# Fuck RyanAir and Fuck Brexit **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 29, 2022, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-ryanair-and-fuck-brexit/963692 "2022-04-29T19:48:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2022, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-ryanair-and-fuck-brexit/963692/1 "2022-04-29T19:48:55Z")
Was booked to go on my first trip abroad since before Covid - a trip to Portugal for a golf weekend with friends. I got to the airport and RyanAir refused me boarding because my passport, despite being valid until December, was issued nine years and ten months ago. To enter the EU you need three months left of validity, and passports must not be more than ten years old. The airlines have been incorrectly conflating the two when the directive is quite clear. So instead of going to lovely sunny Faro I had to turn tail and head home. The EU has already clarified that this is not the correct reading of the rules - and I tried to put this to RyanAir. [https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/passport-easyjet-compensation-denied-boarding-b2066803.html](https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/passport-easyjet-compensation-denied-boarding-b2066803.html) However I reckoned that once in the Schengen free-travel area I’d be alright. So I popped into the Eurostar terminal in London and told them my problem. With French immigration control on the London side they spoke to the French officers, who said my passport was no problem. So I’ve shelled out many £££s to buy en early Eurostar ticket and a flight from Paris. Fuck RyanAir! Fuck Brexit and these stupid hoops that we all have to now jump through, when we didn’t have to before. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2022, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-ryanair-and-fuck-brexit/963692/2 "2022-04-29T23:04:52Z")
I hope you are from Scotland because I read the title and immediately heard it in my head in a Scottish burr, and specifically in the voice of Rory McCann, which made me laugh out loud. I think you should have [demanded a chicken.](https://youtu.be/KtCsmSMRiC0) Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2022, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-ryanair-and-fuck-brexit/963692/3 "2022-04-30T00:16:37Z")
I’m Australian but go to the UK regularly for various reasons. Brexit makes me so annoyed/sad I’ve just switched off from it. Can’t think about it without an increase in blood pressure. ---
**Author:** ![Limmin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f04885/32.png) [@Limmin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Limmin)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2022, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-ryanair-and-fuck-brexit/963692/4 "2022-04-30T00:19:28Z")
Unfortunately there’s no train / tunnel you can use to get to UK. Hope the airlines are better than RyanAir. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2022, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-ryanair-and-fuck-brexit/963692/5 "2022-04-30T00:28:36Z")
> [@Limmin](#): > > Hope the airlines are better than RyanAir. It is hard to conceive of an airline that is worse than RyanAir now that Alitalia is defunct, although Frontier Air is giving it a run for the title. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2022, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-ryanair-and-fuck-brexit/963692/6 "2022-04-30T01:02:08Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > although Frontier Air is giving it a run for the title. The merger with Spirit will make things all good. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2022, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-ryanair-and-fuck-brexit/963692/7 "2022-04-30T01:35:54Z")
> [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](#): > > I got to the airport and RyanAir refused me boarding because my passport, despite being valid until December, was issued nine years and ten months ago. My math is not good but that sounds like your passport was valid for another two months. You say it was good until December but it was issued nine years and ten months ago which leaves you two months left on a ten year passport. My understanding is you cannot travel on a passport that has less than six months until expiration left on it. > The 6-month passport rule states that your passport must be valid for another six months before you depart for international travel. Depending on which country you are traveling to, the six-month period may begin from the date you leave that country or the date you arrive. [SOURCE](https://visaguide.world/tips/passport-6-month-rule/#:~:text=amount%20of%20time.-,What%20Is%20the%20Passport%206%20Month%20Rule%3F,or%20the%20date%20you%20arrive.) As a general matter, if you are planning international travel, triple-check that your passport is in order and sufficient (do you need a visa in advance kind-of-thing). You do not want to find out problems when you are at the airport. Or worse, in a foreign country and unable to get home. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2022, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-ryanair-and-fuck-brexit/963692/8 "2022-04-30T02:01:57Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > The merger with Spirit will make things all good. [![](https://live.staticflickr.com/7120/7832849968_4c297aa18b_z.jpg) ](https://live.staticflickr.com/7120/7832849968_4c297aa18b_z.jpg) Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2022, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-ryanair-and-fuck-brexit/963692/9 "2022-04-30T04:17:40Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > My math is not good but that sounds like your passport was valid for another two months. You say it was good until December but it was issued nine years and ten months ago which leaves you two months left on a ten year passport. It obviously wasn’t a ten year passport, then. The article gives a similar example: > A passenger with a British passport issued on 1 May 2012 and expiring on 1 November 2022 can travel to the Schengen Area up to 30 April 2022. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2022, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-ryanair-and-fuck-brexit/963692/10 "2022-04-30T05:08:11Z")
Do passports have a different definition of “expired” than the one I learned in school? ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2022, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-ryanair-and-fuck-brexit/963692/11 "2022-04-30T08:25:23Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > My math is not good but that sounds like your passport was valid for another two months. You say it was good until December but it was issued nine years and ten months ago which leaves you two months left on a ten year passport. > > My understanding is you cannot travel on a passport that has less than six months until expiration left on it. Until a few years back, the UK used to allow you to renew a passport a few months early and add the extra months to the new one- so if you renewed your old passport 6 months before expiry, you could get a ‘10 year’ passport that was actually valid for 10 years 6 months from date of issue. Hence the confusion, the OP- and multiple other people in the UK- have wound up in a situation where time until issue date + 10 years isn’t long enough to allow legal travel, but time until the expiry date is. Add in an idiot airline with stupid training policies, et voila; boarding denied. The 6 months thing isn’t universal either, incidentally, the period of validity varies by what country you’re going to as well, I think 6 months is the longest anywhere insists on for general touristy purposes, but for UK to EU it’s only 3 months, not 6, and some places just ask that it’s valid for the duration of your stay. And yeah, fuck Brexit. And Ryanair. ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2022, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-ryanair-and-fuck-brexit/963692/12 "2022-05-03T17:45:38Z")
As you might have been able to tell from my lack of comment I did manage to get into the Schengen Zone thanks to Eurostar. From there I took a plane from Paris (Orly airport is okay but my god the queues). I’ll try to claim compensation but I’m not holding out much hope.