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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Travel
Julie Delahaye

Martin Lewis issues £2,600 warning to adults going on holiday this summer

Money Saving Expert's Martin Lewis has warned British adults to check their passports ahead of the summer holidays, or risk losing out on the costs of their breaks.

The finance guru appeared on This Morning earlier this week and was answering callers' questions, when one woman rang about a predicament she was facing regarding passport delays.

She explained that due to a three month delay on getting a passport, their family were going to lose £2,600 from a holiday which they were due to go on the following day, and asked whether there was any way to be compensated for the losses.

Unfortunately, Martin didn't have good news for the holidaymaker, reports the Liverpool Echo.

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He told her: "It is very difficult and I haven't really got an answer, but let me talk you through it. The first thing to say is, with your holiday company, did you have any cancellation rights?

"If you don't I'm afraid you have no rights with the holiday company. It's a bit like you've entered a tennis tournament and you've not got a racket - you've still entered it, it's not their fault.

"I'm afraid it's the same with the holiday firm and no passport. You have no legal right, but I would always call them up and speak to them really politely to see if they can do anything. Can they change the date, give you some form of cancellation or can they give you vouchers?

Martin Lewis said travellers have few options if their passports aren't issued on time (ITV)

"Remembering that you have no right, anything they offer you is better than nothing. So they might be nice and say we will give you vouchers so then you say 'thank you very much'."

He also suggested getting in touch with their travel insurance provider, in case their policy could help them cover some of the lost costs - but that this was also unlikely.

Martin explained: "You can call your travel insurance and I would call your travel insurance. But, many travel insurers won't cover this. But call them and just see."

British holidaymakers needing to renew their passports could be facing waits of up to 10 weeks as the Home Office faces a backlog because of the pandemic.

It's estimated that millions of UK travellers have delayed their passport applications in 2020 and 2021 because travel restrictions meant that Brits weren't heading abroad. Delays could take up to 10 weeks, prompting Brits to rush to get their documents renewed - and even causing the passport office website to crash.

(Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)

Meanwhile a number of holidaymakers have been caught out by post Brexit rules where your passport needs to be no more than 10 years old from the point of issue AND also needs to be valid at least three months after your date of travel.

The confusing rules have led to the Foreign Office updating its advice for 33 countries including hotspots such as Spain, France, Italy and Greece.

We've got a guide to the 4 key passport checks to make ahead of the summer holidays, including the expiry date and issue date, which will be important if you're heading to a country in the EU.

Has your holiday been ruined by passport delays? Email us at webtravel@reachplc.com.

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