To be upset for these families turned back at the airport

[TarasHarp55]

I've just read about another family turned back at the airport because some of the passports weren't valid anymore. I know it's their fault that they hadn't realised they now needed six months more than their expiry but hell we're all human we make mistakes.

This was a family with little children all excited for their holiday, months of saving and preparation. I'd have been tempted to turn a blind eye. I don't think I could bear to refuse them., and hopefully not get into trouble for it. Anyone else feel like this?

I haven't used an estate agent for about 16 years. I research on the internet and them book fights/ferries/hotels as they suit me. That makes it my responsibility to check passport/visa requirements. I've had some near misses but so far I've alway got it right. If ever I screw up I'll only have myself to blame.

Look at the issue date and expiry date. If the expiry date is more than 10 years from the issue date then extra months were added. If it expires exactly 10 years after the issue date then no extra months were added.

My sympathy for the adults is contingent on whether they voted for Brexit or not.

If anything went wrong, who would actually put their hand up and say “I did not do my job” ?

This was a family with little children all excited for their holiday, *months of saving and preparation

But apparently not even a glance at the requirements which have been publicised over and over again

Yes we all make mistakes, and yes it must have been awful for the family, but it isn't always possible to save people from themselves

I think the airlines and travel agencies should take some responsibility for reminding people, in big capital letters, when they take their payment for a trip that they will not be able to travel and will lose their money if they do not have 6 months left on their passport at the date of travel.

This happened to me although I wasn't a hot teenage girl. I was a stupid 20yr old uni student who had looked at the expiry date but only taken notice of the month as I knew I had my passport when I was 15 and "knew" they lasted 10 years. I didn't think/realise that children's passports were different. I got to my destination where passport control told me it was not valid and did I have another one. Luckily as I was there for work with the local university and could show them proof, they let me in on the proviso that I sorted out a new passport.

Leaving was a bit of a challenge as my entry visa was in one passport, but the new one had stamps to authorise my stay and the airport officials didn't understand why. Neither of us spoke much of the other's language so after a bit of frustrated questioning/explaining in a little room, they eventually let me leave. I think they just thought just send her back, it's easier than carrying on trying to understand. 🙂 This was about a week after 9/11 that I was returning, not the best security!

No it hasn’t, not when we were in the eu. Now, it’s just eu countries that insist on your passport being less than ten years old and must have three months remaining from you return date. Other countries don’t have the same requirements.

@Manekinek0 I went on a package holiday recently. The holiday provider's "advice hub" consisted of, basically, them saying "read the gov.uk website and also the foreign travel advice pages for the country you are travelling to". Same as with most customer service in the UK these days, phone or email response is patchy and unreliable. Wading through pages of international treaty agreements re passports, covid etc is laborious and confusing. Information in the media should you Google is contradictory especially given the existence of cached pages as can be seen from the responses on this thread, all different, all stating that they are correct because that's what it said somewhere online at some point.

Short outcome is that it's not as straightforward as it should be. As evidenced by the large number of people "getting it wrong" when previously this didn't happen. Have people suddenly gotten more thick or is it actually easier to get caught out even if you try not to?

Whats the point of the expiry date if it effectively 'expires' months before....its totally ridiculous.

Some of the airlines are incorrectly applying the rules.

Except it's not 6 months, it's 3 in the EU.

@Clymene indeed. But our government's own Comms until very recently were saying six months - I still have email alerts from them from January this year where they said six months - and that was copied elsewhere eg it was put out by people like Jet2 and TUI, with no mention anywhere of the validity rules re extra months.

To me it seems like rules for the sake of rules. Are they really so necessary.

I saw the news about this and checked my passport - and I still have a photocopy of my young adult daughter's passport which unfortunately runs out in December. She's off to Iceland in June, I've just messaged her to try and get a Fast tracked appointment.

Nope, it’s common knowledge. I don’t feel sorry for ignorance.

My friend flew to the Maldives just after mass testing, she saw a party of 8 being turned away from boarding because they had negative NHS tests. And I didn’t feel sorry for them either.

@TarasHarp55 probably not. But, y'know, Brexit and all that. I've only been abroad a couple of times since it happened but going through the non-eu gate is quite a different experience. Same as it's always been for people on the outside.

Exactly!!!!!
Expiry date should be just that

It's 3 months for Iceland

This and this is why I have the empathy that some others are seriously lacking on this thread

Not hard to renew passport. Just need to check and send it in plenty of time.

And how old were these people? For example a lot of older people don't have access to the Internet with up-to-date information and rely on travel agents to inform them. But yay! Go you with your lack of empathy for others losing thousands of pounds and a much awaited holiday

God really? That's super incompetent. I check on the website if the country I'm visiting. That's usually safest!

I do feel sorry for them, the expiry date seems meaningless, so it's all confusing particularly since rule changes after brexit. Having to take off any months which extend the passport beyond 10 years old ( if renewed before it completely run out) before calculating how many months to expiry is confusing and not well publicised. Just wish the expiry date was the actual expiry date, would be much simpler!

@caringcarer well you'd think. But actually it's not straightforward. Eg you have two kids, one 15 and one 17. Different birthdays obv. You're going to the canaries in August and you've also got the chance of five days in Portugal over the long bank holiday in June. Your 17 Yo's passport expires in November and she turns 18 in December. Your 15 Yo's passport expires in November also because you renewed them all at the same time a couple of years ago before your last holiday but they tacked a few months on to the validity because you did it early, all that time ago. Current passport turnaround time could be anywhere from six to twelve weeks, there's fuck all customer service even though you're paying through the nose for it and no guarantee that what you send in won't get rejected/lost/otherwise fucked up and for all that time you have no passport whatsoever for your kids. When do you need to reapply and how do you do it?