I'm a Travel Agent and my agency is being sued
Greetings all,
I'm a Travel Agent (employee) and a client that I booked airfare for back in June is suing our agency in Small Claims. We're located in Alaska where there are *alot* of Russians who either have a Green Card living up here, or have dual citizenship. I became used to many who live near me who become insulted if you ask their nationality...they think it improper to question their immigration status if they are U.S. citizens having dual citizenship, thinking that it should be uncecessary if they live here. In any case, a U.S. citizen does NOT need a visa if passing thorugh Austria in less than 90 days.
That said, these clients who are suing apparently were Russian and did NOT have dual citizenship. The itinerary I offered and they chose was the least expensive to get to Moscow (and return to Alaska), but it routed them through Austria with jet change--where Russians nationals need something called a "Schengen Visa". When I booked the air for them, I turned before proceeding to reserve, and asked: "...are all your travel documents in order??..." (making sure--meaning customs). The young gal who was purchasing for 4 other people responded: "....yes, we've taken care of it...", seemingly acknowleging my concern and no further discussion was forthcoming in this regard. It was 2 weeks before they were supposed to fly and I assumed they were dual citizens with that answer and pursued it no further, selling the young girl the tickets.
Well, as you can imagine, without the proper visas, they reached Moscow but upon coming back to Alaska a few weeks later, they were turned around missing their connecting flights and forfeiting the entire return portion of the air tickets! This infuriated them and they phoned asking for help, which we found a reasonable new fare to get them home, but they declined purchasing their own very expensive tickets (Business class).
The lawsuit purports we were negligent in guiding them about the customs requirements, and they are suing for the price of the tickets (thousands) and additional distress to the tune of double that amount. The small claims hearing should be next month or so, and I'm wondering now if any opinions on what we need to say or do might be helpful.
By the way, the invoice that was handed to them has a disclaimer on the back about "..this travel agency is not responsible for passports, visas, etc....", but these clients never signed the invoice.
Any thoughts?
Thanks
Michelle
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10-09-2006, 09:12 PM
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