Gatwick to Salzburg on 31 December with British Airways, to celebrate the new year and have a few days in the Alps. Unfortunately, I was stopped at the departure gate by a BA employee because I had just under three months left on my British passport before it was due to expire. The BA person was totally misinformed as this law is only applicable to non-EU passport holders; UK nationals only require validity for the duration of their stay. When we tried to explain they would not listen, and I was denied boarding. Naturally, my boyfriend was not going to go without me so we both missed out on our holiday and lost a total of £704, including return flights, airport transfers, ski insurance etc.
BA now admits that it was at fault and that my passport was indeed valid. After months of communications they have agreed to reimburse my single flight there, but not my return flight which was with Ryanair. As our bookings were separate, BA also refuses to discuss my boyfriend’s refund with me for data protection reasons.
I still wish to have my return flight refunded and strongly believe we have a right to request a full refund for my boyfriend’s losses. All they have offered him is €5 as a “goodwill gesture”, which adds insult to injury. CH, London
We have seen a small but significant increase in letters from air passengers claiming they were wrongly denied boarding in these, or very similar, circumstances. If we didn’t know better, we might conclude that the airlines were choosing an imminent passport expiry as an excuse to bump passengers off a flight that had been overbooked and needed to shed some travellers.
Of course, there is no evidence that the airlines are doing this, but it seems hard to believe that an airline of BA’s stature would not know the rules governing a UK passport holder travelling to Austria.
The airline has since agreed to pay you £405, which includes the €250 you were due for being denied boarding, £100 for the original BA ticket, and after we intervened, your return Ryanair flight.
Interestingly, it will only give you the money if you sign an indemnity agreement that says you will no longer bring an action against the airline.
However, it has refused to compensate your boyfriend at all, on the basis that he was not denied boarding and got off the flight voluntarily. In doing so, BA has stuck to the letter of the law, but has hardly behaved honourably. Given that its staff killed your holiday, you would think it would be bending over backwards to apologise. It laughably offered your boyfriend a €35 refund of the taxes he’d paid – minus a €30 admin fee.
We asked BA for an explanation and all it would tell us was that it is liaising “directly with our customer to resolve this matter”. We will report back BA’s final offer – if it ever emerges.
In the meantime, other air passengers take note. If you have six months or fewer on your passport, you may want to consider renewing early, or be prepared to argue the case if challenged by airline staff.
We welcome letters but cannot answer individually. Email us at consumer.champions@theguardian.com or write to Consumer Champions, Money, the Guardian, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Please include a daytime phone number
