Of course, I understand why APIS was introduced in the wake of 9/11 but a recent incident in EDI made me wonder if it could be better.
Me - UK citizen; Mrs Farci US citizen with permanent residence in UK for the past ten years. Both of us checked in online some weeks ago for an EDI-KEF flight and filed the APIS data with easyJet. At boarding my wife's passport triggered an alarm since Iceland requires passport validity of three months beyond the trip. Pleading from us that her passport expires in two months + 19 days and that the trip duration was only two days fell on deaf ears. easyJet claimed to have phoned Reykjavik immigration who confirmed she would be refused entry. She was denied boarding and I chose not to travel in the interests of living a long and happy married life
.
I am sure that buried in easyJet T&Cs there is a clause stating that pax are responsible for valid documentation. It never occurred to check Iceland immigration requirements - it's an EEA country in Schengen and as a UK permanent resident she has never been refused entry in similar jurisdictions.
If we submit APIS data weeks ahead, which includes passport expiry date, should this not have triggered an error so that the airline could alert us to the problem?