Woman left £3k out of pocket after passport error ruins cruise holiday
A woman was blocked from boarding a cruise due to a lesser-known passport rule affecting Brits following Brexit.
Christine Bentham, 67, had made her way to Southampton Ocean Terminal with her husband, John, 76, and her brother and sister-in-law, both 74.
Despite having checked in online 10 days earlier the Llandudno, North Wales woman was told her passport was invalid and that she couldn't come onboard, the Daily Star reported.
The decision shocked Christine, who had been excited for the Baltic cruise and and had even checked her passport definitely had six months of validity left - the amount required to travel to Europe.
Nonetheless, she ended up £3,198 out of pocket and not on a cruise.
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John and Christine were stopped from getting on the cruise ship (Christine Bentham)
Christine discovered her passport was not valid (Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)Christine's passport was more than 10 years old. While it wasn't expired, because she did not have nine years and six months of validity left on the document, she could not travel.
The ten year rule is one of two new requirements that has come into force since the UK left the European Union, which have caught out many unwitting travellers in the past two years.
Christine told the Daily Star: "I was aware of the six months remaining time on your personal passport ruling to visit the EU at the time of travel, which apparently I have since learnt is just three months, but not aware of the fact that any extra months that had been added from a previous passport that extended it beyond 10 years, would not be recognised.
"For me personally this meant that I had an expiry date of 15 January 2024 when we recently attempted to board a cruise ship for a special holiday with older family members but what was required was to be within nine years and six months of the original issue date on the passport, which was 15 April 2013.
"This meant that my passport was invalid for travel to Europe! We lost our holiday, without being eligible for any refund or apparently being covered by our holiday insurance."
In a bid to spread awareness about the new rules the UK government sent out more than one million text messages, but Christine says she did not receive the alert.
She commented: "Sadly for me I did not receive this text message. We are speaking to people all the time who are still not aware of this change.
Post-Brexit rules have changed what counts as a valid passport for travel to the EU (Bloomberg via Getty Images)"I am understandably upset by our own circumstances. I am also very concerned that this could happen to so many more people in the next several years if they renewed their passport before Brexit."
Christine questioned why she was able to get a boarding pass when she entered her passport details in the system - and says that she was also allowed to travel in February when she did not have three months still remaining on the validity period.
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She is not the first cruise goer to get caught out by the new rules.
Last year Tricia Newbury's Christmas plans ended in tears when she was stopped from boarding P&O Cruises' new Arvia ship along with her husband on December 23, due to falling foul of new passport rules in force following Brexit.
The Buckinghamshire couple had to collect their bags and walk to their car down a line of festive holidaymakers eager to get aboard the brand new vessel. Despite insisting they did nothing wrong but make a simple mistake, the duo lost £5,278.
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