A woman had to make a 650-mile-round trip from north Wales to Scotland to get her passport renewed after discovering it was not valid three months after her return date. Monique Shaw, from Pwllheli was sent to Glasgow so she would be able to travel from Manchester to Portugal later this week.
The 19-year-old had no choice but to make the the journey and then pay £177 for a passport renewal. She said Jet2 did not make her aware she might be turned away at the airport when they issued the boarding passes. But the travel company argued there is no way for an airline for check the true validity of a customer's travel document until it is pysically examined at the airport. You can read more about the stricter passport regulations here.
The passport was due to expire on July 21, meaning that she only had ten and a half valid weeks left on the travel document as opposed to the necessary 12. The holiday to Albufeira was originally booked in 2020 for Miss Shaw's 18th birthday but due to Covid, it was pushed back on two occasions. Jet2 said it's up to customers to check the validity of their passports.
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The mum-of-one spent days desperately trying to get an appointment in Liverpool to urgently renew her passport, but there were no appointments available. The only available appointment for a fast-track passport was in Glasgow, which left her almost £400 out of pocket in total.
Miss Shaw told NorthWalesLive : "It was all just a massive pain, to be honest. We had already given Jet2 the passport details and they accepted them and released our boarding passes
"If we hadn't seen an article online about a woman being turned away from the airport, we wouldn't have known there was an issue. They didn't make us aware at all and I nor my family had any idea that we had to have three months left after returning.
"It was frustrating because had we been able to travel when we initially planned, my passport would have been well in-date. Obviously, no one could have predicted the Covid outbreak but surely there should be some leeway if the holiday was booked before the new rules even came in to play?
"What's worse is that my passport was valid for the flight out and the flight back, but because it expired ten and a half weeks after our return journey I had to have it renewed or I couldn't go. I have a 10-month-old baby and I didn't want to risk chancing it at the airport to just be turned away.
"I think the airlines need to be making people aware of the issue as it seems so many people don't know about it. It was impossible to get an appointment any closer to home.
"Ideally I'd have gone to Liverpool but there weren't any appointments, and when a few did pop up due to other people cancelling they would go again straight away. I did consider travelling to Durham but that was for a one-week passport and I still would have had to change my flights out.
"Thankfully it's sorted now and I have my new passport, but it cost me £177 to get the passport, plus the cost of fuel to travel to Glasgow and back was in excess of £150, and £63 for a hotel. My appointment was at 9:30am so we didn't have much of a choice but to travel up the night before."
Portugal is one of 26 European countries within the Schengen Area of free movement. Post-Brexit, some EU countries in the Schengen Area are insisting passports must be no more than 10-years-old.
A Jet 2 spokesperson said: “When a customer checks-in online, there is no way for an airline to be able to check the true validity of a customer’s travel document until it is physically examined at the airport.
"As part of our pre-departure communications, we always remind customers to check the validity of their passport, in line with Government advice. We also point them to our travel requirements page on our website, where they can find more information on how to ensure that their passport is valid for travel and in line with Government advice.”
