What happened when I lost my passport
- Thread starter slowmotion
- Start date
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That's actually pretty decent - I don't know of anybody who's used it, and I've never been so desperate to need a passport that quick that I've had to use it. Still, it better be good for the price they charge!
I personally think 80 quid is expensive but if you go abroad once a year for the period it's valid for, it's only 8 quid a trip so it's not too bad.
MacB
Lover of things that come in 3's
- Location
- Farnborough, Hampshire
Amazing is the right word and it also sounds like you adopted the right sort of attitude to make this experience as easy as possible.
Aperitif
Meme bar
- Location
- ...I don't have much idea - really.
Two brilliant accounts of passport woe. One of which I have a lot of knowledge and one which is sensible and organised.
I have never lost my passport. Often the rugby tour bus would arrive back in London from Paris or the South of France etc and there would be passports galore - we just used to lose team members - to Pigalle and Pernod mostly...
I have never lost my passport. Often the rugby tour bus would arrive back in London from Paris or the South of France etc and there would be passports galore - we just used to lose team members - to Pigalle and Pernod mostly...
OP
OP
slowmotion
Quite dreadful
- Location
- lost somewhere
No better way to go.....
Flying Dodo
It'll soon be summer
Mmm.......Pernod............ Brings back flashbacks of my 21st. 
vernon
Harder than Ronnie Pickering
- Location
- Meanwood, Leeds
My trials and tribulations when I had a passport......
Turned up at Leeds/Bradford Airport with wife and two offspring to fly to Greece. All was going well, short queue and reached the check in desk where I was refused a boarding pass because I only had eight weeks left on my passport. Despite my insistence that that wasn't grounds for refusal because:
a) I was only going for a fortnight
b) Greece was a member of the EC
The chap at the check in was insistent. I went to the travel agent's desk and demanded that they sort out the problem and a stern supervisor snatched the passport out of my hands and promised 'I'll sort this out'.
Five minutes later she returned with her tail between her legs and all apologetic and said "I'm afraid there's nothing I can do you need a new passport.'
Meanwhile my wife was yelling at me for failing to check that my passport would be OK despite her requests that I did so. I maintained that I had checked even though I hadn't because I was confident that there wouldn't be a problem. My confidence has totally deserted me at this stage.
I had to ring my oldest child to come and collect me. He hadn't get back home after dropping us off at the airport. The rest of the family checked in and boarded the plane.
On getting home I rang the Greek Embassy and checked on the validity of my passport. There wasn't one. I double check on entry conditions on the Greek Embassy web site and it confirmed what the member of staff said - my pass port was valid for use in Greece right up to the expiry date.
I then rang the passport office to enquire about the possibility of getting a passport the following day - it was by now five o'clock in the afternoon. I cited Durham, Peterborough, Liverpool and London as offices that I was willing to travel to and was told that the earliest that any of them could see me was fourteeen days hence - a bit pointless seeing that it was a week's holiday at stake. Then I was told that there was a ten o'clock appointment available in Glasgow. I booked it and then started the paper chase....
I went to the post office at then end of the street to get a passport application form only to find that sub-post offices don't stock them. The nearest Crown Post Office would be closed by the time that I got there. The sub-postmaster kindly gave me his own passport application form that he was about to use for his own passport renewal. On return to the house I then had to find my birth certificate or rather the location of the vital paper work that my wife regularly changes on a whim. It took an hour. I then had to get a passport photograph and someone to verify my identity - most of the folk able to do so were on holiday themselves.
I contacted the travel company and moaned and asked about replacement flights - I had to pay but couldn't book a definite flight until I had a passport. Being unfamiliar with the timescales for replacement I told them that I'd ring once I'd got my passport.
Then there was the matter of getting to Glasgow. Sharing the driving with my son who's only just passed his driving test entailing a very early departure and him sharing the driving or a train journey. The train journey won and I was dropped off at Leeds Station at 4:30 for a 4:55 train to Glasgow.
On arrival at the passport office I was grilled about why I considered it necessary to renew my passport using the on demand service when i was perfectly usable for the next two months and I was lectured on the benefits of checking it's validity before travelling. Being in possession of the facts, my confidence had returned and I remonstrated with the officious jobsworth and suggested that he brushed up on his knowledge of EC travel restrictions or lack of them before proffering useless advice. He bristled and relieved me of £130+ and all the evidence and paper work. I was issued with a receipt and told to come back no sooner than two hours hence.
A whiled away the time in a bagpipe museum and Souchiehall Street marvelling at the folk, fists full of pasties, pastries and beer well before I was ready for a drink. Once I got the passport I rang the travel company and enquired about flights. They told me that there was one from Glasgow in an hour and a half. That would have been great but my luggage was in Leeds and that there were no more flights for the next three days followed by a long pause and an offer of a flight with a rival company from Manchester in the early hours of the next morning. I had no choice but to take it and paid by card over the phone.
Train ride home. A takeaway and persuading my son to drive to Manchester later i went to bed for a couple of hours. The check in people at Manchester were suspicious and asked why I only had a one way ticket and were incredulous when i retold my tale. My misery didn't stop there. When it was dishing out food time there was nothing for me because all on flight food had to be booked a fortnight ahead of the flight! I didn't have the will to argue and refused to pay the inflated prices for a sip of coke.
Once I'd landed and transferred to the resort things only got better. While the hassle seemed to last a lifetime I had, in reality lost just over a day and a half.
Trying to get a refund of the extra flight proved to be very trying in identifying who was to blame and I gave up after seven months.
Turned up at Leeds/Bradford Airport with wife and two offspring to fly to Greece. All was going well, short queue and reached the check in desk where I was refused a boarding pass because I only had eight weeks left on my passport. Despite my insistence that that wasn't grounds for refusal because:
a) I was only going for a fortnight
b) Greece was a member of the EC
The chap at the check in was insistent. I went to the travel agent's desk and demanded that they sort out the problem and a stern supervisor snatched the passport out of my hands and promised 'I'll sort this out'.
Five minutes later she returned with her tail between her legs and all apologetic and said "I'm afraid there's nothing I can do you need a new passport.'
Meanwhile my wife was yelling at me for failing to check that my passport would be OK despite her requests that I did so. I maintained that I had checked even though I hadn't because I was confident that there wouldn't be a problem. My confidence has totally deserted me at this stage.
I had to ring my oldest child to come and collect me. He hadn't get back home after dropping us off at the airport. The rest of the family checked in and boarded the plane.
On getting home I rang the Greek Embassy and checked on the validity of my passport. There wasn't one. I double check on entry conditions on the Greek Embassy web site and it confirmed what the member of staff said - my pass port was valid for use in Greece right up to the expiry date.
I then rang the passport office to enquire about the possibility of getting a passport the following day - it was by now five o'clock in the afternoon. I cited Durham, Peterborough, Liverpool and London as offices that I was willing to travel to and was told that the earliest that any of them could see me was fourteeen days hence - a bit pointless seeing that it was a week's holiday at stake. Then I was told that there was a ten o'clock appointment available in Glasgow. I booked it and then started the paper chase....
I went to the post office at then end of the street to get a passport application form only to find that sub-post offices don't stock them. The nearest Crown Post Office would be closed by the time that I got there. The sub-postmaster kindly gave me his own passport application form that he was about to use for his own passport renewal. On return to the house I then had to find my birth certificate or rather the location of the vital paper work that my wife regularly changes on a whim. It took an hour. I then had to get a passport photograph and someone to verify my identity - most of the folk able to do so were on holiday themselves.
I contacted the travel company and moaned and asked about replacement flights - I had to pay but couldn't book a definite flight until I had a passport. Being unfamiliar with the timescales for replacement I told them that I'd ring once I'd got my passport.
Then there was the matter of getting to Glasgow. Sharing the driving with my son who's only just passed his driving test entailing a very early departure and him sharing the driving or a train journey. The train journey won and I was dropped off at Leeds Station at 4:30 for a 4:55 train to Glasgow.
On arrival at the passport office I was grilled about why I considered it necessary to renew my passport using the on demand service when i was perfectly usable for the next two months and I was lectured on the benefits of checking it's validity before travelling. Being in possession of the facts, my confidence had returned and I remonstrated with the officious jobsworth and suggested that he brushed up on his knowledge of EC travel restrictions or lack of them before proffering useless advice. He bristled and relieved me of £130+ and all the evidence and paper work. I was issued with a receipt and told to come back no sooner than two hours hence.
A whiled away the time in a bagpipe museum and Souchiehall Street marvelling at the folk, fists full of pasties, pastries and beer well before I was ready for a drink. Once I got the passport I rang the travel company and enquired about flights. They told me that there was one from Glasgow in an hour and a half. That would have been great but my luggage was in Leeds and that there were no more flights for the next three days followed by a long pause and an offer of a flight with a rival company from Manchester in the early hours of the next morning. I had no choice but to take it and paid by card over the phone.
Train ride home. A takeaway and persuading my son to drive to Manchester later i went to bed for a couple of hours. The check in people at Manchester were suspicious and asked why I only had a one way ticket and were incredulous when i retold my tale. My misery didn't stop there. When it was dishing out food time there was nothing for me because all on flight food had to be booked a fortnight ahead of the flight! I didn't have the will to argue and refused to pay the inflated prices for a sip of coke.
Once I'd landed and transferred to the resort things only got better. While the hassle seemed to last a lifetime I had, in reality lost just over a day and a half.
Trying to get a refund of the extra flight proved to be very trying in identifying who was to blame and I gave up after seven months.
OP
OP
slowmotion
Quite dreadful
- Location
- lost somewhere
Vernon, I feel your pain, even through the passing years. Well done 
Ticktockmy
Guru
- Location
- Crawley, West Sussex
I think the reason for the lenght of time required for you to have a new valid Passport which I think is 6 month before expirey, is to allow if you get delayed on your holiday, is to cover if you are held in the country beyound the expire date, because you maybe sick, or in prision, etc.
Bob G.
Bob G.
Bodhbh
Guru
I've come close to loosing one but not managed yet, but interesting to know how it pans out when it really happens.
(close i.e. leaving my handluggage on the train when getting off for the airport and realising 5mins later - next train to the final stop, overnight in a hotel and a trip to the left luggage and it was sorted, thankfully).
(close i.e. leaving my handluggage on the train when getting off for the airport and realising 5mins later - next train to the final stop, overnight in a hotel and a trip to the left luggage and it was sorted, thankfully).
bigjim
Legendary Member
- Location
- Manchester. UK
It's the one thing I am constantly checking while away, that I have my passport. Even though I have two, an English and Irish passport.
Does anybody else think that these days there are two many pockets in things. jackets, trousers, rucksacks, bike bags etc. So many pockets. I'm forever rummaging through pockets for something and it's always in the last one.
Does anybody else think that these days there are two many pockets in things. jackets, trousers, rucksacks, bike bags etc. So many pockets. I'm forever rummaging through pockets for something and it's always in the last one.
