A couple was denied boarding on a TUI flight at the airport: what was the reason?

A married couple experienced a terrible start to their vacation before they even boarded their plane. They were told they could not travel because their passports were out of date.

Ensuring that your passport is valid is one of the first things to do when you're about to board a plane. But it turns out that you may still face some complications even if it is. This is stated on the website joe.co.

Penny and Doug Priestley ran into a problem when they arrived at East Midlands Airport for their trip to Benidorm. They had spent £1800 on a package deal with TUI but were told they could not board the flight. This was because their passports were too old, despite having nine months left to expire.

"We had just come and waited in line for an hour. I think we were about the fourth from the last, and the girl at the ticket counter said to another girl, 'You can check these dates.' She checked and said no, they can't fly. Then some guy came over, a supervisor or something, and he said our only alternative was to go to Jet2 and ask them if we could fly," says Penny, 59.

The reason they couldn't fly was that some EU countries have a rule that requires your passport to be less than 10 years old if you want to travel there.

Penny and Doug's passports were over 10 years old. So even though they didn't expire until February 2024, they were too old to fly. And if they had booked the flight just three days earlier, they would have been fine.

In the end, the couple managed to go on the trip, but they paid another £860 to fly Jet2.

Penny said: "We paid another £860, and Jet2 looked at it and said we could come back with them and just fly one way with them, but then a supervisor came over. He also said that we would lose the hotel if my husband didn't call, so we had to call the hotel and tell them we would be arriving a day late."

A TUI spokesperson said: "We are sorry that Mr. Priestley was unable to fly with TUI as planned as his passport did not meet the government passport requirements. Government rules state that for customers traveling to certain EU countries, passports must be issued less than 10 years before the date of entry into the country and must also be valid for at least three months after the day you plan to leave. We strongly recommend that our customers check the validity of their passports before booking any flights."