I’m seeing avoidable check‑in refusals when passports have under 6 months remaining or fewer than two blank visa pages; last week I had two cases ex‑JFK where the carrier enforced it at the counter. Because airlines are liable for inadmissible passengers, I cross‑check IATA Timatic and paste the specific validity/page rule into client confirmations — does anyone have a concise client one‑pager you like, or want the template I use?
I add an OSI to the operating carrier in the PNR with the exact Timatic line — ‘Timatic checked today: requires two facing blank pages; 6 months validity’ — so the counter sees we’ve pre-verified; not foolproof, but it’s won me a supervisor override twice, @OP.
Quick example: I add a Timatic timestamp line right on the e-ticket receipt and voucher — “Checked 02 Jan 2026 14:30 UTC: 6 months; 2 facing blank pages” — and include https://www.iatatravelcentre.com so clients can show it at the counter. It’s reduced pushback for me at JFK, though caveat: South Africa and a few African stations still insist on physically seeing two facing pages no matter what’s printed.
Had a JFK counter pushback last month; since then I attach a Timatic screenshot/PDF to the e-ticket and drop a one‑liner “visa space + expiry verified via Timatic, 12 Jan 2026 16:40 UTC” with the source link https://www.iatatravelcentre.com so the desk sees what we checked. If Timatic and the consulate disagree, I paste the consulate wording and warn clients the carrier may apply the stricter version — belt‑and‑suspenders, but it’s stopped refusals for me.
I set a gate in our CRM: clients upload a passport scan, we record expiry and blank-page count, and the final docs email won’t send until a Timatic check field is marked OK… Caveat: counters can interpret page layout differently, so I add a line ‘airline may require two contiguous blanks’ and set a 2‑week renewal reminder, @lionel_mck.
I put ‘facing pages’ wording from the consulate site next to Timatic; stopped two refusals.