easyJet kicks couple off Turkey holiday flight for not printing visas

Exclusive: Ground staff at Stansted insisted Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and UK Foreign Office were wrong about e-Visa rules

A London couple have lost a third of their holiday in Turkey because easyJet wrongly refused to let them board a plane from Stansted.

CB and CA, as they have asked to be known, had booked a 10-day holiday in Bodrum, including flights on easyJet to the Turkish resort.

They had obtained the required e-Visas for Turkey, and downloaded them to their smartphones in line with advice from the Turkish authorities and the Foreign Office.

The couple arrived at the airport in good time. But at the departure gate, easyJet ground staff insisted that e-Visas needed to be printed out and they would not be allowed to travel without a paper version.

Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs makes clear that a downloaded e-Visa is acceptable, saying: “Keep your e-Visa with you either as a soft copy (tablet PC, smartphone, etc.) or as a hard copy.”

The Foreign Office echoes this advice: “Print off and carry a paper copy of your e-Visa, or make sure you have an electronic copy on a smartphone or other device to show to the immigration officer.”

CB said: “In shock and total disbelief we challenged the representative. She said quite bluntly that if we wanted to get on the flight we would have to find a printer.”

With the few minutes available in the airside area, they failed to find a way to print the documents.

“The whole situation was humiliating and upsetting,” said CB.

“We were unceremoniously sent back to Departures, although we had to do that ourselves which was a mission in itself; easyJet gave us no assistance. We eventually got there with the help of a security person.

“I called easyJet customer service and was told that there was nothing they could do.”

The Independent then contacted easyJet on the couple’s behalf.

The airline admitted they had been wrongly denied boarding, but blamed the incident on incorrect information provided by a third party: a travel document verification system known as Traveldoc.

An easyJet spokesperson said: “Our ground staff at Stansted acted in line with the guidance provided by Traveldoc, which stipulates that passengers must have printed copies of their Turkish e-visas.

“We are sorry that the guidance provided by Traveldoc appears to be more stringent than the requirements of the Turkish authorities and will be contacting Traveldoc to alert them to this issue.”

CB said the mistake had been extremely stressful: “It has left us traumatised, our Easter holiday has been ruined and we are considerably out of pocket.”

The airline has apologised to the couple. Under European passengers’ rights rules easyJet is obliged to pay €400 per person in compensation, as well as meeting expenses caused by its decision to offload the couple.

The couple have booked another easyJet flight for Tuesday 3 April, but as a result of the airline’s action they will have only a week’s holiday.

Last Easter, easyJet ordered a couple to leave a plane at Luton Airport before departure to Catania because it had sold more tickets than there were seats available on the plane.

The airline then broke the rules on overbooking by failing to tell the couple about their rights to compensation and alternative flights.

Also over the weekend, a couple had their honeymoon plans thwarted when British Airways overbooked a flight from Heathrow to Las Vegas.

Chris and Clare Larvin’s first class tickets had been booked for 11 months, but when they arrived at the airport they were told there was room for only one of them at the front of the plane.

A spokesperson for BA said: “We understand this is a very special trip for the couple, so we have given them the option of travelling tomorrow in First Class, or alternatively flying today sitting together in our comfortable Club cabin, and receiving 75 per cent of their ticket price in compensation.

“We wish them all the best for a lovely honeymoon.”