Brit tourist's dream holiday ruined by little-known passport rule that cost him £3K
A British tourist was hit with a whopping £3,000 bill and saw his dream holiday plans crumble due to an obscure passport rule.
Huw and Patricia Gosling were all set for their much-anticipated trip to Sofia, Bulgaria, in July 2023, where they planned to immerse themselves in the operatic sounds of Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle. But their plans came to an abrupt halt when 69 year old Huw was stopped from boarding his flight at Birmingham Airport because his passport had been issued over a decade ago.
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UK passports typically have a 10-year validity, but those issued before September 2018 could extend up to 10 years and nine months, as the Passport Office would carry over additional months from an old passport to a new one.
Post-Brexit changes mean that Brits must now ensure their passports were issued within the last 10 years when travelling to many European countries. Despite this, Huw had checked his passport against the IATA Travel Centre website, which reassured him that "the documentation you hold is sufficient".
Confident that his 10 year old passport, still valid for another nine months, would suffice, he was taken aback by the turn of events, reports the Mirror.
Speaking to the BBC, Huw explained: "I knew I needed more than three months left on it and mine had nine, so it seemed like plenty," noting that his passport details had been verified during check-in and luggage booking at the airport.
"But when I got to the gate, the woman said 'You can't travel on this passport'. I was livid, but I didn't know who to be livid with. At the end of the day, the European rules had changed and I was not allowed to travel. I was livid almost with myself, but then I thought what more could I have done? ".
"We lost everything. We lost our flights, they weren't insured. And Patricia couldn't travel alone because she's in a wheelchair. I was able to get money back for our hotel but not for the travel, car parking or opera tickets. We lost about £3,000."