A woman who was unable to board her flight because of a little known EU rule has said she was left in tears by the incident that happened last month at Gatwick Airport
A mother was left in tears after she couldn’t board her £2.5k flight(Image: Kennedy News and Media)
A 29-year-old mother of one was left in tears after she was prevented from going on a Jet2 flight she’d paid £2,500 because of an EU rule.
Jansen Porter, a property maintenance apprentice from Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire, was attempting to fly out to Kefalonia, Greece, with her partner and daughter Lulu Smith on May 11 when the incident happened.
She claims that as their bags were being checked in at Gatwick Airport, that she was unable to get through because Jet2 staff told her passport wasn’t within the European Union’s 10 years limit. She has since claimed that the little known post Brexit rule “ruined” her family holiday.
Although her passport expires in December 2026, because it was issued in March 2016, it meant that under the rule it actually expired in March 2026 instead.
Jansen said that Jet2 staff explained to her that as passports no longer had a nine month carry over that she was unable to get on-board the plane.
The situation was made doubly tragic as the trip was to celebrate her daughter’s fourth birthday and it had been one she and her partner had been saving up to since Christmas.
Speaking about the holiday and why she had chosen Kefalonia in the first place Jansen said: “I was absolutely devastated and heartbroken. This was our first holiday. I booked Kefalonia because it’s actually where my mum took me for our first holiday when I was young.
“My daughter was really looking forward to it, we had this planned for a good couple of months and we saved for it. It ruined it for us. How is that legal? You pay for a passport, it gives you an expiry date, why does nothing tell you.
“Clearly the expiry date doesn’t count for anything, it’s all about the issue date. That’s insane, why is there nothing to tell you about this?”
Jansen went onto add that she was even more surprised at not being able to board the flight because she had no issues checking into the flight, and that it wasn’t flagged until she was actually at the airport.
She said: “They looked at mine, because mine was a burgundy one, and they were like ‘yeah yours is not within the EU 10 years’. I said ‘it’s not expired’ and they were like ‘but the EU doesn’t care’.
“We [had] Brexit. Why has this not been sorted? It should’ve been an automatic thing sent to everyone saying if you have a passport you need to go and get it renewed.”
The impact of the sudden blow had an immediate impact on Jansen who admitted to bursting into tears at losing a holiday she had saved so hard for. She said: “I was in tears in the airport, I just had a complete breakdown.
“You’re having to go against the tide of people walking in, you kind of hit hysterical a bit. I’d seen nothing about this on travel [news], there were no warning signs when you go through check in.”
Although, her original holiday timings were scuppered, Jansen was able to reorganise the holiday, albeit by spending another £800. She has since encouraged people to check their passports so they don’t get caught out like she did.
She added: “Make sure that your issue date is 10 years. think it needs to be more well known, I think companies need to make it mandatory to make sure they’re saying this.
“Expiry means expiry. Nobody else on this planet looks at an expiry date and goes ‘oh the expiry date is January, I should change it now in March’, it doesn’t work. Just check your passport. It’s not well known enough.”
Jet2 have been approached for comment.
