Traveling to/from ukraine with your wife/children

[Kevin]

I wanted to address a problem that I had and a few other clients had when traveling back to/from  Ukraine with our wife and children.   When you are booking your flight be aware that your wife is restricted to the international side of the airport unless she has a transient visa in Europe. This means if you plan to fly from the US to Europe and make two connecting flights your wife will get stopped at the airport passport control.   For example We were flying from Orlando to Germany then taking a short flight
over to Vienna before arriving into Odessa Ukraine. Because Germany and Austria are part of the EU the flight between these two contries are basically domestic EU flights. Since my wife didn't have a EU visa she was not able to get though passport control in Germany to get onto our flight to Austria.   What we had to do is fly to another airport that had a international terminal that would allow my wife to enter and exit from.  In our case we took a flight over to warsaw Poland stayed the night in international Hotel (airport terminal side) and took a quick Jump to Odessa the following morning.   A lesson learn that next time I'll get avoid EU-EU connections or get her a visa.  Our return flight we be from Ukraine to Poland to USA. :>

Also be care of baggage limits. 50lb for coach and 70lbs for first class. They are getting very serious about overweight luggage. It took a lot of repacking to get 4 bags at 69.9lb, a car seat, stoller and 3 carry ones without paying the extra $$$ for 3 of us.

Hope this helps.
Kevin Hayes

[wiz]

Kevin

I am very surprised to hear your problems and I can not understand why you had to fly to Warsaw and stay overnight.

I would expect the German airport you flew in was an International airport which normally have a Transit area, so your wife doesn’t need a transit visa.

Was your flight a charter flight or a schedule flight?

Have you thought of using Aerosvit from NY to kiev via Birmingham UK and then onward to Odessa? They have some nice deals.

Wiz

[Kevin]

Wiz
We flew into germany on the international side. But to get from Germany to Austria you have to go though passport control because when you arrive in Austria you are on the EU side and not the international side of the airport. Like I said they now consider EU flights  domestic flights instead of international flights even though you are flying between countries.

Basically this also means if you have a lady with a visa to Poland she can take a flight to germany without a problem.

Kevin

[wiz]

Ok now I understand what exactly happened and why you had to find another flight via Warsaw.

I am lucky and I don't have to care about such formalities. What a pain for you to have to get transit visas or fly via Warsaw.

regards
Wiz