A British couple’s dream holiday to Greece turned into a frustrating ordeal when Ryanair refused to let them board their flight due to a post-Brexit passport rule that many travelers still don’t know about. Paul Mason, 59, and Zoe Rooney, 47, had saved up for a romantic three-day trip to Athens to celebrate their 25th anniversary, only to be turned away at the gate because of an issue with Zoe’s passport.
The problem wasn’t that her passport had expired—in fact, it was valid until August 2025. The issue was that it had been issued more than 10 years ago, in November 2014. Under post-Brexit EU rules, UK passports must now meet two key requirements for travel to most European countries: they must have been issued within the last 10 years, and they must have at least three months of validity remaining after the traveler’s planned return date.
The couple had booked their flights in December 2024, and at no point during the booking process did Ryanair’s system flag that Zoe’s passport might be invalid. They only found out at the boarding gate, when a Ryanair staff member stopped them and refused to let them on the plane. “We were minutes away from boarding when they told us we couldn’t fly,” Paul said. “It was humiliating. They didn’t offer any solution—just told us to get a new passport.”
With no time to renew Zoe’s passport before their trip, they had no choice but to go home, losing the £1,000 they had spent on flights and hotels. “We had no idea about this rule,” Zoe said. “If we’d known, we would have checked before booking.”
Ryanair insists that the rules are clearly stated on its website and that passengers receive pop-up reminders during booking. A spokesperson said the airline is simply enforcing EU regulations, which require passports to be issued within 10 years of travel. However, critics argue that airlines should do more to prevent these situations by automatically blocking bookings when a passport doesn’t meet the requirements—rather than waiting until passengers reach the gate to turn them away.
This isn’t an isolated incident. Since Brexit took full effect in 2020, UK travelers have faced growing confusion over EU entry rules, from passport validity issues to longer border checks and visa restrictions. Many Brits, accustomed to years of hassle-free travel within Europe, are still being caught out by rules they didn’t know existed.
To avoid a similar disaster, UK travelers heading to the EU should always check two key passport details before booking: the issue date (must be within the last 10 years) and the expiry date (must be at least three months after the return date). The UK government’s online passport checker can help confirm whether a passport meets the requirements.
For now, the responsibility falls on travelers to make sure their documents are in order—but as more people like Paul and Zoe learn the hard way, the post-Brexit travel landscape is far more complicated than it used to be.
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