In September 2021, we received a request from a shipowner to arrange for a doctor to travel to Panama and escort a captain who was hospitalized due to lung cancer back to China.
At the time, the Chinese government was implementing the strictest epidemic prevention measures. Returning from Panama to China required a stay of more than 10 days in Panama, and due to the scarcity of flights to China, all flights from Panama to China required a transfer, with connecting tickets already pre-sold for several months later. We could only purchase separate tickets for the two legs, with the operating airlines being KLM and China Eastern Airlines.
However, the rule of the originating airline, KLM, was very harsh: if the passenger did not have a visa for the transfer station (Amsterdam), they would not be allowed to board in Panama for a non-connecting ticket.
And the captain happened to not have a visa for the transit country. This meant that according to the airline’s regulations, he could not board in Panama, and we would not be able to send the captain back to China. Although we communicated with KLM and the Chinese Embassy in Panama many times, we were unable to change this regulation of KLM.
Finally, we booked a ticket for the captain from Panama to Dubai, with the transfer still in Amsterdam. Because Dubai offers visa-on-arrival for Chinese passport holders, this would allow the captain to board in Panama.
After arriving at the transfer station, the captain only needed to take the flight to Shanghai with the doctor, without needing to take the flight to Dubai. Through this method, we successfully transported the captain back to China.
