Should the whole family forfeit the holiday?

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Many people would be sorely tempted to go to the doctors and say they had terrible earache and dizziness and therefore qualify for cover on the holiday insurance. But anyone stupid enough to not renew the child's passport deserves to lose the money and the holiday.

seven-day-weekend

Yes, if that was our family one parent would have gone with the child with the valid passport and the other one follow as soon as.

bhiman

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

Rather coincidentally, the exact same scenario was posted on here only 2 days ago.

FWIW I would say that those who can go, should go. If it was possible to palm off the passport-less child on a grandparent ...

All being together in fun and in sadness. That is what I understand from the word 'Family' Call me old fashioned if you will. But I would never like to 'Palm off' my child nor would i like to be a 'palmed off' child!
Each to his/her own..
Cheers
AB

dianauni

I'd be very happy to stay behind - can't think of a worse holiday to go on! But seriously I think one parent should go with the other child although they won't enjoy it as much without the rest of the family.

sofasoph

i think some people are being a little harsh and judgemental on here - this happened very recently to close friends of mine and this in turn prompted another friend to admit it happened to them too a number of years ago. these are people i would never have thought could be so careless, but it just shows it can happen to anyone. indeed, the friends who had it happen recently were told by the staff at the airport that it happens at least 2 or 3 times a week - that is 2 or 3 times every week of the year for every single airport in the UK, a heck of a lot!
reasons cited are often to do with the changes in the last decade or so with regards to children having to have their own passport now and not just be on their parents, and also the fact that children's passports are only valid for 5 years which often comes around quicker than is realised. yes it is a fault not to check the passport before going on holiday but i'm sure everyones not perfect and has at some point in their life forgotten to do something important. after all, my friends have been on countless holidays in the last few decades without problems and this is the first time they forgot to check the passports, so they are not usually 'careless'.
what they did was 2 of them went ahead and flew and the other 2 stayed and dashed around sorting out a new passport and new flights. they managed to join the rest of their family only 48 hours later and had a wonderful almost 2 week stay. downside of course is the cost - a 24hr passport and the extra flights set them back about £400 - a lot, but at least they didn't lose a heck of a lot more money by forfeiting the whole holiday, which would have caused a whole lot more tension and unhappiness.

Gordon861

soco1 wrote: »

Officially no - after all you are crossing an international border.
The free movement within Europe just refers to within the countries signed up to the Schengen agreement which have got rid of their internal borders. Of course this doesn't stop any UK national being free to travel to and work in any EU country but a passport is required to cross the initial border into mainland Europe.
Having said that it is very easy for people travelling by ferry to travel without passports as the UK hasn't has embarkation checks for over 10yrs and the French Frontier Police don't appear to be bothered about people travelling with just driving licences as ID, even though they don't prove nationality!

Getting back into the UK would however be delayed whilst your ID is verified which could cause you to miss a ferry and incur additional costs.

No-one would realistically dream of trying to board a non domestic flight without a passport but for some reason people think going by ferry is different.

Basically when travelling outside of the UK you need a passport.

I don't think that's actually correct.

As I understand the law, a British citizen (or any EU citizen), just needs a valid 'recognised' photo ID to travel within the EU borders. There was talk when the UK started using a photo driving licence that it would work as the ID but it was never authorised for this use.

The 'Schengen' agreement allows non-EU citizens with a valid visa from any of the member states to travel within the member states without having to get a visa for each country. The UK never signed up to this agreement.

The big problem is most of Europe requires you to carry a official photo ID with you, the only option in the UK is a Passport.