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Louise Thomas
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Four hours after British Airways staff at London Gatwick airport incorrectly prevented a passenger from boarding her flight to Florida, they wrongly turned away another traveller, who was heading for a golfing break in Spain.
On both occasions, the passengers had UK passports valid for their destinations. They made multiple appeals for customer service staff to correct the mistakes, all of which were ignored.
Both passengers then contacted The Independent, which confirmed that they were entitled to travel. But by then, their holiday plans had been wrecked.
The incidents raise serious questions about the competence and management of the British Airways operation at Gatwick and possibly more widely.
The first victim of a wrong decision by BA ground staff at the Sussex airport on 20 September was Kathleen Matheson, 62, from Skye.
She was denied permission to board her flight to Orlando in Florida, because staff invented a requirement for British passports to have a minimum of six months remaining in order to be valid for the US. The American authorities have no such rule, and will accept UK documents up to their expiry date.
Ms Matheson and her husband Allan, 56, showed proof from the Foreign Office website that her passport was valid. The ground staff ignored the evidence.
She then called the British Airways helpline – where the agent agreed with her interpretation of the US rules, but said they could not overrule the ground staff at Gatwick.
The couple travelled two days later on a Virgin Atlantic flight to Orlando, having lost 48 hours of a two-week holiday because of BA’s decision. Ms Matheson said she was “devastated and exhausted with what has happened”.
After The Independent investigated, a British Airways spokesperson said: “This was human error by one of our colleagues, and we’re in touch with our customer to apologise and put it right.”
Yet it was not a one-off mistake. Within hours, David Muir, 65, had the same experience at the same BA check-in area in the South Terminal. He was heading for Andalucia in Spain with four friends for a golfing weekend to celebrate his retirement after 35 years as a chartered surveyor.
But once again, British Airways staff made up a rule of their own – they claimed his passport was not valid for the EU after reaching nine years and nine months.
Mr Muir, from Oxford, told The Independent about the series of events.
“I arrived at Gatwick at 2.45pm for the 5.10pm flight, but I was not allowed to check in my luggage by the BA agent. The reason she gave was that there was less than three months left before the 10th anniversary of the issue date of the passport. She said I would be refused entry to Spain under EU regulations.”
No such rule has ever existed. Mr Muir’s passport is valid for travel out to the European Union up to 11 November for a stay of up to 90 days.
“I was directed over to customer services, where the staff took my passport and boarding pass away somewhere. They reappeared and confirmed that I was not allowed to travel.”
Assuming the BA staff were correct, Mr Muir caught a bus back to Oxford. While he was on board, he researched the rules and learnt that he was entitled to travel.
“I rang the British Airways customer service line and outlined the story in an attempt to get them to understand. They wouldn’t help,” he said.
The bus happened to call in at Heathrow Terminal 5 – the home of BA, from where there are multiple daily departures to Spain. So Mr Muir left the bus and tried to enlist the help of staff. At this stage, he could still have rescued the trip by being booked on a later flight.
But, he said: “I looked for a customer service desk, but was told there isn’t one. Another British Airways agent confirmed the view that my passport was not valid because there were not three months left until the 10th anniversary of issue.
“The lack of proper customer service on the telephone, but particularly at both airports, was shocking. No one was listening to my position or wanted to hear about the rules as stated on the UK government website.”
Mr Muir caught a later bus home to Oxford. Over the weekend he played a round of golf at his local course rather than in the Spanish sunshine with his friends, who were hoping to celebrate his retirement.
After The Independent contacted British Airways on Mr Muir’s behalf, an airline spokesperson said: “We are extremely sorry for the disruption caused by this genuine error. We are contacting our customer to apologise and resolve this for them.”
Under the rules governing air passengers’ rights, Mr Muir is entitled to £350 in cash compensation as well as recompense for out-of-pocket expenses. The golfing company that organised his trip has already correctly refunded the £799 cost of the holiday, as the Package Travel Regulations require.
To have two near-identical incidents within hours at the same airport – with other staff repeating the original false basis for rejecting the travellers – suggests a systemic issue with the BA operation.
Ground staff at international airports have an extremely challenging task to assess the documents of many different nationalities travelling to dozens of destinations. But neither of these cases would be classed as difficult. Both passengers were mainstream: UK passport holders heading for the European Union and the United States. These are the two main destinations for British Airways, which sends many thousands of passengers to the EU and the US every day.
It remains the case that the vast majority of passengers who are denied boarding for passport infringements are correctly prevented from travelling.
As “third-country nationals”, British travellers to the European Union and wider Schengen area (not Ireland) must have a passport that meets two conditions:
- Not older than 10 years on the day of outbound travel to the EU
- At least three months’ validity before the expiry date on the intended day of return
These two conditions are independent of each other.
But following the two cases – and in particular the repeated refusal by layers of BA staff to listen to appeals – it may be that other passengers come forward with similar stories.
British Airways has reminded airport staff that they must follow the correct rules for passport validity.
