Why are airline desk agents even acting as the final arbiter of whether a traveler’s immigration paperwork is in order in the first place?I agree that they should be verifying easy things (like that people remember to bring a valid passport), which is a simple, valuable service I appreciate. But beyond that, if a passenger insists their paperwork is in order, shouldn’t the airline just permit them to fly and then take their chances at passport control at their destination? (After all it’s not the airline’s problem if you get stuck in immigration jail like Novak Djokovic, have to abandon your plans and fly home.)An AA agent in Nashville can’t and shouldn’t be expected to be a qualified Chilean immigration attorney, and I have to think that the airline would love to shed its liability for taking on this role. In this case it ended up costing them $17K and a lot of bad press for getting it wrong.

Why are airline desk agents even acting as the final arbiter of whether a traveler’s immigration paperwork is in order in the first place?I agree that they should be verifying easy things (like that people remember to bring a valid passport), which is a simple, valuable service I appreciate. But beyond that, if a passenger insists their paperwork is in order, shouldn’t the airline just permit them to fly and then take their chances at passport control at their destination? (After all it’s not the airline’s problem if you get stuck in immigration jail like Novak Djokovic, have to abandon your plans and fly home.)An AA agent in Nashville can’t and shouldn’t be expected to be a qualified Chilean immigration attorney, and I have to think that the airline would love to shed its liability for taking on this role. In this case it ended up costing them $17K and a lot of bad press for getting it wrong.

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