An Indian family planned to celebrate a birthday in the shadow of Machu Picchu and trace the ancient streets of Cusco. Instead, their Rs 8.9m (£70,000) dream holiday ended at an airport check-in counter where staff allegedly tore up their boarding passes and walked away, prompting a two-year legal battle.
Earlier this month an Indian court ordered that a criminal case be opened against KLM Royal Dutch Airlines over the holiday that never happened.
JS Sathishkumar, 53, a businessman from the southern state of Tamil Nadu, had spent months planning what he described as a “once-in-a-lifetime trip” to Peru.
The 14-day holiday was intended to celebrate his daughter-in-law’s birthday and bring together three generations of the family. They spent around Rs 4.9m (£38,000) on return business-class flights for eight people, as well as booking hotel reservations, a heritage train to Machu Picchu and an Amazon rainforest experience, according to court documents.
But after driving almost 200km from Salem city to Bengaluru airport, the family saw their trip come to an abrupt end. They were denied boarding by KLM despite providing what they maintain were all the valid documents required to enter Peru, Sathishkumar tells The Independent.
KLM confirmed that the incident, which took place on 19 June 2024, was being investigated internally.
The family of eight, including an infant, were supposed to fly to Peru via Amsterdam. “The trip had emotional significance. My daughter-in-law’s birthday falls on 19 June, the day we were scheduled to travel, so we planned to celebrate it in Peru. All of us – my wife, two sons, their wives, my daughter, and my granddaughter – had booked tickets together,” Sathishkumar says.
“We were in for a rude shock when we arrived at the airport and were made to wait for almost four hours before being denied boarding.”
They hadn’t obtained Peruvian visas, he says, because they qualified for a visa-free exemption. The exemption allows entry for holders of visas “with a validity of minimum six months” for the US, Canada, Australia, UK, or Schengen area.
The wording of this exemption appears to be at the heart of the disagreement between the family and airline staff. They all carried visas with expiration dates more than six months from their date of travel – but not necessarily ones that would be valid for stays of six months or more.
The Peruvian embassy in Delhi told The Independent Indian nationals generally require a visa, though exemptions do apply under specific conditions, including for travellers holding valid visas or residency permits for certain countries. Further questions were referred to the rules stated on the embassy website.
Sathishkumar insists they all “fulfilled the requirement to travel without a visa, as each family member had valid US, Australian, or Schengen visas”.
“Our travel agent had already completed online check-in for our journey from Bengaluru to Amsterdam and from Amsterdam to Peru,” he recalls.
“We had printed boarding confirmations and had also selected seats and meal requirements in advance so that family members, including a child, could sit together comfortably.”
By 11.30pm, the family had printed boarding passes and checked in their baggage, but it was not sent through the conveyor belt. Instead, they were told staff were still verifying whether they could travel.
Minutes before departure, Sathishkumar alleges, a staff member arrived, tore up their boarding passes, removed baggage tags and left without explanation.
“We were left there with our luggage, not knowing what had happened,” he says.
They were forced to leave the airport in what Sathishkumar describes as a personal humiliation.
Soon, what began as a disrupted holiday escalated into a legal and bureaucratic ordeal.
Sathishkumar attempted to file a police complaint in Bengaluru, but said authorities asked for further proof, including evidence that the family had even entered the airport. Attempts to get CCTV footage from the airport were unsuccessful.
After months of trying to get police to investigate, in December 2024 he approached a court in Devanahalli with jurisdiction over the airport and lodged a case against the Dutch airline himself.
He says he has since travelled frequently between Salem and Bengaluru to pursue the case.
But he claims the most unexpected fallout from the incident came a few weeks after they had returned home.
Sathishkumar says his family’s passports – including the toddler’s – were “red-flagged” in immigration systems after the failed Peru trip.
A “red flag” on a passport signals that the traveller requires closer inspection. Such a passport holder may be pulled aside for questioning and their documents may be verified more thoroughly than usual.
According to court documents seen by The Independent, Sathishkumar alleges that he and his family have been repeatedly “subjected to questioning” at Australian border control when travelling to visit their daughter there.
“It was a humiliation,” he says. “Every time we travelled, we were pulled aside, made to sit, and questioned. You feel like you have done something wrong when you haven’t.”
The complaint accuses KLM of putting “false information” about the incident into immigration systems. At passport control on arrival in Australia in August 2024, Sathishkumar says an immigration officer asked why they had been “sent back to India from Peru”.
“We were asked if we had been deported,” he recalls. “That is when we realised something was wrong.”
In the court documents, Sathishkumar charges that he and his family were “financially, emotionally and practically cheated by KLM Airlines”.
Sathishkumar’s complaint further alleges that his daughter-in-law suffered a miscarriage because she “psychologically suffered” from the experience.
The airline staff told the family they mostly had Australian e-visas, which would not be accepted for transit from Amsterdam to Lima, according to the complaint.
“Indian immigration will permit but Amsterdam officials will not permit us to fly to Peru and we’ll be asked to board the next flight to India,” the family claims the airline staff told them.
In early April, after almost two years, the court directed the Karnataka police to file a complaint against individuals named in the family’s petition. The police registered a case against the Dutch airline’s senior leadership on 9 April and launched an investigation.
Sathishkumar says the order is only the first step and now the police must investigate without prejudice.
“Whether they refund or not, they have to answer,” he says.
Sathishkumar wants answers to two questions. One, what happened to their tickets and seats after they were denied boarding? Two, who authorised the alleged red-flagging of their passports and why?
Sathiskumar rues that his family were never able to make that holiday to Peru. They didn’t try to rearrange the trip, he says, as it would have been overshadowed by the memory of their failed attempt.
“It has been like a nightmare for the family,” he says.
In a statement to The Independent, KLM says it regrets the inconvenience caused to the family and is investigating the incident.
“We take this matter very seriously and are currently investigating the circumstances,” a spokesperson says. “For this reason, and out of respect for our passengers’ privacy, we are unable to comment further at this time.”
Simon Calder, travel correspondent of The Independent, said: “Being turned away at an airport for an apparent infraction of passport and visa rules is upsetting, stressful and expensive – especially in this case.
“Of course it is tricky for staff working at airports to know the exact rules for every destination – and they stand to be penalised if they allow people to travel who are not admissible at their destination.
“I urge travellers to travel with a print-out of regulations published by their destination country spelling out the documentation required.
“Had I been at Bengaluru airport at the time the family were turned away, I would have urged them to ask a different airline if they would be accepted to Lima – and, if so, to buy fresh tickets.”