According to information published by The Manchester Evening News, a British family from Oldham was deprived of the opportunity to spend their holidays in Thailand due to a problem with their daughter’s passport. The document, which turned out to be broken, with a torn page, was not accepted by an employee of Qatar Airways.
The family, including Suzanne and Stephen, their daughter Bethany and her boyfriend, were planning to leave for Phuket on August 4th. They paid £7,000 for the cost of the tour.
However, an employee of Qatar Airways did not allow Bethany to be put on board the plane due to the discovery of a broken page in her passport. As a result, the parents were forced to stay in Manchester with their daughter, while the young man went to Thailand alone.
According to British law, a passport is considered invalid if the data in it is illegible or the pages are damaged. Despite a small tear in the page of the girl’s document, the information in it remained readable.
Representatives of Qatar Airways apologized for the inconvenience but refused to compensate for the losses, explaining that the condition of the passport is the responsibility of the passenger.
Faced with this unforeseen event, the Oldham family decided to instantly book tickets for a flight to Turkey, paying £5,000 for them. In this case, they were able to go on their vacation without any problems.