I was banned from going on a flight home because of tiny problem with my passport – don’t get caught out

A passenger was stranded in Thailand after her flight back to London was denied boarding due to an alleged ‘small’ tear in her passport.

Rosie Viscomi, 27, from Norfolk, says she missed her flight from Bangkok to London via India and Turkey on Thursday, July 4 after the airline reported problems with her passport.

Ms Viscomi has been living on the Thai island of Koh Pha Ngan since April, after completing her yoga training in India.

There she learned more about yoga and did some volunteer work before deciding to return to the UK.

She had booked a multi-stop flight from Bangkok to India and Turkey, before returning to London on July 4.

When Rosie arrived at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport, she said she was in tears when she was denied entry by IndiGo Airlines staff because of a “one-centimeter” tear on the photo page of her passport.

She also said she was told her visa had expired, meaning she was in the country illegally at the time, even though she claimed she had renewed her visa only a few days earlier.

Panicked and afraid of being arrested, Rosie has contacted Thai immigration and the British embassy to arrange her safe return home, but the process is costing her hundreds of pounds.

Rosie said: ‘When I went to catch my flight on Thursday they said: “You’re not going on that”, referring to a small tear in my passport, and I said: “Well, that was already the case”.

‘They told me that India will not allow me and that I have to book a direct flight from Bangkok to London.

‘So far I haven’t had any problems travelling. I already had a tear in my passport when I came here, I don’t know if it got bigger, it’s not too bad.

‘It’s about an inch on the main page where my picture is. I’ve been to America and Jamaica with it and it was fine.

‘I missed my flight which cost me around £370. I had to apply for emergency documents and am praying that I can now return.

‘I’m basically out of money – I didn’t factor in these extra costs. Immigration says they can charge me £320 on top of the flight costs because I overstayed my visa.

‘My 60-day visa for Thailand had expired, so I had to go to the Cambodian border to renew my visa. Everything was fine, but at the airport they told me that I had not received the correct stamps and that I was here illegally.’

Rosie has since spent hundreds of pounds on the cost of a new flight and new emergency travel documents so she can travel back home.

She has since booked a new flight from Bangkok to London.

Rosie added: ‘It’s really scary – I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know if they were going to arrest me for not having the right stamp.

‘There are so many complications. I was sitting at the immigration office crying and everyone kept saying there was nothing they could do.

‘I thought I had the right visa documents, but I didn’t realize I had the wrong stamp. They wouldn’t let me fly anyway because of the tear in my passport.

‘I just want to go home – it seems like more and more problems are popping up.. It’s really stressful. I never thought a tear would be such a problem for me. This is all added on and I’m not working now.’

Rosie’s sister has now started a fundraising page to help pay for the extra travel costs.

An IndiGo Airlines spokesperson said, “On July 4, 2024, a foreign national flying on IndiGo flight 6E1054 from Bangkok to Delhi was unable to board the flight as his passport was found to be damaged.

‘IndiGo followed the guidelines of the regulatory authorities and provided the required assistance to the customer.

‘Customers are advised to familiarize themselves with such guidelines, which may vary by country.’

According to the British Passport Office website, a passport is considered damaged if “you cannot read any of your details, any of the pages are torn, cut or missing, there are holes, cuts or tears in the cover, the cover is coming loose or the pages are stained, for example by ink or water damage.”

One example is the British holidaymaker who had to pay £1,200 for an alternative flight to her dream holiday in Mexico after she was blocked from boarding her original TUI plane because of a “small stain” on her passport.

Laila March, 25, a private tutor from Croydon, south London, thought she had got a “cheap deal” with TUI for less than £1,000 per person when she booked a week’s holiday to Cancun with her sister Kaemarnie, 21, to celebrate her university graduation.

However, when Laila arrived at Gatwick Airport on 7 June, she was told she would not be allowed to board the plane because her passport was damaged. This despite the fact that she regularly uses the passport to travel for work and had just flown back from Morocco the day before.

They arrived at the check-in desk at TUI Terminal North two hours early, expecting to be able to collect their tickets and have plenty of time to relax before their flight.

Laila said the check-in assistant scanned their passports and was about to hand over their boarding passes when she noticed a small smudge in the top right corner of her photo page.

“She asked, ‘What happened to your passport? What is this mark on it?’” Laila said.

‘Apparently there was a small stain on the photo page, but it didn’t cover the details and you could still read everything.

“She called someone who took my passport and disappeared for half an hour, even though I explained that I arrived at this airport yesterday and that I have traveled many times in the past year.”