Posted on 10/21/2021 4:16:24 AM PDT by 11th_VA
SAN FRANCISCO -- COVID travel restrictions are slowly easing up, but rules keep changing and vary from one place to the next. So when a California couple booked a trip to Greece, they had no idea of the nightmare ahead.
Greece had lifted travel restrictions and this couple had all the documents Greece requires. But the trip unraveled when they tried to connect to their flight in Switzerland. They were stopped at the gate and worse, the police came and arrested them.
"I was shocked. I thought it was some kind of a joke, like we'd be able to just explain to them..." said Cindy Miller. She and her friend Brett were headed for a three week tour of Greece.
"I'd always wanted to go there since I was a kid," Miller said. "We haven't taken a trip for 18 months because of COVID."
They booked a Swiss Air flight from San Francisco to Athens, with a connection in Zurich. It all went smoothly until that connection in Zurich.
"The passport control guy says, 'You can't come in.' I'm like, 'What do you mean we can't come in? There's my gate, my flight is leaving in two hours.' That's when the whole thing happened. He took our passports, he called the police. The police came full on, police with guns... took us into the basement which is a police station..." she said.
Swiss police said their gate technically was inside Switzerland... and Americans were banned from Switzerland because of COVID-19. They'd have to be deported - all the way back to California.
"They showed us deportation papers, I'm crying... they put us in this area that had bunk beds with mixed men and women. They said, 'Here if you need to buy a toothbrush...
(Excerpt) Read more at abc7chicago.com ...
The woman in this story is certainly scared of guns.
I would sue the brains out of Swiss Air! They FRAUDULENTLY took money for tickets that they knew, or should have known, were not legal to be booked and used.
Ok, Swiss Air did realize the civil suit jeopardy they were in.
“Swiss Air denied any refunds, saying passengers are responsible to carry proper travel documents.”
“Our sister station KGO-TV pointed out Americans were barred from entry, no matter the documents. And the airline did agree to refund $3,400 for extra costs.”
Those Swiss giant rifles can be scary.
“The police came full on, police with guns”
That suggests there’s more to this story than we are told.
The Swiss have probably the most liberal gun ownership rules on this planet - and it is usual procedure to have armed police at all airports in Europe.
The airline would have not been responsible for what happens during the change of flight, because the first leg included entry into CH and then the second flight would have been movement within Schengen. I’m sure these tourists were given notice of the need to check on such things - and it would have been in plain English.
I’m surprised there aren’t more stories luke this, vacation plans ruined, thousands of dollars lost, never to be recovered due to ever changing COVID rules. Every so often this results in a customer blow out or melt down.
Thats when all the cell phone cameras pop up. Sideshow entertainment.
There must be more to this story.
I’ve traveled through Paris, Brussels, and Vienna airports in July. For international transfers there was a smooth transfer.
They focused on the rules at the destination for boarding purposes. It was not until the flight to JFK in NYC that they required us to sign a paper stating that we tested negative within three days. Vaccination status did not matter.
They did not want to see any documentation re the test, just sign the paper.
See post #6.
Also, decided to scan the globe on where else in the world Americans dare to tread...
There’s a whole lot of ‘Do Not Travel’ areas out there (colored in red), including a few surprises.
Check it out:
https://travelmaps.state.gov/TSGMap/
Foolish decision on your part
The couple was not intelligent enough to seek out and then obey the rules. They whine and bitch and moan because they chose not to do the necessary planning and tried to bully their way through because they were Americans.
The cheapest fares turned out to be very expensive
I would agree...more to the story. If you land in Frankfurt, and stay within the international flights area, you don’t meet customs or border patrol folks. They must have exited that area for some reason.
Switzerland, such a “peaceful” country. Known for being “neutral” during the war. Turns out it is a fascist dictatorship like all the rest of them. They enjoy jailing people over a technicality of travel documents.
Civilization is a thin veneer over barbarism. Events of the last 19 months have proven that this veneer was just an illusion.
Society has gone to so far to hell, it’s like a day out at the lake when I go grocery shopping. (I really gotta plan another fishing trip before it gets too cold.) Sure, I could get a clot shot, but like my doctor says, I’m a statistical high risk patient for another infection of any kind. He even put me on a sulfa drug to firewall my immune system a little. Travel to Switzerland? I don’t even cross the state line without an appointment somewhere.
She should have claim to be an illegal immigrant.
COVID restrictions are slowly easing up.
They are? They seem to get worse daily.
There was even a Tom Hanks movie called "The Terminal" about a guy stuck in international terminal hell.
I wonder how many of those are reciprocal because of US restrictions?
FWIW we had a trip to Switzerland scheduled for last August. We canceled in April or May because of this restriction.
Ignorance of the law is no excuse, for peons.
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