Brit barred from Tui flight due to ‘slight mark’ on passport forced to pay £1,200

Sign up to Simon Calder’s free travel email for expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calder’s Travel email Get Simon Calder’s Travel email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. “I think it’s just insane that Tui can say my passport is damaged and not allow me to board for fear I’m not going to be allowed into Mexico by passport control, and then for another airline to have no issue with the same passport, let me fly to Mexico and then I get through passport control,” Laila told PA Real Life. open image in gallery Laila and her sister Kaemarnie, 21, booked a holiday to Cancun, Mexico, with Tui “She was like, ‘What’s happened to your passport? “According to them, my passport was damaged so they couldn’t allow me to fly with Tui because if I get to Mexico and they send me back, it’s going to be a charge for them.” Laila said she was given three options, to apply for an emergency passport and travel a few days later, to change the name on her booking so someone else could travel in her place, or to see if another airline would accept her passport. “But you’ve just said that my passport was damaged, how can you recommend I use another airline?” open image in gallery Laila shelled out £1,200 for a same-day British Airways flight to Cancun after she was refused boarding Laila did not want to ruin her sister’s graduation holiday but at the same time was concerned because she had never been travelling alone.