Child’s passport only has 2 months on it. Flying to Spain on Saturday!

I would try and move the holiday tbh.

Or Easter

Option E, speak to travel agent and move holiday to June school hols or Summer holidays

Pre Brexit, you could travel until your passport was out of date. Now the UK is a third country, you need 6 months validity before you go and a lot of people have been caught out by this change. So yes, another Brexit bonus.

This is rubbish. People always had to check their passports for the expiry date, it's just now for the EU it's 3 months earlier. The op didn't check the passport and think: oh I can travel up to the last day. She just didn't check the passport. Period. I got caught out similarly when going to Australia. I just hadn't checked when my passport was up. Why can't people take responsibility for their own mistake rather than blame brexit, which happened two years ago and over which there's been a zillion warnings given.

whether it would be worth attempting to travel on the understanding that two of us would then travel home if he was refused entry ( which is know is highly probable)

As others have correctly said the airline is responsible for policing document requirements, so they are not knowing going to allow somebody to “have a go”..

Also things might get even more complicated for the airline if the return flight is full and they then have to accommodate one? Two? Three? additional passengers.

While the passport service say it takes a week to deliver, it only took two days when we did a face to face. Of course, you can’t rely on that as a definite, but they seem to be pretty fast. It’s not peak time so you might get lucky.

and the OP was not rude - she just asked people not to tell what she can read for herself

Ex and I took dss (pre Brexit etc) to France on an expired passport.

We only noticed that morning. The checks at the tunnel crossing are less stringent. So I don't know if you can drive to Spain?

I have no idea if things have been tightened up since Brexit. But I was 100% sure we would never have got through by plane or boat.

We were stopped on the way back, they checked against some list and then told us off but that was it. No issue at all on the way out. They didn't even look at the passports.

This has nothing to do with Brexit. You have always been required to have a valid passport to travel, even to EU countries

Sigh. It has everything to do with Brexit. Before Brexit the OP's child would have been able to make the trip with two months left.

Since Brexit you need 3/6 months left depending on who you ask/the mood of the border guard concerned/Ryanair's capriciousness.

I don't know if it is still the case but my dh took D's to London several years ago for emergency appointment as ex had kept child's passport from previous holiday with him and so I had not noticed it was due to expire. He went in morning with letter from me signed requesting his SD be given new passport for my son. He collected it about 4 hours later. Took son to NHM to see dinosaur skeleton. Son now grown up maintains that was next bit of holiday.

Brexit. The gift that keeps on giving

This has nothing to do with Brexit. You have always been required to have a valid passport to travel, even to EU countries.

And yes. The OP is rude. Obviously it’s probably because she’s annoyed at herself for not bothering to check that her son’s passport was in date, and because of her they may need to either cancel or change the holiday. But the law is the law. It’s nobody else’s fault that she didn’t bother until now.

Also, post Brexit your passport needs to be stamped in and out to make sure that you haven't spent more time than allowed in the Schengen zone (90 days in 180 day period is the limit for Brits now). So quite a few changes really.

@olympicsrock I was in your exact scenario in the summer with my DC - keep the fast track appointments tab open on your laptop, phone, PC, and anyone else's device who could look for you, and just keep refreshing. Alternative, earlier appointments usually go on (night time was most common for them to load new appointments). You can move your appointment up to 2 days before at no charge.

I'm in London but I travelled to the Peterborough office for a Monday lunchtime appointment. DC's passport came through the letterbox on Friday.

Good luck, you have my sympathies. It's very stressful.

@User1isnotavailable
I waited at the Liverpool passport office and went back in to collect the passport later. It wasn't posted to me.

That's now only available for adults and not for children.

Doesn't help when some people make unhelpful comments.

what on earth was unhelpful about saying it would not be possible to get on the flight without a valid passport? Unhelpful/unkind would be, "you're an idiot to even think it's possible. You deserve your bad luck."

OP, it's time to use the one week fast track service and hope it comes sooner. You and your DS may need to change flights and leave later. I'd not do any flight changing until closer to the time as the one week thing MIGHT be quicker than one week. Good luck.

Before Brexit - need to give everyone travelling's passport a glance to ensure it's not expiring.
After Brexit - need to give everyone travelling's passport a glance to ensure it's not expiring.

You still need to check before booking, just as you did before Brexit.

It's silly to blame Brexit.

Not sure how Brexit has caused you to not bother checking passport requirements before booking a holiday

Before Brexit the passport would have been valid for the trip. That is the point - the rules have changed and people are being caught out.

I don't think the OP sounds rude at all, just very stressed trying to sort things out. Doesn't help when some people make unhelpful comments.
Good luck getting an appointment OP. Hope you can rescue some of your family holiday.