{"id":251842,"date":"2025-07-09T22:08:17","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T22:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/251842\/"},"modified":"2025-07-09T22:08:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T22:08:17","slug":"we-were-blocked-at-stansted-from-going-on-our-1k-dream-getaway-because-of-brexit-rule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/251842\/","title":{"rendered":"‘We were blocked at Stansted from going on our \u00a31k dream getaway because of Brexit rule’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A holiday nightmare unfolded for a couple after they were barred from their \u00a31,000 Athens getaway due to the little-known “passport 10-year rule” post-Brexit. In a pre-Brexit era, UK travellers could add up to nine months from an old passport onto a new one, but now EU countries<\/a> won’t accept passports issued over a 10 years ago.<\/p>\n

Paul Mason, 59, and Zoe Rooney, 47, were buzzing with anticipation for their three-day trip to Athens in December 2024 to catch a gig by Kosheen, marking the band’s 25th anniversary. But their excitement was crushed at Stanstead on Thursday, February 20, when Zoe was stopped at the boarding gate because her passport<\/a>, despite having an August 2025 expiry date, was over ten years old.<\/p>\n

The duo from Hertford missed out on their first-ever Greek trip and the chance to see their favourite band<\/a> live. The financial hit from the debacle left them more than \u00a31,000 down, with Zoe detailing expenses including \u00a3465 on accommodation, \u00a3408 on flights, \u00a3108 on airport parking, \u00a350 on petrol, \u00a350 on airport food and drinks, and \u00a360 on concert tickets.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/b> Pervert lured woman to home, cut her belt with knife and tried to rape her in ‘terrifying’ attack<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/b> Martin Lewis urges thousands of workers to spend \u00a34.99 to gain supermarket and restaurant discounts<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Athens<\/p>\n

The pair were planning a dream trip to Athens -Credit:Alexander Spatari via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Project director Paul expressed their dismay: “It made us feel like criminals. When we had booked our flights online, nothing flagged us to say that her passport was invalid. We thought everything was alright; we made it through check-in and security before it was pointed out to us.<\/p>\n

Paul added: “It was only when we were minutes from boarding our flight that we were told we couldn’t fly. We were in the queue when a guy from Ryanair<\/a> stopped us. They didn’t offer any solution to the situation apart from to ‘get a new passport’, so we had to head home.”<\/p>\n

Travellers should be aware that passports over 10 years old may not be accepted in the EU\u2014even if there’s time before expiration\u2014unless visiting Ireland, and they need to remain valid for three months post-return. Zoe’s passport was issued on November 19, 2014, with an expiry date of August 9, 2025.<\/p>\n

\"Zoe<\/p>\n

Paul and Zoe were planning to see their favourite band -Credit:SWNS<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, she discovered the rule too late. Zoe said: “I had no idea about the rule. It was very embarrassing when we were called out in front of everybody outside our boarding gate. To have prepared for this trip for weeks and ready to go down to the airplane – to then be turned away was very upsetting. We had to spend, what was supposed to be a fun time exploring a new city, at home in bed.”<\/p>\n

Zoe is now renewing her passport and wants to alert other travellers about this “little known” requirement. A Ryanair representative stressed compliance with international standards: “Passport must meet the requirements for travel from the UK to the EU, which are set out by the European Commission Migration & Home Affairs Office \u2013 not Ryanair.”<\/p>\n

The spokesperson continued: “Passports must be issued within 10 years of the date of departure into the EU [and] it is each passenger’s responsibility to ensure that their passport is valid for travel in line with the relevant State requirements at the time of travel. These requirements are clearly set out on Ryanair.com, and passengers are reminded with pop-up messages during booking.”<\/p>\n

Looking for more from MyLondon? Subscribe to our daily newsletters here<\/a> for the latest and greatest updates from across London. <\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A holiday nightmare unfolded for a couple after they were barred from their \u00a31,000 Athens getaway due to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[97060,802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,97061,4884,97059,1339,16,30159,15,97058],"class_list":{"0":"post-251842","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-boarding-gate","9":"tag-brexit","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-eu","12":"tag-europe","13":"tag-european","14":"tag-european-union","15":"tag-favourite-band","16":"tag-great-britain","17":"tag-paul-mason","18":"tag-ryanair","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-uk-travellers","21":"tag-united-kingdom","22":"tag-zoe-rooney"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114825560808517971","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}