A mother has criticised Qatar Airways after her 13-year-old son was denied boarding a flight to Thailand due to a mark on his passport. Meghan Law, 33, from Aberdeen, said the incident at Edinburgh Airport threatened her family's £3,000 holiday.
Check-in staff claimed a luggage sticker mark on Alix Dawson's passport constituted damage. The mum was told to travel to Glasgow Airport, 50 miles away, to obtain an emergency document. However, after contacting tour operator TUI, who she had booked with, the company found no issues with the passport and arranged an alternative flight.
Ms Law, an NHS nurse, said she would never fly with Qatar Airways again. 'If I hadn't booked through TUI and booked it myself, we just wouldn't have been able to go on holiday,' she said. 'There was no justification for it. I'll never fly with Qatar again. It ruined the start of the trip - it was so stressful.'
The passport had previously been accepted at airports dozens of times, Ms Law said. HM Passport Office classes a passport as damaged if details are indecipherable, pages are missing or detached, or there is chemical or ink spillage. Ms Law said none of these applied.
Ms Law has now returned from her two-week holiday but wants to raise awareness of the experience. She said they were left at the airport with no help or advice.
