Photo by Daniel Klein on Unsplash
Our experience on the flight was fine… but alas… one of the ground crew checking boarding passes tried to tell my wife travelling on a Taiwan passport that a VISA was required for visiting the UK.
Taiwan is the 17th largest trading economy in the world at the moment, with a GDP that places it above many European nations. Visa free travel is currently arranged with over 140 countries worldwide, including the Schengen group of EU countries and the UK.
Taiwanese visitors to the UK (if they have a biometric passport with their ID # on the informational page) are permitted to visit the UK for 90 days VISA FREE. The VISA is only required if the passport is an old type passport or the visa is not a tourist visa.
https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa/y/taiwan/tourism
We knew that, but the passenger-facing attendant didn’t. Fortunately, she called her supervisor over who was able to confirm what we knew but the attendant didn’t. So your failsafe systems did work, but the crew member should have already known that. The change was implemented quite a long time ago.
When the staff member was advised that she was incorrect, she should immediately have said, “let me check that” but we were forced to restate our correct position several times before she sought further intervention.
I appreciate that your company needs to verify visas for passengers where they are necessary, but we took exception to the manner in which the issue was raised. The fact that we had already completed the check-in without this being raised, or the fact that we had repeatedly visited the UK over the past ten years without a visa, or the fact that we had provided her with a correct passport with previous stamps indicating all of this.
Despite making such a manifest error, we never received an apology for the mistake, though we were allowed to proceed with boarding. Given the political sensitivity that Taiwan faces, and the fact there were dozens of people behind us, some of whom could hear what was happening, caused my wife to feel quite embarrassed and discomfited by the situation, not to mention myself. It is unacceptable that front-line staff are unfamiliar with the regulations they are supposed to be enforcing.
As a result, I’m now writing this letter to complain about this. When I return to Taiwan, I shall be taking this up with the Dutch representatives in Taipei, to remind them of the duty that KLM and all Dutch airlines have to understand correctly the requirements affecting Taiwanese travelers to countries offering visa free travel.