A WOMAN said she was left “upset and embarrassed” after she was banned from her flight after a simple passport mistake.
Johanne Morris and her godson Chayce Pearson were traveling to Portugal with easyJet for a holiday they had been planning for months.
Despite having no problem while booking her flights or while going through security at Gatwick Airport, she said they were stopped at the boarding gates.
She told the Mirror: ” I was asked to scan my boarding pass on the machine which I did, it then showed a notification stating unable to fly in red writing.”
Staff then explained that her passport was actually out of date due to new rules in place since Brexit.
Johanne’s passport was issued in July 9, 2012 but had an expiry of August 9, 2022.
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Despite Johanne’s flight being in April, her passport was out of date as it needs to have at least three months left on it to travel to Europe – as additional months are no longer included.
This means her passport really expired in July 2022.
Not only was she banned from boarding her flight, but she said she was left £260 out of pocket.
Johanne said they were “treated like criminals” as they were escorted out of the airport.
She contiinued: ” I found this to be very upsetting and left us in a state of embarrassment.”
An easyJet spokesperson explained: “EasyJet follows current government rules on passport validity, as set out by governments where we operate.
“As Ms Morris’ passport was unfortunately not valid for her flight, we were unable to allow her to travel on this occasion.
“We remind customers during booking and before they travel via email to ensure they are aware of the travel requirements for the destination they are flying to and it is customers’ responsibility to ensure they have the correct valid documentation for travel.
“We are sorry to hear about Ms Morris’ experience when leaving the airport and we are looking into this with our ground handling provider and the airport.”
Johanne isn’t the first person to be caught out by the new rules.
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Mum Kate Barke was stopped from boarding her Ryanair flight to Majorca with her family for the same reason earlier this year.
And a woman’s £2,000 holiday was ruined for the same reason.
