I am a US citizen of Indian origin and I have lived and worked in India since 2001. I have a Persons Of Indian Origin (PIO) card that allows me to work in and travel to India without having to procure a visa, provided I comply with the prevalent rules for PIO card holders.
Until recently, I have used my US passport and PIO card to travel freely between India and several countries (with visas IF required by the countries) without any issues.
I travelled to the US in late Feb of 2013 by Emirates and was cleared by both the Emirates ground staff in India and the Indian immigration authorities for the trip to US. When I finished my work in the US and arrived at the airport in US, the Emirates official at the check-in desk asked for my previous passport. I was not sure why they wanted the expired passport since my visa to India (PIO card) was already in the officials’ hands.
The official said that the PIO card had a passport number mentioned which was different from the passport number that I carried. OK, I realised that was because the PIO was issued against the earlier passport. He mentioned that I could not travel back to India without that passport. I tried explaining that since the time that the new passport was issued in Jan 2010 (3 years ago), I have travelled several times (of which 3 or more times was by Emirates) with the newer passport and the PIO and no one asked to see the older passport, MOST OF ALL, the immigration officials in India.
I was told that this is the rule and was shown some document to this effect. When I asked if this had changed in the past few days, I was told that this had been the case for some time in early 2012 or late 2011. I pointed out to the Emirates official that I had travelled to the US in October 2012 via Emirates and had flown out from a different airport in the US without encountering this problem. The official did not budge and off-loaded me unceremoniously. I was told that I either provided them the old passport (not scanned copy, but the original) or a letter from the Indian consulate allowing me to travel without the expired passport. As luck would have it, the Indian Consulate was closed on Saturday (the day I was travelling back to India) and would reopen only on Monday.
Additionally, I was a part of a meeting with our CEO and Executive management in India in the following week, which made my on time arrival in India mandatory.
After being left high and dry by Emirates, on the advice of my company, I went to another airline and booked a one way ticket paying 1000s of USD and travelled back to India WITHOUT encountering any issues with immigration in India !!!!
Once I returned I filed a complaint with Emirates stating that the enforcement of any policy should
a) Be consistent at all airports
b) Start at the point where the journey commences - i.e. in India in my case, so that I can travel with the necessary documents from my home base.
It took Emirates 2 plus months (March 11th to May 16th) to acknowledge my complaint. This was after several reminders through calls and emails. After that it took a further month to respond to my complaint. A full 3 months from the time I sent in the complaint!!!
And, here is what they had to say
"may I take this opportunity to inform you that it is always the passenger's responsibility to ensure that he/she has obtained and are holding in their possession all relevant exit and entry visas and other necessary travel documents for the entire journey being undertaken"
In other words, nothing :-(
The airline studiously avoided responding to the question about why the ground staff in India did not check the documents as thoroughly or why the Emirates staff in US acts differently, in different airports.
Anyways, here is what I have learnt from the experience
a) Carry all your travel documents (multiple passports, visas, whatever else)
b) DO NOT expect any help from Emirates and most of all DO NOT expect consistency in the way they implement rules
If I had a choice, I would not fly Emirates again. Pity, because they are a competitively priced airline, until it comes to customer service; when the price competitiveness ceases to make a difference.
