How to claim compensation for denied boarding from Turkish Airlines?

Question

What happened

I had planned travel from my starting destination to the target destination with a stop in Istanbul. My target destination required an E-Visa document. The E-Visa document was approved but there was a mistake on my passport number, which had an extra digit on the end.

The check in desk at my starting destination validated my visa documents and issued boarding passes for both flights. However when I attempted to board the second flight from Istanbul, I was denied boarding as they said that immigration would refuse me due to the extra number.

I was left with no option but to contact the authorities for a new document (but same visa) and rebook my flights. I was told that the problem on the document was a technical issue and I would have been allowed into the country anyway.

In my view there seems to be an inconsistency between their staff at the source destination and Istanbul - if my visa was incorrect, I should not have been allowed to board the first leg of the journey. On the other hand if I had a valid boarding pass I should have been allowed on the second leg. My visa check was already complete by the time I was meant to board in Istanbul.

I strongly believe the TK airline was overbooked because the flight was already delayed, and our apparent denial caused no extra delay.

How can I claim compensation from Turkish airlines?

I am looking to get the money back from the rebooked flight (or a refund of the original flight) and/or compensation. So far the TK customer service has replied without giving much attention to the details and simply saying that it's not their fault.

Answer 1

You can't. You are not due any compensation. It's really that simple.

Passengers are liable for having the correct documentation to enter the destination. You didn't. You were correctly denied boarding in Istanbul.

Generally airlines will check your documentation for all legs of a trip at the time of check-in which would have caught this issue earlier, however there is generally no legal requirement for them to do so - and even if there is, their liability for not doing such a check is to the government not to the passenger.

The Turkish Airlines Contract of Carriage that you agreed to at the time of booking includes the following :

The Passenger shall be solely responsible for complying with all laws regulations, orders, demands, and travel requirements of countries to be flown from, into, or over, and with the Carrier's Regulations and instructions. The Carrier shall not be liable for any aid or information given by any Agent or employee of the Carrier to any Passenger in connection with obtaining necessary documents or visas or complying with such laws, regulations, orders, demands, and requirements, whether given in writing or otherwise; or for the consequences to any Passenger resulting from their failure to obtain such documents or visas, or to comply with such laws, regulations, orders, demands, requirements, rules, or instructions.

Turkey (the country) has reasonably strong airline passenger protection laws. You can find the Turkish Airlines document covering those here, however as this document states, visa issues are not covered by these laws.

Any passengers, who are not admited to the flights due to such reasons as medical condition, safety, security and inappropriate travel documents, are excluded from the scope of the services to be offered.