Most travelers have moments of anxiety over airport security, documents and preparations, but few have had the bad luck to have the worst come true as it did for a British family whose holiday was ruined by a small rip in a passport.
The family of four, including two children, were at London Heathrow to board a flight for the Greek island of Corfu, when the mother’s passport was caught by a passport scanning machine, which made an inch-long tear across the edge of her passport photo.
At first, airport staff advised her to quickly buy some tape and patch it up, but gate officials decided that the repair was not enough, and that she could not board because Greek authorities might not allow her to enter Greece with the damaged passport. The family was able to recover about half of the £8000 costs of the trip, but were denied payment by their insurance for the non-refundable elements of the trip.
Similar experience. Was in Denmark crossing the border back in the day. When I gave them my passport, they denied my crossing because my passport photo was when I had a beard that I had shaved off. They said the photo was not me and demanded my passport. Luckily I remembered I had my international driver’s license with a photo with my beard gone. They accepted that and let me cross.