British Airways ground staff are continuing to invent their own rules on passport validity to deny boarding to passengers who are properly documented.
In the latest incident uncovered by The Independent, BA turned away Chris Taylor and his wife, Cathy, from their flight from London Heathrow to Palma. In September, the couple, from Alton in Hampshire, planned to fly to Mallorca to celebrate their wedding anniversary.
Both their passports were valid for travel out to Spain and the rest of the European Union up to mid-November for a stay of up to 90 days.
But in a repeat of previous mistakes made by British Airways ground staff, they were told they could not travel.
Mr Taylor, a 63-year-old advertising executive, said: “My wife and I were taken to one side at the gate when boarding. The BA lady told me my passport was invalid as it had expired.”
The British Airways ground staff member wrongly claimed UK passports are not valid for travel out to the European Union beyond nine years and nine months after the date of issue. This has never been the case.
“I said it was perfectly valid and just the previous month we had flown to France with BA,” Mr Taylor said. “This was to no avail.”
At this point, Mr Taylor’s wife joined him – whereupon the ground staff member wrongly declared both passports were invalid.
The couple were told to go to the British Airways Executive Lounge, as Mr Taylor is a BA Gold cardholder, where customer service would assist. “In fact there was no customer service at the lounge and we were directed to Gate 10,” Mr Taylor said.
“The BA staff at gate 10 were very surprised and couldn’t understand why we had been denied boarding. But by then the plane had departed and we had to be escorted out of the airport.”
At this point they could have flown on the same day with any other airline to Palma from another London airport, because their passports were valid. But because British Airways had assured them, incorrectly, that their documents had run out, they set about finding an express passport appointment.
The earliest was two days later in Newport, South Wales – requiring a 200-mile round-trip and paying hundreds of pounds. They then rebooked a flight for 20 September.
“We missed our wedding anniversary dinner in Mallorca on 19 September and had considerable expense driving to Wales and back to get the new passports,” Mr Taylor said. “Not to mention the stress and disruption caused.”
When he attempted to raise the matter with British Airways, what has emerged as a standard pattern of behaviour was repeated.
Customers protest at their treatment, but BA does not investigate; were the airline to do so, it would quickly discover the error. Instead, the airline’s customer service staff doubles down by citing non-existent rules and blaming the passengers.
The couple missed their anniversary dinner and had to drive all the way to Wales to get new passports (Getty/iStock)
Mr Taylor says he contacted British Airways five times to try to get the compensation that, according to my assessment of the facts, looks due to him and his wife. But he has been told time and again that the passports were not valid.
Given his status as a Gold member of the BA Club, he was dealt with by the British Airways Premium Escalation Team. But he was told: “Your passport was only valid till November 2025.” The team member said, “This is known as the 10-year passport rule.”
Such a rule does not exist. But by wrongly blaming the passenger, BA stood to avoid its obligation to pay £220 each in denied boarding compensation plus hundreds of pounds reimbursing the costs incurred as a result of the mistake.
After The Independent contacted British Airways on behalf of the couple, a spokesperson said: “We’re very sorry for our customer’s experience after an error by one of our colleagues meant they were incorrectly denied travel. We’ve been in contact with our customer to apologise and make things right.”
On top of the statutory compensation for denying boarding, BA has offered the couple reimbursement of the expenses caused by the ground staff error.
Mr Taylor said: “I’m not sure the compensation does justice to the inconvenience and disruption we suffered.
“This situation raises the question of why so many emails were required and only your intervention elicited the correct response.
“It is deeply concerning that a company like BA would employ tactics that seem to deliberately avoid the truth. It is very disappointing behaviour.
“I have been a loyal flyer with BA for over 30 years. After the initial mistake why didn’t they do the right thing and just apologise?”
The post-Brexit rules on passport validity for the European Union took effect in 2021. For a trip to anywhere in the EU (except Ireland), a British passport must meet two conditions:
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No more than 10 years old on the day of departure to the EU
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At least three months remaining on the intended day of departure from the EU
In June, British Airways ground staff at Gatwick denied boarding to Claire Hannington, 45, who was flying to Ibiza.
On a single day in September 2024, BA staff at Gatwick wrongly denied boarding to two separate passengers. One was heading to Spain for a golf break, the other was travelling to the US – where there are no minimum expiry date requirements for British passport holders.
In all these cases, the passengers made multiple appeals for customer service staff to correct the mistakes, but were ignored.