A four-year-old boy and his mother flew from Southampton to Geneva on EasyJet flight 1586 for a week’s holiday in the Alps. They passed through Swiss passport control shortly after 6pm on December 17, 2023.
According to easyJet they should not have done this. Earlier the same day, the airline had talked them out of the Gatwick-Geneva flight.
But easyJet immediately sold them flights for a £198 surcharge and allowed them to board from Hampshire airport.
The four-year-old, his two siblings and his parents live in Guernsey. They were all booked on the easyJet morning flight from London Gatwick to the Swiss airport and paid just over £150 each.
The parents had discovered just days before their holiday that the four-year-old’s passport would not meet the post-Brexit passport validity requirements required by the UK once it leaves the EU.
Fortunately, the Guernsey passport office can issue temporary passports for children valid for one year across Europe. They duly received the document and went to Gatwick.
The father describes what happened at the departure gate of Sussex airport as follows: “We tried to board the EasyJet flight. The door found out that my son has a green coated UK/Guernsey passport valid for one year.
“The gate staff called their office and the office refused him boarding. We tried to explain but it didn’t work. So while my wife had to stay with our distraught four-year-old, I traveled with our other two distraught children.
“As my wife and son were being escorted from the air side to the land side, the Gatwick immigration officer asked what was going on. The gate agent said it was an invalid passport. When the immigration officer checked he said: ‘No, this is a valid passport’ – at which point the ground staff told him the plane had already taken off and hurried my wife and son away.
Knowing that the document was valid for travel to Switzerland, his wife booked a same-day flight from Southampton to Geneva with easyJet. The couple set off without incident. Due to their late arrival, they had to take a taxi for the last part of their journey.
When they returned, the father demanded compensation for the extra expenses in addition to the compensation they were entitled to for being denied boarding.
The airline’s response mirrored the case of Jacqueline McGeough, whom easyJet refused to allow on a holiday flight to Italy. The airline told him he was rightfully denied boarding six times; Despite this, a quick review of his passport and travel dates would reveal that he was fit to travel. Only Independent Did easyJet admit its mistake?
In the case of the Guernsey family, easyJet’s customer service department once again turned down the father’s objections.
The airline initially said: “When you check the booking your records show that the passenger on the booking was refused carriage due to insufficient or invalid documentation required to travel with easyJet.”
When she appealed this decision, she was told: “We have received an update from our senior team, who have investigated and confirmed that the temporary passport was not accepted for travel to Switzerland and was correctly rejected. We are therefore unable to refund your costs and compensation claim in accordance with the regulations.”
The father was stunned because easyJet had shown that his son could travel perfectly.
Last attempt before contacting Independent also denied: “Our evaluation team has re-reviewed your claim and researched all available information and documented that the move was denied due to insufficient or invalid documentation (Provisional) [sic] Passport required to travel with easyJet).
One time Independent Contacting easyJet, the airline admitted it was wrong to send the four-year-old back, blaming the third-party documentation system.
A spokesman said: “Like many airlines, easyJet uses an automated verification system called TravelDoc, which uses immigration data collected from a variety of sources, including government agencies, to verify passengers’ travel documents.
“Unfortunately, in this case, the system incorrectly informed the ground agent that the passenger would not be able to travel on the flight from London Gatwick to Geneva, and the same information was subsequently passed on to our customer service team.
“We escalated this to TravelDoc, who corrected it and contacted Mr. Newark to apologize for his experience, refund him for the flights and all travel expenses he incurred, and pay him the compensation he was entitled to.”
It appears that ground staff in Southampton, knowing the passport was valid, did not consult TravelDoc and were therefore unaware of the incorrect information.
EasyJet says TravelDoc has now fixed its bug.
The mother and four-year-old child will be given £350 in compensation for being denied boarding, a refund of unused easyJet flights from Gatwick, as well as any extra costs resulting from the airline’s error.