o[censored]s. Sotc rudely informed us that since they have provided all the services and we are cancelling, we will lose 100% of the money we had paid as cancellation charges!! 6+ lakhs is a lot of money to lose!!

I have a mail from jayshree guaranteeing me with sotc guarantee that my daughter would reach egypt!! Seeing this, we had no option but to travel very reluctantly. At sfo airport, turkish airlines (Sfo to istanbul, istanbul to cairo) took a written declaration from my daughter that if she does not get a visa, airlines is not responsible. She boarded the flight from sfo with valid boarding passes. At istanbul airport, she was stopped at the boarding gate and not allowed to board the flight to cairo. She showed them all the documents, letter of guarantee, our tickets etc. But no avail. They would not let her board (May 5th : flight tk 694 6:45 pm departure)

When we informed sotc of this, the first reaction was that she should fight with the airlines and handle everything herself. She was stuck without a ticket and visa in the airport – neither can she come out nor can she do anything there. After requesting a lot, sotc agreed to buy her a ticket on turkish airlines, next morning at 6:30 am. With this ticket, she again got a boarding pass issued – we appealed for help from egypt travel company, turkish travel company and sotc india.

Mr. Rajiv naidu from sotc bangalore (Jayashree’s boss) was most insensitive and started spreading false news that my daughter had missed the flight herself and the fact that she was not allowed to board was false. This is what he informed jayshree and i have sms from jayashree to prove this. He called us up atleast 4 times (3 different people) just to inform us that we should get a written letter from turkish airlines that they do are not allowing her to board because of visa issue or else we should pay the ticket fare ourselves. Imagine we are tense the while night waiting in egypt, my daughter in istanbul airport and here is the time to say such nonsense and spread lies about us!! Action, should definitely be taken against this person.

Next morning, my daughter reaches the boarding gate at 4:00 am – waits. Finally, they again stop her at the boarding gate again. She tries to call the egypt travel agency (They do not respond), sotc india, turkish travel agency (They did respond) and make them speak to the airlines but airlines refused to let her board. They informed that they have waited for 12 hours for confirmation from egypt visa authorities – since there was no reply from egypt, they could not let her board the flight!!

Finally, after 17 hours of ordeal, she took an e-visa into turkey, spent a day in the hotel and on 7th may she reached greece where a few of my relatives were there. She joined us on may 9th at santorini and completed rest of the trip with us.

1. Why did sotc not arrange a proper egypt visa for us (Or even inform us that visa is required and that we should arrange the same ourselves)? The web site clearly shows that visa on arrival is not granted for indian passport holders unless they are in a group. Since all tickets were booked by sotc 4 months prior to travel, why did they not know this for my daughter who was traveling alone and arrange proper visa?
P. S. The agent from elegant (Mr hamid) clearly told us that he can only try but not guarantee as visa-on-arrival is granted for indian citizens only if they arrive in a group!!

2. Since sotc has not arranged egypt visa as per service agreement, why did they demand 100% cancellation fee from us when we wanted to cancel trip for the 3 o[censored]s only (Not entire group)

3. Why did mr rajiv naidu inform sotc that my daughter has missed her flight intentionally and why was i mentally harassed by jayashree for this when i was already worried for my daughter on may 5th night?

4. We demand compensation for the expenses borne by our daughter for her stay in turkey and flight tickets from istanbul to athens and for mental harassment. We also demand full refund of the egypt tour amount for my daughter only.

Please note that all email communication, sms, phone records and witness details are available with us and can be shared with authorities as required.

Please respond at the earliest, failing which we will be forced to take further action against sotc.