AIR INDIA did not allow to board on Indian passport to India

[manish11]

Hello All,

My wife wanted to travel to India(Birmingham to New Delhi) and tickets were booked on Indian passport back in June 2016 for 24th August. I between this period She became a British Naitonal on 10 AUG 2016 and received her passport on 17 AUG 2016.

The HCI Website clearly say https://www.hcilondon.in/pages.php?id=90 travelling on Indian Passport is allowed for a grace period of 90 days form the date of Naturalization ( refer Clarification section)

All the documents Citizen ceremony Certificate, British Passport and printout form HCI was presented to ground staff however it did not satisfy them and the did not allow her to travel.

Please advise if you have come across a similar situation and how can I get some clarification from HCI/AIR India in order to recover my ticket monies

Regards
Manish

[vinny]

All the documents Citizen ceremony Certificate, British Passport and printout form HCI was presented to ground staff

Why show the ground staff all of the above? Surely, an uncancelled, unexpired, Indian passport would have satisfied them. Shouldn't assume that airline ground staff are experts on nationality/passport laws and procedures and grace periods.

I think that you had managed to confuse them enough, to the point of refusal.

[haiksuresh]

Hello All,

My wife wanted to travel to India(Birmingham to New Delhi) and tickets were booked on Indian passport back in June 2016 for 24th August. I between this period She became a British Naitonal on 10 AUG 2016 and received her passport on 17 AUG 2016.

The HCI Website clearly say https://www.hcilondon.in/pages.php?id=90 travelling on Indian Passport is allowed for a grace period of 90 days form the date of Naturalization ( refer Clarification section)

All the documents Citizen ceremony Certificate, British Passport and printout form HCI was presented to ground staff however it did not satisfy them and the did not allow her to travel.

Please advise if you have come across a similar situation and how can I get some clarification from HCI/AIR India in order to recover my ticket monies

Regards
Manish

One question, Did she got surrender certificate ? Did she returned her BRP card ?

[manish11]

We returned the BRP on 25th Aug, and we have an appointment to surrender the passport on Monday at VFS London.

I followed up with HCI London and they said if you have a foreign passport apply for a tourist VISA and as per them you don't need to surender the passport for tourist visa.Three months grace period is for people who don't have a foreign passport and need to travel

However as the application has to be submitted to VFS I checked with them and they say Surrender certificate is mandatory.

Well its the lack of clarity that has caused this confusion, I couple of lines added to clarification would have been really helpful.

Regards
Manish Rathod

[manish11]

do you think I should riase this with Air India in remote case I may get back the cost of my ticket.

W.R.T Showing two passport and other docs, we could not have used the BRP card so they would have asked for a visa document in order to return to the UK which we did not have and My daughter who is a British citizen was travelling along with my wife so any which ways the airline desk would have found it out.

Regards
Manish Rathod

[vinny]

do you think I should riase this with Air India in remote case I may get back the cost of my ticket.

Yes.

[rmukherjee]

Why show the ground staff all of the above?

Earlier, one could just travel out of the UK and back again with the Indian passport + BRP immediately after getting British citizenship for up to 90 days. (Interestingly, UK Border Staff can tell by scanning your BRP post-naturalisation that this is not a "normal" BRP).

However these days the Home Office insists you return the BRP within 3 days of getting your naturalisation certificate. There is also a scheme called JCAP that'll do your naturalisation and passport application in one combined process, so you get the passport a few days after getting the naturalisation certificate.

So yeah, I can see the twisted logic Air India used to deny travel to India to a person who technically couldn't make the return journey back (unless the ticket was a one-way ticket) -- as the person didn't have a valid British BRP or a valid Indian visa.

Still worth trying for a refund though.

[noajthan]

BRP to be returned within 5 days.

Citizens do not have ILR so a BRP becomes a coaster once holder is naturalised.

This argument with airline may best be followed up in their Twitter feed.

[vinny]

So yeah, I can see the twisted logic Air India used to deny travel to India to a person who technically couldn't make the return journey back (unless the ticket was a one-way ticket) -- as the person didn't have a valid British BRP or a valid Indian visa.

Why would airline staff in the UK be concerned with the return part of the ticket back to the UK? Wouldn't they be concerned with only the onward journey to India?

[noajthan]

Carrier liability? Due care and diligence?

Probably a question for concerned check-in staff via concerned airline's Twitter.