Had to buy return tickets at the time of travel into Poland

Upvote:1

As i understand, at the time of departure, you only had the Schengen visa, but not yet the residence card? The tourist Schengen visa requires a return ticket for a valid entry, so in that case the airline was totally right, since they would be responsible for flying you back, if you would have been denied entry to the Schengen area because of the missing return ticket.

Upvote:4

Having an actual ticket is certainly not required to enter the Schengen area, see Schengen air travel confirmation and private aircraft and Getting a Schengen visa without firm travel plans for all the details.

That said, it's also true that the airline who brought a passenger to a country can be forced to bring the person back to their point of departure or be fined for transporting them without checking their visa and they sometimes err on the side of caution (for them…).

Whether it is legal to refuse to carry you is down to contract law and consumer protection rules. In Austrian's case, the only relevant rule I could find is article 7 of their General Conditions of Carriage

In the reasonable exercise of our discretion, we may refuse to carry you or your Baggage on our flights, provided that we have previously notified you in writing. Under these circumstances you will of course be entitled to a refund.

[…]

7.1.7 you do not appear to have valid travel documents, may seek to enter a country which you are only entitled to transit, or for which you do not have valid travel documents, destroy your travel documents during flight or refuse to surrender your travel documents to the flight crew – against receipt – when so requested; or […]

The language is a bit broad and I doubt you would have much luck seeking redress but I don't really know.

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