A family ended up abandoning their £2,500 holiday after airline staff refused to let one of them board a flight, citing an ink stain on their passport.
Charlotte Estlick, her husband Myk and their six-year-old daughter Nyla were due to fly from Manchester Airport to Dalaman in Turkey on a package holiday with TUI on May 3. But when airport staff took issue with Myk’s passport, he was refused entry to the plane. Yet Myk claims he had presented the same passport for eight years with no issues and had even used the document to travel to Dalaman last May.
Mum-of-one Charlotte, from Rochdale, said their little girl was 'left crying' as the trio were unable to enjoy the holiday that they had forked out almost £2,500 on with extras. The 28-year-old added that the passport office did not have any availability for emergency passports for a few days - which meant Myk would have missed the majority of the trip.
Not wanting to fly without her husband, Charlotte decided to abandon the trip. The stay-at-home mum described TUI staff as 'petty' as she shared images of Myk’s passport in a Facebook post, which became inundated with comments from users who could not see the stain.
Charlotte posted a photo of the passport on Facebook, and several users could not see the stain (Kennedy News & Media)
The trio were left devastated that they couldn't go on their trip (Kennedy News & Media)According to government guidelines, a passport can be classed as damaged if details are indecipherable or if there are ink stains on the pages. Charlotte said: "We got to the airport in plenty of time, we weighed our bags and got our labels on the self check-in part in the airport and then went over to the TUI desk to check our boarding passes and passports. I gave them to the TUI rep and she told me she needed to go and check my husband's passport."
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"She then came back and went to check it with someone else. We all stood there and handed the passport over to another woman and she told us they're not going to accept my husband's passport. I didn't understand why and I told her we had gone to the same place last year and the year before using the same passport. In the passport you can see all the visa stamps [letting us into Turkey]."
"The TUI reps weren't helpful at all. One said to me if we can get the ink off, you'll be able to go. I asked her how and she just shrugged her shoulders at me. I knew I needed a deodorant or something with alcohol in it to get it off and I started asking people and looking for somewhere to find something."
"After I tried to get the ink stain off the passport I accidentally put a little rip in the passport and after this I knew they definitely weren't going to accept it. My husband had worked hard all year to go on holiday and I didn't want to go away with just Nyla without him as I wouldn't feel comfortable."
"For me now it's not even about the money or the holiday. It's the way the staff treated us in the airport. My little girl was standing there crying in the airport because she couldn't go on holiday. Last year there were no issues with Myk's passport. In Turkey they just stamped it and sent us straight through."
Myk said he had been using the passport for eight years without any issue (Kennedy News & Media)The mum explained that the family had lost close to £2,500 on what they had already spent on the trip, including £1,900 on the package holiday, £100 for car parking, and the rest on clothes and insurance for the three of them. She added: "I just feel like it was very petty."
"Everything was clear on the passport and I was in so much shock about it. Myk's passport is quite old and he has had it since 2016 and is one of the old purple passports. I thought the ink stain was just part of the design of the passport. He's been to Thailand with this passport and been everywhere with it. If I thought the passport was damaged, I would have ordered a new one. I wouldn't have chanced it, not at the price of holidays these days. Myk was refused travel [because of his passport], so we all decided not to go on the holiday."
Charlotte claimed TUI staff didn't believe Turkey would let him through border control with the ink marks, despite him being let into the country last year. When she returned home, she visited a TUI store in Bury where she claimed a staff member saw no problems with Myk's passport.
After making a formal complaint to the airline, the mum shared that her case is being investigated by a senior member of staff at TUI, who have 28 days to respond. Facebook users were left shocked by the family's ordeal, with many being unable to spot the ink-stain damage on the passport.
One user said: "Where is the ink?" Another said: "You are joking! Looks like part of the passport. That's a joke. I hope you get something sorted. I've seen people with ripped passports be able to fly before." A third said: "Wow! I don't even know what I'm looking at here. Seems fine to me. What happens when people get them wet on holiday by accident? I'd definitely be speaking to someone to get your money back."
TUI declined to comment on the specific incident but pointed to Government guidelines, which state passports can be classed as damaged if details are indecipherable or if there are ink stains on the pages.
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