Woman banned from her flight to Spain due to passport ‘error’ – despite it being valid
AN ELDERLY woman was stopped from boarding her flight due to an "error" with her passport - despite it being valid.
Anne, 79, had booked a 10-day TUI holiday to Tenerife with her partner.
However, they ran into problems when they tried to check into their flight two days before their trip.
After the couple, from Sussex, travelled to their local TUI branch, they were told that Anne's passport was not valid for the flight.
This was because she had extra months on her passport, which she was told were no longer valid.
Anne's daughter Nicola told the : "The girl on the phone told us that due to Brexit, the extra months on any passport were now invalid.
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“She wasn’t interested in hearing our evidence and kept on saying it was Brexit and we should Google it.”
The confusion comes from the two new rules for passports since the UK left the EU.
The first rule is that passports must no longer be more than 10 years old - previous rules let Brits roll up to an extra nine months on their passports.
To travel to Europe, passports must also have an extra three months left on them from the date of leaving the country.
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However, the confusion comes as the two rules do not have to run together.
The Migration and Home Affairs Department of the European Commission confirmed that the two new rules are "independent" of each other, the Independent confirmed.
But this has caused confusion, with many airlines and tour operators enforcing both of the new rules at the same time.
Anne's passport was valid until April 25, 2023.
Despite this, the couple was told that they could not travel, so decided not to travel to the airport.
It was only on the Saturday evening, just hours before their flight, that TUI confirmed they would be able to travel, which was too late.
A TUI spokesperson said they had launched a full investigation into the issue.
They added: “Our teams are trained to provide customers with factual and accurate information, on this occasion we did not do that. We are very sorry for the distress and inconvenience this has caused."
The couple have since been given a full refund for their holiday and parking, as well as £200 TUI holiday voucher.
Sadly the couple aren't the only Brits to be stung by the new, confusing rules.
Last year, grandmother was wrongly banned from her easyJet flight to Disneyland Paris to celebrate her 70th birthday after cabin crew confused the post-Brexit passport rules.
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Another woman was banned from boarding her flight with her godson after staff told them her passport was no longer valid.
And a dad said he was banned from his flight due to the new EU passport rules - despite travelling to Egypt which isn't in the EU.
