So I learned this the hard way….On an Indian passport, don’t do a double transit in Europe.

I booked the following routing on a cheapie $499 round trip to Turkey out of LAX.

LAX-FRA-IST and coming back IST-MUC-ZRH-LAX.

That’s coming back via Munich and Zurich. Routing didn’t ring any bells on anyone’s end and it was sold as a valid ticket. In fact, it didn’t even trigger any checks until I actually landed at Munich and am directed to clear immigration to access the flight to Zurich, which is considered a domestic hop.

Not having a visa to enter Europe, I had to purchase a new routing. Thankfully, there is a flight out of Munich to LAX, and amazingly enough a new ticket cost about $300 at the service desk. In the end, not a terribly expensive lesson but considering it was a $499 ticket to begin with, relatively expensive. That could have gone up by multiples had I not been traveling solo.

Thankfully it didn’t ruin what was an amazing trip….a minor sting and a good lesson. I actually already managed to save a friend of mine who booked a similar routing and was still in his 24 hour window to cancel, which he promptly did and rebooked a different route. Here’s hoping this post saves someone from any additional grief…..