We were supposed to fly ICN to FRA to KRK with Lufthansa. At check-in in Seoul, they refused to board my 16-year-old cousin because her Costa Rican passport has no signature.
Thing is, Costa Rican passports for minors do not have signatures at all. Passport is valid until 2032. She has entered Schengen multiple times before, including through Frankfurt, with the same passport. She also had a return ticket leaving Schengen within a week.
Lufthansa staff said this came from German border police and that they were told to offload her because of the missing signature. That sounds off to me. From what I can see, Germany and Schengen do not require signatures for minors if the issuing country does not include them.
We ended up having to buy last-minute Qatar tickets for the whole group, about $13k, just to make it to Poland.
Not trying to bash Lufthansa, just honestly trying to figure out if this is a real requirement or airline over-compliance.
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