Holidaymakers have been warned to check their passports after a tiny mistake caused a man to be barred from his flight. Many travellers won’t be aware that the condition of their passport can impact their holiday plans - and can even result in them being denied boarding.
Matt Vandenberg found out the hard way when he was flying from Sydney to Bali for a friend’s wedding. He came into difficulty at Indonesian customs.
His passport had a small tear in the corner of the page, which meant that it wasn’t considered valid, The Mirror reports. Taking to Twitter, Matt wrote: "One of my best mates is getting married on Friday in Bali, so obviously all the lads and I have flown over. I take the 6am flight out, Jetstar - everyone well behaved, staff were great.
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"So I arrive at DPS, pay my visa, present my passport, get brought over to the immigration office who alerts me I have a 1cm tear on my passport page. To be fair, he's correct (I had no idea until he bent it all the way back, and it stood out. You couldn't see it any other way.)
"Get brought into an office to be told that my passports tear isn't acceptable and I won't be allowed into the country – and my passport will be confiscated until I get on a flight home tonight." Matt had to spend 12 hours at the airport, with two airport workers by his side for “the whole day”, which left him £800 out of pocket.
He added: "I've had two airport police by my side the whole day - to be fair they are the nicest people you could have stuck by my side, feel very very very sorry for me – rules are rules. So flying home tonight and I have an emergency meeting tomorrow about my passport tomorrow morning, so hopefully can get a new one and get back over. Probably a good warning for people travelling to Indonesia – they do not mess around!"
Fortunately Matt was able to obtain an emergency passport and made it to his friend’s wedding, after what was "probably the most interesting week of my life".
Following Matt’s experience holidaymakers should check their documents before they travel. Staff at border controls are given guidance to check passports for damage, and if your passport doesn’t meet the required standard you could be denied boarding.
According to the UK government website there is a list of criteria staff need to consider when assessing whether a passport is damaged or not. This includes when personal details are unreadable, if the laminate is peeling or lifting away from the personal details page, missing or detached pages, damage caused by water, spills, tears, rips and bite marks to name a few.
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