Why keeping your passport clean and safe is essential

A Birmingham hol­i­day-maker claims she was stopped from get­ting on a Ryanair flight for her £700 Lan­zarote hol­i­day – due to a ‘tiny’ pass­port issue.

Rachael Norton-Voy­sey had been set to jet off to Lan­zarote from Birm­ing­ham Air­port for a five-day get­away with a friend on June 4.

But when the 33-year-old got to the board­ing gate, she said she was ‘shocked’ to be told she wouldn’t be able to fly by Ryanair staff due to a rip in her pass­port.

The pass­port has a 1.5cm rip along the right side of the photo page – but artist Rachael insists it doesn’t obscure any pic­tures or details.

Des­pite this, she claims staff were “petty” for not let­ting her fly, so her friend also decided to miss out on the hol­i­day and they were both forced to make the sad train jour­ney home. The UK Gov­ern­ment’s web­site offered her little solace – as it warns that any pass­port that is ripped is con­sidered dam­aged so should be replaced as you may not be able to fly. If you want to check entry requirements for Spain or any other country, see here. 

Detailing the damage, she says “The rip is on the right side of the pic­ture page, sort of just down from the top. It doesn’t go through any inform­a­tion, but it is a rip on the pic­ture page.”

“I under­stand where they’re com­ing from but it is really petty in my opin­ion. Even when they took us back through immig­ra­tion to the air­port, even the immig­ra­tion [staff mem­ber] said it was harsh.

“The jour­ney home was so sad. Both of us had worked so hard to get up to that point. It was so pain­ful. I did put in a com­plaint let­ter just say­ing that I thought it was a little bit mean and that they should be a bit more con­sist­ent con­sid­er­ing they’ve let me fly on this pass­port before.”

It should also be noted that passports generally need 3-6 months validity from the return travel date, and need to have both the first and last name spelt exactly as on the boarding pass. Additional or middle names are not required, although can be entered if you wish. British citizens should also note that a passport cannot be issued more than 10 years ago, if you plan on travelling from the UK to the EU, the only exception being travelling to Ireland. See more updates on EES here. 

Rachael and her friend are now hop­ing to fly to Lan­zarote in Septem­ber after they rearranged their Airbnb stay.

A spokes­per­son for Ryanair said: “This pas­sen­ger was cor­rectly refused travel from Birm­ing­ham to Lan­zarote as her pass­port was dam­aged and there­fore not valid for travel.” These rules are made clear on the Ryanair website.