IN A recent post on Open
Jaw, owner of TravelDesign,
Peter Sherman, said,
despite his client having a
valid visa for travel to the US,
SAA check-in staff insisted
that the traveller could only
board if he had an ESTA
(Electronic System for Travel
Authorization) visa. The
incident left agents confused
about how to proceed with
visa procedures on SAA flights
to the US.
“My client was travelling on
a British passport with a valid
10-year US visa on an SAA
flight from Cape Town to JFK
via Johannesburg,” says Peter.
The check-in staff said the
client’s US visa was no longer
valid since Trump had been
elected. Pressed for time, the
client immediately started
trying to get the ESTA online.
“She paid $14 (R186) for the
ESTA and only just made her
flight,” says Peter.
On arrival in New York, the
customs official asked why
she had done so as she
already had a visa.
US Embassy spokesperson,
Cynthia Harvey, says the
ESTA is an automated system
that authorises travellers to
board a carrier to the United
States under the Visa Waiver
Program (VWP). Travellers
holding valid visas are not
required to apply for an ESTA.
British passport holders are
currently included in the VWP.
Tlali Tlali, spokesperson
for SAA, says the ESTA
processes and requirements
are interactive with its checkin
systems. This means,
when staff members manually
enter passport credentials or
swipe the passport and the
request for ESTA comes up,
they should enter the US visa
credentials as a secondary
document, says Tlali.
He adds that, in this case,
the staff member failed
to apply the second visa
validation check.
“Remedial steps will be
taken to avoid the recurrence
of this or similar incidents.
SAA apologises for the
service failure and the
inconvenience endured by
the customer and has
assigned the matter to one of
its senior staff members to
support the passenger with a
refund.”
SAA clarifies ESTA visa requirement
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