A MUM said she was left heartbroken after she was turned away from her flight to Tenerife due to confusing travel rules.
Jessica Fayh-Bawren, 32, was travelling with her son Elliot, 10, from Bristol Airport.
GettyA mum and son were banned from their Ryanair flight due to making a mistake with their passport[/caption]
Four days before their flight, they checked in only with no problem, with her son “ecstatic” to go on holiday.
Jessica, from Southmead, told Bristol Live: “I was asked to put all our passport details on the online system so that I could save time at the airport – I put all that in and there was a big green tick to show that they were okay and that was it, we thought we were good to go.”
However, the pair only realised they had made a mistake after arriving for their Ryanair flight.
She continued: “We just went down to board the flight and the woman at the gate said ‘I’m so sorry your passport is out of date’.”
Jessica’s passport expiry date was March 2024 – however the issue date was June 2013.
This meant her passport actually expired in June 2023 under the new rules no longer allowing them to be more than 10 years old.
However, Jessica said the airline “should have flagged this” before she travelled, so she could have booked an emergency passport appointment.
She added: “It was heartbreaking. I don’t want this to happen to anyone else, everyone is just used to checking their expiry date.”
The new rules were introduced after the UK left the EU.
However, with Covid restrictions stopping many from travelling for years, lots of families are being caught out by the restrictions.
Despite this, a Ryanair spokesperson said they correctly stopped her flying.
They said: “This passenger was correctly denied travel as her passport did not meet the entry requirements for travel to the EU (Tenerife) which are, one, passports must be issued within 10 years of the date of arrival into the EU.
“And two, 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“This passenger’s passport was issued on 14 June 2013 and is therefore no longer valid for travel to/from the EU after 14 June 2023 and was outside the 10 year validity period when this passenger attempted to travel on 7 July 2023.
“Ryanair requires each passenger to ensure that their passport is valid for travel on both the date of their outbound and return flight date.”
Jessica isn’t the only person this has happened to.
Brit Kirsty Hawes was banned from her flight and left £1,050 out of pocket after not realising her passport had expired.
And earlier this year, teacher Rosie Simpson was banned from boarding her flight to Paris for a similar reason.
AlamyThe pair were unable to board their flight to Tenerife[/caption]