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I recently had booking for flying British Airways from New Delhi to London to Nassau, all on the same airline. Unfortunately, the flight from New Delhi to London was delayed causing me to miss London to Nassau flight.

The airline re-booked me on a different flight from London to Miami to Nassau as there was no direct flight available. However, they didn't check with me if I had a US transit visa or not. And I did not.

I ended up travelling DEL>LHR>DEL because on arrival in London I could not take the re-booked flight and the next direct flight was two days later. I couldn't stay in a hotel as I only had a DATV visa and not a visitor visa for UK. This caused me to not reach Nassau at all.

Can airlines just book me a different flight without verifying my visas and call it a day?

Traveller
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Harshil Sharma
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1 Answers1

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The answer to your question is dependent on the country of issue of your passport. Some individuals only need to apply for an ESTA and pay a $14 fee. Others would need to obtain a transit visa.

If you required a full transit visa then British Airways should have you routed to Bahamas with another carrier if they did not have another direct flight. They didn't do that so you should receive a refund from BA (ticketed fare class may result in only a partial refund.)

BA really dropped the ball on this.

Wizbang-FL
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