From souvenir stamps to different surnames: Five ways your passport could stop you boarding your flight

Scottish Sun

13-06-2025

Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window)
Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
MILLIONS of Brits will be heading abroad in the next few months to make the most of the summer holidays.
However, thousands of families are also being caught out by a number of strict rules in place, which has seen them banned from their flight.
Sign up for Scottish Sun
newsletter
Sign up
5
Stamps in your passport are just one of the ways you could be breaking the rules - and be banned from boarding your flight
Credit: Getty
Most of the confusion comes down to not knowing all of the passport rules in place.
So we have explained the five ways that people are being forced to miss their holidays, all because they made a mistake with their passport.
Fake souvenir stamps
Some holiday destinations offer a souvenir in the form of a novelty stamp.
Places such as Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin, The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in Japan, Machu Picchu and Ciudad Mitad del Mundo in Ecuador (where the equator runs through) are just some of the places offering the fake stamps.
Even in the UK, the Welsh village Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch which has the world's longest place name offers them.
However, don't be tempted to put the stamps in your actual passport, and instead ask for them on a piece of paper instead.
One woman said she was stopped from entering Thailand after getting a stamp in Machu Picchu.
Another was banned from her flight to the US because of a Hello Kitty stamp in Taiwan.
Someone person on Reddit said they struggled to get a visa for India because of a novelty stamp, while another said they were banned from entering Malaysia for similar reasons.
While some places might not might the stamps, it is best not to risk putting them in your passport.
Brit yoga teacher stranded in Thailand & barred from return flight over 'tiny' passport problem…would YOU have noticed?
5
Novelty stamps are a huge risk to have in your passport
Credit: Alamy
Different surnames to your kids
If you are going on holiday with any kids that don't share your last name, you could run into problems at the border.
Strict anti-trafficking rules mean that border staff are required to ask for any documents that prove they are related to you, or you have permission to take them out of the country.
For example, if they are your children but you do not share their surname, you will need something like a marriage certificate alongside your passport.
Mum Eddi Fiegel was nearly banned from boarding their Eurostar home with their daughter from Disneyland Paris, as she was not married to her partner - so had a different surname to her.
And a family missed their Christmas holiday to South Africa because their son had a different name to the mum, and the dad wasn't travelling with them.
An alternative option is a consent letter, sharing permission from their legal guardian although this may not be accepted in all countries.
Any minor damage (depending on country)
When it comes to damaged passports, the UK government cite the following as damage:
you cannot read any of your details
any pages are ripped, cut or missing
holes, cuts or rips in the cover
cover coming away
stains on the pages (for example, ink or water damage)
Any passport that falls under these rules will need to be replaced.
However, some countries have much stricter rules when it comes to what a damaged passport is.
Indonesia is known for having some of the world's most restrictive rules with a number of travellers banned from travelling to Bali.
One man said there was a "minuscule tear on the photo page, barely visible to the naked eye" while another person was told it was "too dirty" to be allowed.
Any tiny tears or spills on a passport is likely to get you banned from a holiday to Bali.
Vietnam is also just as strict, with the UK Foreign Office warning: "Your passport must have no damage.
"British nationals have been denied entry and exit due to passport damage."
5
Bali (pictured) along with Vietnam have some of the strictest rules
Credit: Alamy
Incorrect expiry date
One of the most common mistakes thousands of Brits are still making is having the correct expiry date on their passports.
Pre-Brexit rules allowed UK passports to have a validity of 10 years and nine months (rolling over unused months from the previous passport).
This is no longer allowed, so any extra months are no longer seen as valid.
This is only affecting Brits with a burgundy passport, as the new navy passports only have a 10-year validity.
If you have a different start date to an expiry date, you might run into trouble, so make sure to add 10 years to your start date to find your correct expiry.
You will also need a few extra months on it depending which country you are travelling to.
5
Make sure you have enough empty blank pages to leave room for entry and exit stamps
Credit: Alamy
Not enough blank pages
If you are a frequent traveller, you might find your passport is getting a bit full.
But most countries require at least one page to be fully blank, to leave space for an entry and exit stamp.
For Europe, every country requires one full page, while countries including Germany, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Finland, Netherlands and Portugal require two pages.
One person on Reddit said they were told to get a new passport as they only had "three [blank] pages scattered about," while another said they had to get an emergency passport in Bangkok after needing a full blank page to go to Laos.
One of the strictest is South Africa, which requires three blank pages.
Standard passports have 34 pages, so you might want to pay extra for a 54-page passport if you plan on travelling a lot.
Or you can try the sneaky trick, where passengers put a blank post it note on a page so border officers don't use it to stamp.