It should have been an exciting prospect – a long-awaited trip to Turin, Italy, to attend the Eurovision final, flying out on 14 May and returning the following day.
But unnecessary confusion over passport validity has turned the event into an anxiety-inducing headache for Daniel Doyle.
“I really don’t know what I can do now to guarantee myself that me and my mum can go to Eurovision next week,” he tells The Independent.
By rights, there shouldn’t be an issue. Mr Doyle’s British passport was issued on 6 November 2012 and expires on 6 November 2022, thereby guaranteeing that it meets both requirements for it to be valid for his Italian trip: it’s less than 10 years old on the proposed day of travel to the EU, and has more than three months remaining before it expires on his intended day of leaving the EU.
But several airlines’ misinterpretation of the rules means he is now in a quandary.
Mr Doyle and his mother were originally booked to fly there and back with Ryanair – but he was concerned the budget carrier would turn him away after a number of high-profile instances of passengers being denied boarding because they had less than six months left on their travel documents.
“Over the past few weeks I have seen many news stories of people being turned away by Ryanair because their passport has not been seen as valid, even though it is,” said Mr Doyle.
When he read The Independent’s article about the case of 15-year-old Zak Schoneville being denied boarding at Glasgow Prestwick airport for a holiday to Tenerife – despite Zak’s passport meeting the EU validity requirements – he thought “enough is enough” and decided to fly with a different airline.
Having seen that easyJet was amending its rules in line with the EU’s official guidance – the 10 year, three month stipulations as listed above – Mr Doyle contacted the carrier to double-check he would definitely be allowed to fly before booking.
“I spoke to easyJet both on the phone and chat and neither were giving me straight answers,” he said.
In a screenshot shared with The Independent, an easyJet customer service agent in an online chat can be seen erroneously advising Mr Doyle that he needs six months left on his passport to fly to Italy.
“According to the latest update that we have, Daniel, the passport must have minimum six months left before it expires in order to travel with us,” reads the message, dated 4 May – despite the fact that the airline confirmed to The Independent it would be updating its rules on 27 April.
“I honestly don’t know what to do,” said an exasperated Mr Doyle. “All I want to do is get my mother to her very first Eurovision grand final. In 2020, we got tickets but they were cancelled because of Covid and we could not go last year because of the restrictions.
“I really don’t know what I can do now to guarantee myself that me and my mum can go to Eurovision next week.”
After calling easyJet again later the same day, a customer service agent told Mr Doyle that his passport would in fact be valid for travel, and he has booked replacement flights.
But he is finding it hard to have confidence after being given so much conflicting information.
“I am still slightly concerned that when I go to London Luton on Saturday 14 May I will not be able to board the flight because, as you have seen in my screenshots, some people at easyJet are saying yes and other people are saying no.
“I do not want other travellers living with the same doubt that I am.”
He added: “Needless to say, if me and my mother do get inside the arena for the grand final next week...I'm ordering a glass of Bucks Fizz.”
An easyJet spokesperson apologised for the mistaken advice and told The Independent that customer service teams were being appraised of the new guidance.
They said: “We have recently updated our guidance to make it clearer on passport validly rules. We apologise that the wrong advice was provided to this customer. We have sent communications to all relevant customer service teams to ensure they are aware of the updated guidance to try and ensure the correct advice is provided in the future by all agents.”
