‘Blank page’ passport rule that could see you banned from flight
We're getting into the summer months now and an increasing number of Brits will be turning their attention towards holiday plans.
There's always a danger that the holiday will be thrown sideways by unforeseen disruptions, though the main operators have said they think they've got enough jet fuel to make sure things are going well.
If there's any one period of time in the calendar the airlines want to make sure you're getting from A to B and back to A again properly it's the holiday season, since this is the moneymaking period that carries them through the year.
Still, sometimes the problem with a flight isn't the plane, it's the person trying to get on it.
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People get rejected from flights for all sorts of reasons including drunkenness, disorderly behaviour or falling foul of a series of unfortunate events.
One thing that Brits can definitely do to make sure they're not being turned away at the airport is ensure they still have blank pages left in their passport.
Frequent flyers will have picked up lots of stamps marking down the journeys they've made, and after a while those pages get filled up with plenty of evidence of travel.
This is where the 'blank page' passport rule kicks in, because for many destinations they expect you to have at least one or two unmarked pages in your passport or you might not be allowed to board the plane.
Never mind getting kicked off while drunk, you might not make it on board at all if you don't have blank pages in your passport, and even if you do there's no guarantee you'll be allowed through the border at the other side when you arrive.
If you run out of blank pages and want to use your passport for travel and not just a form of ID then you're going to need to apply for a new one.
This is why there's the jumbo option when getting a fresh passport, it comes with a lot more pages for all those stamps at the airport.
It costs a bit more, but for frequent travellers who don't want to get caught short at an airport it's more than worth the extra bit of cash.
Some people who've ended up running into problems with full passports have mistakenly assumed that just because it's still in date and potentially a long way off expiring as a form of ID it's good for travel.
Don't let a blank page ruin your holiday plans, make sure you've got at least two of them free before you travel.
Joe Harker