Your travel money nightmares: 'My 'invalid' passport cost me £1,500'

When passports go wrong

Simon contacted Money Box Live to say he had been refused a boarding pass by an airline worker, only to return and fly out the next day with no issue.

“The check-in chap just looked at it and said: ‘You don’t have enough time left on your passport’ and said he wouldn’t print off a boarding pass and I couldn’t travel. There was a bit of last-minute panic, a lot of pleading with the staff to try and get them to recognise the rules and appreciate that it was valid but they were very adamant it wasn’t. We made the decision to send my wife and kids on without me.”

Simon’s passport in fact was valid; it was less than 10 years old and had more than three months remaining until it expired. However, due to confusion over post-Brexit rules, he was turned back at the gate.

Lisa Minot, travel editor at The Sun, explains: “The rules are that your passport has to be no more than 10 years old when you leave the UK. Separately, it has to have at least three months left on it on the day that you return to the UK. What seems to have happened in this case is that the Nordic border force are interpreting it by combining the two. So they are saying your passport can be no more than nine years and nine months old and that’s not the case.”

Says Simon: “I went to get a coffee and collect my thoughts. I slowly started to realise I was right – the passport was valid. I thought, I’ll chance it – I booked another flight, this time I used the automated boarding pass printer. I checked in online, it printed me off a boarding pass, I sat in the airport waiting nervously and then managed to get on the plane.”

Simon is now pursuing a refund with the airline. “All in all, it cost me about £1,500. I had to book the extra flight, I lost the value of a day and a half of hotel, food and ski pass.”

His airline Norwegian Air said they couldn't comment on an individual case but said this disruption is due to “inconsistent interpretation of Schengen passport rules by the Nordic countries”. It says it has urged authorities to provide clear, unified guidance to airlines to prevent this from being an issue in the future.

“You would be due compensation if you have been denied boarding incorrectly,” added Lisa. “But at the time it happens there’s very little you can do.”

Damaged passports can be costly

A number of listeners contacted Money Box Live to say they had been turned away from their flights because of small rips, holes or slight water damage to their passports.

Sarah emailed to say her mum had checked her luggage and gone through passport control when she was turned back. As she explains: “The woman on the desk said there was a hole in the passport. When Mum held it up to the light it had a tiny hole in one of the pages that nobody had previously noticed. She was marched back through the airport in distress, her bag had to be retrieved from the hold and she had to get a train home because her friend went without her.”

But it gets worse, as Sarah says: “The flight company won’t refund her and her insurance say she’s not entitled to any money from them.”

Sean Tipton of the travel association ABTA says it can be distressing but “if there’s any kind of damage to your passport then it can be regarded as now no longer valid and you could be turned away. You’ve got to be careful. Even a small amount of damage can lead to this so make sure you keep very good care of it.”

UK and EU airlines have to look after you

The recent major power cuts in Spain and Portugal caused huge disruption for the countries and also meant that some flights were delayed or rescheduled. Thomas found himself stuck in Portugal when his flight was cancelled and his airline offered an alternative flight four days later. Thomas decided to book a flight with a different airline that would get him home faster.

He told Money Box Live: “A big inconvenience but luckily I’m able to work from home, well, work remotely from the hotel. And Ryanair I think are obliged to cover the costs of new flights, which is quite expensive at £450, the accommodation in Lisbon tonight and my meals.”

Sean Tipton was able to reassure him that they would: “When things do go wrong, even when it’s not the travel industry’s fault, they do have responsibilities. In this case, there’s a regulation called regulation 261 which was introduced by the EU quite some time ago. It says that if a flight is cancelled by the airline for whatever reason, they have obligations to get you back home or get you to your destination… if the offer they make to you is two or three days later and you can find an alternative with another airline then that is an option.

“In the interim, if you stay overnight then they’ve got to pay for your hotels and day to day food and refreshments. If you pay for that yourself, keep it at a reasonable level and keep receipts and claim when you get back, they are generally good at settling things like this quite quickly.”

Buy travel insurance when you buy your break

Each year, some people travel without insurance, risking the expense if they end up falling ill. However, another costly mistake can be waiting to buy insurance just before the flight, as Lisa Minot told the show:

“You should book your travel insurance as soon as you book your holiday. If you do that then you have extra level of protection should something happen to you or your close family in the run up to the holiday and you’re unable to travel. Maybe you have a medical episode or a death in the family, then you have protection. It’s really important to make sure you’ve got that protection all the way up to the day you depart as well as the holiday itself.”

Keep every receipt

“Right now I’m meant to be on a ship going to Belgium,” said Bob, who spoke to Money Box Live after his cruise was cancelled by email with less than 24 hours’ notice. The holiday was cancelled and refunded, however, Bob and his wife had spent a lot of money getting ready for the break.

“We’d got carparking, we’d organised for our dog to be looked after. I would say [we’d spent] £500-£600 in all, so now it’s trying to recover that.”

“I would say in terms of Bob’s extra costs he’s got quite a good case there in terms of claiming on his insurance or through the company because it was at such short notice,” said Sean Tipton, “so I don’t think that’s a lost cause.”

You can hear more travel nightmares and expert tips by listening to the episode of Money Box Live in full on BBC Sounds.

The information contained in this article was correct at the time of broadcast on 30 April, 2025.