British Airways has been forced to apologise and issue a refund to a couple who missed their skiing holiday because staff who misinterpreted a post-Brexit passport rule wrongly refused to let them board their flight.
The ’10-year passport rule’ means that to travel to EU countries your UK passport must be less than 10 years old on your departure day and have at least three months left before it expires on the day you return home.
Richard and Kate Sugden were due to fly from Jersey to Austria via Heathrow Airport in January 2025 but were told they wouldn’t be be allowed to board their flight in London due Mrs Sugden’s passport.
Her passport was issued in February 2015 meaning that when they wanted to travel in January 2025, it was less than 10 years old, in accordance with the rules.
Before travelling, they had even checked their passports on a third party website which confirmed they were valid for the trip.
But confusion seems to be arising over documents issued before Brexit because prior to 2018, the British passport office would add up to nine months from your old passport to your new one at renewal, meaning some people have passports that are more than 10 years old.
When it comes to entering the EU, these passports won’t be accepted – despite stilll being valid and accepted elsewhere in the world – if the issue date is more than 10 years ago.
Some travellers, like the Sugdens, are being denied boarding because ground staff misinterpret the rule and believe that there’s a total ban on passports with additional validity. However, the key factor is the issue date and as long as it is less than 10 years ago, the passenger is entitled to travel.
Richard and Kate Sugden missed their skiing holiday to Austria after BA staff misunderstood the 10-year passport rule
The ’10-year passport rule’ means to travel to most European countries your UK passport must be less than 10 years old on your departure day and have at least three months left before it expires on the day you return home (stock image)
Mrs Sudgen’s passport expires in September 2025, meaning she also met the rule that states it must be valid for an additional three months after your date of departure from the EU.
Before travelling, the couple checked their passports on a third party website which confirmed they were valid for the trip.
Mr Sugden told the BBC he and his wife were ‘feeling very confused’ and ‘had that pit in your stomach of ‘oh my gosh, we’ve got it badly wrong’.’
Check-in staff were ‘sympathetic’ but ‘very adamant’ Mrs Sugden’s passport would not be accepted at Heathrow.
‘Somebody came down, I’m guessing a duty supervisor, and he confirmed what they were saying,’ he added.
The couple said British Airways have apologised for the mistake and refunded the entire cost of their holiday with added compensation.
A spokesperson for British Airways told MailOnline: ‘We have apologised to our customers for their experience, and we have been in touch to make things right.’
Last month, Grant Hardy told MailOnline Travel that he and his wife were left around £4,000 out of pocket after Swissport officials at Jersey Airport applied a rule that doesn’t exist to his passport expiry status and refused to let him board a Smartwings flight to Tenerife.
Mr Hardy, who lives on Guernsey and works for a telecom company, arrived at the airport on February 21 with a passport that MailOnline has seen and can confirm was valid under new EU entry rules.
It was less than 10 years old, having been issued on March 27, 2015, and had an expiry date at least three months after the planned date of return on February 28.
In fact, it had eight months of validity, with an expiry date in October.
To double check, we inputted Mr Hardy’s passport details into the Tui passport checker and it cleared him for the flight.
Grant Hardy told MailOnline Travel that he and his wife were left around £4,000 out of pocket after Swissport officials at Jersey Airport (above) applied a rule that doesn’t exist to his passport expiry status and refused to let him board a Smartwings flight to Tenerife
However, when Mr Hardy presented his passport for inspection, he claims that an official told him his passport ‘runs out after 10 years’ and that ‘the additional months were not valid in the EU’.
As Abta states, this is not true.
The trade association explains: ‘As long as a passport is less than 10 years old on the day of departure, any extra months that might have been added on to it from a previous passport do count.’
The couple found themselves stranded in Jersey overnight and had to take a flight back home, which cost them ‘several hundred pounds’ in addition to the money they had lost on their holiday.
Mr Hardy said that insurance didn’t cover the incident and told MailOnline that their anger was compounded by a Swissport official summoning the police at the airport, then Swissport ‘stonewalling’ him when he complained afterwards.
Mr Hardy said: ‘[Swissport] acted appallingly and when I showed them the documentation and asked to video their response as they would not accept the [passport] information on the government website, they called the police. I was publicly questioned at the airport for a disturbance, which was absolutely not the case.
‘I was respectful and polite throughout and didn’t even raise my voice. I just stood my ground.
‘In fact, the policeman shook my hand and wished me well. Swissport will not engage with me. It has not offered details of why I was refused boarding, or offered an apology.
‘I have only had one email from them, saying I should contact the airline.’
He added: ‘Swissport’s misapplication of travel regulations appears to be a system-wide issue. A taxi driver at the airport told me this had happened to multiple passengers in the past two weeks.’
When MailOnline asked Swissport to comment at the time, it continued to deny that it had been in the wrong.
A Swissport spokesperson said: ‘Our teams adhere to official travel document guidelines to ensure compliance with the entry restrictions of the destination. We have investigated this incident and the decision to deny boarding was in line with the available guidance on Schengen rules.’
Mr Hardy’s experience mirrors that of the Wright family at Gatwick Airport, as we reported.
They were left almost £1,300 out of pocket after a ground handler working for airline Norwegian at Gatwick misinterpreted the post-Brexit 10-year passport rules and prevented them from travelling.
Norwegian subsequently apologised, telling MailOnline: ‘After looking into this, we discovered that we made a mistake.’
MailOnline has approached British Airways, Swissport and States of Jersey Police for further comments.
