A boy was refused boarding for his flight due to a common issue with his passport.
Alix Law was due to leave with his family for a two-week break in Phuket in Thailand when airline staff told him his passport was damaged and could not be accepted for travel.
The 13-year-old was told by Qatar Airways his document was invalid due to a ‘luggage sticker mark’ in one of the pages.
His mother Meghan said the sticker had been placed on one of the stamping pages, not the photo page and had not left any rips.
‘I said I’ve used this umpteen times. No one’s ever mentioned any damage on it before’, she explained.
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‘There were no rips, it was just where the sticker marks had been. They said we couldn’t travel with it.
‘I knew there were no issues with their passports. We’d probably travelled over a dozen times with those passports.’
Refused onto his flight in Edinburgh, Meghan was told her son would have to go to Glasgow to get an emergency travel document issued before he would be able to go on the £3,000 holiday.
However, after challenging the issue with tour operator TUI, the family was successfully rebooked onto an Emirates flight via Dubai.
Meghan added: ‘If I hadn’t booked through TUI and booked it myself, we just wouldn’t have been able to go on holiday. One way from Glasgow on the same day of travel would’ve been £2,800.’
The NHS nurse is seeking compensation from Qatar Airways, who she believes overbooked the flight.
‘It’s really put my anxieties up for flying in the future. They just weren’t kind or compassionate whatsoever’, Meghan said.
‘I was a single parent with two children, which really added to the stress. I don’t think this was anything to do with the passport, considering every other airline had no issue with it.’
Damaged or bent passports have commonly been an issue for unsuspecting travellers, with final discretion usually up to airlines, who are keen to avoid passengers being turned away at borders and having to be flown back at their expense.
According to HM Passport Office, damaged passports can include missingor detached pages, laminate peeling on the photo page, discolouration, stains on the pages, and unreadable security details.
Metro has contacted Qatar Airways for comment.
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