Doesn't look like ESTA is the issue:

> On EU side if airport personnel told you it's their flag, not the ESTA that is the issue.

> How frustrating. Whatever system the airlines are using it throws up erroneous flags, often.

The airlines are just pinging the ESTA system. If they bring someone to the US without ESTA permission they get fined $5000.

The same thing happened two weeks ago to my boss, he had an ESTA permission issued until Nov 2018 but it got revoked without notice or reason and he only found out at the airport. He still doesn't know, even though he has an Official Passport (sometimes called Service Passport) and was on diplomatic mission to the UN climate conference in NY.

Airlines don't have very good systems for handling visas and ESTAs. I personally never cannot checkin online for the flight from Europe to US since I'm on a work visa not an ESTA. At the counter they just check my visa, type it in and check me in.

Might be that in this case the airline person just typed the wrong ESTA information and either didn't find it or found one that was rejected, or he simply just didn't file an ESTA or it was expired.

True. The title of this HN post might be misleading.

The title seems to have been edited, I posted it as "... denied to board flight to the US" just for that reason.

strange, thx for clarification.

For anyone unfamiliar, the reason the airline would've denied him boarding if they even thought there was an issue with ESTA is because airlines are responsible for bearing the cost of his return flight if he is denied entry in the US. Shame, really, since it seems like there's a decent possibility that had he actually made it to the US border he would have been allowed to enter.

The whole system is somewhat archaic and outdated.

Also, a political environment that regularly denies people doesn't help!