My £2,000 holiday to Portugal was ruined by confusing passport rule

A WOMAN had her £2,000 family holiday ruined after she was banned from her flight due to a confusing passport rule.

Meg Gordon had booked a holiday to Portugal with her husband Andy and 16-year-old twins Jasmine and Dylan.

However, after arriving at Newquay Airport on Saturday to board their Ryanair flight, they were quickly told her passport was not valid.

The NHS worker told : “Andy, Jas and Dylan were in front of me, but when a member of the ground staff checked my passport she told me it’s out of date.

“I replied, ‘sorry I think you are mistaken it’s valid until April 2023’. ‘No it’s not’ – the ten years run from the issue date, in my case July 8, 2012.

“I was then abruptly informed that as the UK are no longer in the EU the rules have changed and I would not be able to travel.”

She said she was “marched back” through the departure gate, and told she wouldn’t be boarding her plane.

Despite asking why she wasn’t stopped at the check in desk, or told when she booked the flights, she said crew took their bags off the flight and escorted them out of the airport “like criminals”.

Her husband, Andy, said they were left both “embarrassed and distraught” after their first holiday since the pandemic was left in tatters.

Not only that, but they lost £2,000 on flights, car hire and other holiday bookings.

A Newquay Airport spokesperson said they were looking into the matter.

A Ryanair spokesperson said: “This passenger was correctly denied travel as her passport did not meet the entry requirements for travel to the EU (Portugal) which are:

1. Passports must be issued within the previous 10 years upon the date of arrival into the EU.
2. The passport must be valid for at least three months from the return date of travel from the EU.

“This passenger’s passport was issued on 8 July 2012 and is therefore no longer valid for travel to/from the EU after 8 July 2022, as the passenger was travelling outside the 10 year validity period.

“Ryanair requires each passenger to ensure that their passport is valid for travel on both the date of their outbound and return flight date.”

The new passport rules have caught out a number of other travellers as well, with a woman losing her £2,600 holiday for the same reason.

Previous rules allowed Brits to roll over up to nine months from their old passports when renewing them.

However, these nine months no longer count, causing problems for travellers.

Passports must be no older than ten years from the start date, so the expiry date could be incorrect.

And new Brexit rules require Brits to have at least three months left on their passport to travel to EU countries.

This means that some passport expiry dates could be wrong by up to 12 months due to the new rules.

If you need to renew your passport, it can be done online, costing £75.50, or via a paper application form available at the Post Office for £85.

However, huge delays due to a passport application backlog mean many families have been waiting months for their new documents, despite the government advising up to 10 weeks.