Six Month Passport Rule, Air Asia and a volcano!
May 22nd 2010, 6:32 am
#1
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Joined: Aug 2004
Location: Mandurah, WA since 10/2007
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Six Month Passport Rule, Air Asia and a volcano!
My wife,my daughter and myself have just returned from a 3 week trip to the UK and I thought I'd share our journey there (its a long one).
We booked 3 tickets with air Asia ( a year in advance) from Perth to the UK(via Malaysia) for my sons wedding on the 1st May, leaving 15 April.
One week before departure my wife came home from work and asked if we have at least six months on our British passports. I asked why and she told me that a friend from work had just been turned away at the airport for having less. I checked the passports and found the two adults had only 5 months. PANIC! After a couple of days researching and phoning around it became more and more obvious that we were not even going to make it out of Perth.
Air Asia do not do air side transfers. The flights to UK via Kuala Lumpur(KL) are treated as two individual flights so Perth - KL you have to clear Immigration and customs, collect your bags then check in to your KL to UK flight. Malaysia are very strict with the six month rule and attempting to enter with less usually ends in being returned to origin or worse detention. Attempts to get emergency passports etc were fruitless as the new way of getting UK passports in Aus has also resulted in the removal of the 1 year temp passport one could get from the Embassy.
A couple of days to go and with all avenues closed morale was at rock bottom. We decided that as we had paid we would still go to the airport and hope for a miracle from above.
We were up at 2 am to drive to Perth airport and at 0330 were in the queue. I put my daughters passport on top hoping it would distract from the other two. As we got to the front of the queue I noticed there were 2 counters. One of which had a piece of cardboard with Stanstead (UK) scrawled on it. The staff must have seen me staring at it and asked if we were going to Stanstead we said yes and they called us to the desk. I handed over the passports and within a couple of seconds the agent shook his head and said there was a problem with the passports. Our hearts sank and we waited for the inevitable. He called over a supervisor who took our passports to another supervisor and before we knew it there three all discussing it. After about 5 minutes one of the supervisors came back. She said that we should be turned away BUT Air Asia had just started a trail on ONE of their routes, the Perth -KL , doing air side transfers and seeing that we would not be going through Malaysian immigration they had decided to let us fly! Miracles do happen!
Both us and our luggage were booked straight through to Stanstead and the agent booking us in must have begged us at least 5 times not to go near or even look at immigration.
You couldn't rip the grins from our faces all the way to KL. On arrival while most of the flight were directed up to immigration we were directed to a hastily erected transfer desk and given our boarding passes. Before we knew it we were sitting on the next plane. As I listened to the push-back vehicle being hooked up I moved my watch forward to UK time. After sitting for at least 15 minutes with no movement, the pilot came on the PA and apologised for the delay as they were having trouble getting clearance from India ATC!? Strange but no worries. Ten minutes later and a good few degrees warmer the pilot comes back and tells us that due to a volcano in Iceland UK airspace will close in 5 hours so we cannot go. Iceland, volcano, UK Huh?!
Its about 1600 local and we were all off loaded but not the bagage. We were totally in the dark as far as info was concerned and a group of us gathered in the sports bar where Sky news was on. As we watched things develope it dawned on us we were going no where in a hurry. By 1930 Air Asia called it a night and called us all together to lead us to immigration and out where we would have to make our own accommodation arrangements. Immigration! I'm not going anywhere near immigration! I took our passports to the Air Asia rep and he said "oh!, wait here". He then lead all our flight out via immigration. About 1 hour later he returned and after telling him we couldn't go near immigration he took our passports and went to chat to immigration. He returned and confirmed our fears, we would be sleeping air side that night. Now anyone who has ever been to the low cost terminal in KL will know it is a different kind of animal. Loud flight announcements until 0230, no where to sleep and the aircon.... The aircon is brilliant, during the day. But leave it on at full power, all night with no people inside - I've been warmer walking london streets at night in the winter! So we spent the night, no sleep, with 1 policeman and a brief visit from a couple of cleaners - we were very grumpy but we kept away from immigration
Internal flights resumed at about 0430 and we spent the whole day airside checking updates and hoping to fly out. Only a hand full of our original flight came back down. By 1930 no joy and again everyone was helped through immigration. Well by this time my wife was beside herself. She doesn't do closed spaces too well and another freezing night airside was not an option-she even threatened to hand her self over to immigration just to get out! It was either arrest or return to Perth. The same Air asia rep from the night before calmed my wife down and said not to worry, different shift. We were confused but he took our passports again. Twenty minutes later he comes down and waves us to follow him. He lead us straight PAST security and immigration, with out so much as a glance let alone passport check, straight to "the controller" of immigration. Are passports were handed to him and he waved his hand as if to say "give me a challenge - this is no problem". We were lead into the immigration back offices where all the "border security" type interrogations take place. On entering we saw an illegal having a full blown shouting match with the duty immigration official. I felt like throttling him for putting the guy in a bad mood! The Air Asia rep helped us fill in landing cards all while the immigration argument continued. When the cards were completed, the official stopped his argument, stamped our passports(with 90 day visas) and then continued the shouting match. We bolted to freedom before he changed his mind!
There was a lot of back and forth with hotels, 5 days of Mac Donalds vouchers etc over the next 5 days which I'll leave out but what I will say is Air Asia staff were outstanding and went beyond the call of duty every last one of them.
Our original flight should have left Thursday 15th. Wed 21st we arrived again early to try and get the only "rescue" flight being put on by Air Asia. Due to a mix up we were not booked on it and faced having to try and get on their normal schedule where the nearest vacancy was 8 May!
Having been early on the day we got ourselves onto a standby list at no5. Standbys up to no7 were eventually called minutes before the departure time so we got on by a whisker and had to run all the way through everything to get to the flight. About 2 hours into the flight I again moved my watch to UK time, this time it wasn't in vein.
The moral. ALWAYS make sure you have six months or more on your passport, don't mess with a volcano and never move your watch prematurely.
Oh yes I almost forgot, make sure you have a pound from someone before you go as Stanstead charges a pound coin for a baggage trolley(before you get a chance to get foreign currency)!
We booked 3 tickets with air Asia ( a year in advance) from Perth to the UK(via Malaysia) for my sons wedding on the 1st May, leaving 15 April.
One week before departure my wife came home from work and asked if we have at least six months on our British passports. I asked why and she told me that a friend from work had just been turned away at the airport for having less. I checked the passports and found the two adults had only 5 months. PANIC! After a couple of days researching and phoning around it became more and more obvious that we were not even going to make it out of Perth.
Air Asia do not do air side transfers. The flights to UK via Kuala Lumpur(KL) are treated as two individual flights so Perth - KL you have to clear Immigration and customs, collect your bags then check in to your KL to UK flight. Malaysia are very strict with the six month rule and attempting to enter with less usually ends in being returned to origin or worse detention. Attempts to get emergency passports etc were fruitless as the new way of getting UK passports in Aus has also resulted in the removal of the 1 year temp passport one could get from the Embassy.
A couple of days to go and with all avenues closed morale was at rock bottom. We decided that as we had paid we would still go to the airport and hope for a miracle from above.
We were up at 2 am to drive to Perth airport and at 0330 were in the queue. I put my daughters passport on top hoping it would distract from the other two. As we got to the front of the queue I noticed there were 2 counters. One of which had a piece of cardboard with Stanstead (UK) scrawled on it. The staff must have seen me staring at it and asked if we were going to Stanstead we said yes and they called us to the desk. I handed over the passports and within a couple of seconds the agent shook his head and said there was a problem with the passports. Our hearts sank and we waited for the inevitable. He called over a supervisor who took our passports to another supervisor and before we knew it there three all discussing it. After about 5 minutes one of the supervisors came back. She said that we should be turned away BUT Air Asia had just started a trail on ONE of their routes, the Perth -KL , doing air side transfers and seeing that we would not be going through Malaysian immigration they had decided to let us fly! Miracles do happen!
Both us and our luggage were booked straight through to Stanstead and the agent booking us in must have begged us at least 5 times not to go near or even look at immigration.
You couldn't rip the grins from our faces all the way to KL. On arrival while most of the flight were directed up to immigration we were directed to a hastily erected transfer desk and given our boarding passes. Before we knew it we were sitting on the next plane. As I listened to the push-back vehicle being hooked up I moved my watch forward to UK time. After sitting for at least 15 minutes with no movement, the pilot came on the PA and apologised for the delay as they were having trouble getting clearance from India ATC!? Strange but no worries. Ten minutes later and a good few degrees warmer the pilot comes back and tells us that due to a volcano in Iceland UK airspace will close in 5 hours so we cannot go. Iceland, volcano, UK Huh?!
Its about 1600 local and we were all off loaded but not the bagage. We were totally in the dark as far as info was concerned and a group of us gathered in the sports bar where Sky news was on. As we watched things develope it dawned on us we were going no where in a hurry. By 1930 Air Asia called it a night and called us all together to lead us to immigration and out where we would have to make our own accommodation arrangements. Immigration! I'm not going anywhere near immigration! I took our passports to the Air Asia rep and he said "oh!, wait here". He then lead all our flight out via immigration. About 1 hour later he returned and after telling him we couldn't go near immigration he took our passports and went to chat to immigration. He returned and confirmed our fears, we would be sleeping air side that night. Now anyone who has ever been to the low cost terminal in KL will know it is a different kind of animal. Loud flight announcements until 0230, no where to sleep and the aircon.... The aircon is brilliant, during the day. But leave it on at full power, all night with no people inside - I've been warmer walking london streets at night in the winter! So we spent the night, no sleep, with 1 policeman and a brief visit from a couple of cleaners - we were very grumpy but we kept away from immigration
Internal flights resumed at about 0430 and we spent the whole day airside checking updates and hoping to fly out. Only a hand full of our original flight came back down. By 1930 no joy and again everyone was helped through immigration. Well by this time my wife was beside herself. She doesn't do closed spaces too well and another freezing night airside was not an option-she even threatened to hand her self over to immigration just to get out! It was either arrest or return to Perth. The same Air asia rep from the night before calmed my wife down and said not to worry, different shift. We were confused but he took our passports again. Twenty minutes later he comes down and waves us to follow him. He lead us straight PAST security and immigration, with out so much as a glance let alone passport check, straight to "the controller" of immigration. Are passports were handed to him and he waved his hand as if to say "give me a challenge - this is no problem". We were lead into the immigration back offices where all the "border security" type interrogations take place. On entering we saw an illegal having a full blown shouting match with the duty immigration official. I felt like throttling him for putting the guy in a bad mood! The Air Asia rep helped us fill in landing cards all while the immigration argument continued. When the cards were completed, the official stopped his argument, stamped our passports(with 90 day visas) and then continued the shouting match. We bolted to freedom before he changed his mind!There was a lot of back and forth with hotels, 5 days of Mac Donalds vouchers etc over the next 5 days which I'll leave out but what I will say is Air Asia staff were outstanding and went beyond the call of duty every last one of them.
Our original flight should have left Thursday 15th. Wed 21st we arrived again early to try and get the only "rescue" flight being put on by Air Asia. Due to a mix up we were not booked on it and faced having to try and get on their normal schedule where the nearest vacancy was 8 May!
Having been early on the day we got ourselves onto a standby list at no5. Standbys up to no7 were eventually called minutes before the departure time so we got on by a whisker and had to run all the way through everything to get to the flight. About 2 hours into the flight I again moved my watch to UK time, this time it wasn't in vein.
The moral. ALWAYS make sure you have six months or more on your passport, don't mess with a volcano and never move your watch prematurely.
Oh yes I almost forgot, make sure you have a pound from someone before you go as Stanstead charges a pound coin for a baggage trolley(before you get a chance to get foreign currency)!
May 22nd 2010, 7:09 am
#2
Crazy Cat Lady
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 65,493
Re: Six Month Passport Rule, Air Asia and a volcano!
How was the wedding? 
May 22nd 2010, 7:27 am
#3
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Jun 2005
Location: Limerick-Shropshire- Perth.
Posts: 3,215
Re: Six Month Passport Rule, Air Asia and a volcano!
Poor you.How was the wedding.Hope it wasnt called off.
May 22nd 2010, 7:48 am
#4
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Joined: Jul 2005
Location: UK 2 Singapore 2 Sydney 2 Brisbane.....here to stay!
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May 22nd 2010, 9:39 am
#5
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Jan 2009
Location: Brisbane
Posts: 20,821
Re: Six Month Passport Rule, Air Asia and a volcano!
Very interesting read.
So it's only really only a 9 year and 6 month passport.
So it's only really only a 9 year and 6 month passport.
Last edited by Alfresco; May 22nd 2010 at 9:44 am.
May 22nd 2010, 9:48 am
#6
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Joined: May 2004
Location: Umina, NSW
Posts: 2,453
Re: Six Month Passport Rule, Air Asia and a volcano!
Oh this made me giggle. We were trapped coming back.
Jo
Jo
May 22nd 2010, 10:20 am
#7
Officially Bewildered
Joined: Nov 2006
Location: Blue Mountains, NSW
Posts: 5,523
Re: Six Month Passport Rule, Air Asia and a volcano!
(except a lot of hair perhaps, if you realise too late that you've got left than six months left and you're about to go on holiday!)
May 22nd 2010, 10:32 am
#8
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Feb 2009
Location: UK
Posts: 14,284
Re: Six Month Passport Rule, Air Asia and a volcano!
Nice story. Some people are just born lucky.
My trip had to be cancelled due to volcano but I am re-packing and hoping to set off on Monday. I can't even get excited about the trip as I won't believe I am going until I am sat on the plane and taxiing to the runway.
My trip had to be cancelled due to volcano but I am re-packing and hoping to set off on Monday. I can't even get excited about the trip as I won't believe I am going until I am sat on the plane and taxiing to the runway.
May 22nd 2010, 1:22 pm
#9
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Location: Mandurah, WA since 10/2007
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Re: Six Month Passport Rule, Air Asia and a volcano!
) and London provided a warmish and dry day. A memorable occasion.
May 23rd 2010, 3:17 am
#11
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Location: Chippendale, Sydney
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Re: Six Month Passport Rule, Air Asia and a volcano!
Well presuming you'd be getting a replacement, they add on the amount left over upto 9 months (I think it is) so you're not really losing anything
(except a lot of hair perhaps, if you realise too late that you've got left than six months left and you're about to go on holiday!)
(except a lot of hair perhaps, if you realise too late that you've got left than six months left and you're about to go on holiday!)
It also depends on where you're going. Some countries have agreements that allow you to enter with less than 6 months.
The US-UK is one such agreement - A UK passport holder can enter the US with less than 6 months on their passport, using the VWP, but you don't get the benefit of the full 90 days visit time if you have less than that available on your passport.
The problem with that, however, is attempting to explain the intricacies of US-UK passport agreements to the bimbo/himbo at the check-in desk...
S
S
May 23rd 2010, 5:47 am
#12
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Re: Six Month Passport Rule, Air Asia and a volcano!
Thoroughly enjoyed reading this. Sorry that it was at your expense
May 24th 2010, 10:20 am
#13
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Posts: 20,821
Re: Six Month Passport Rule, Air Asia and a volcano!
Well presuming you'd be getting a replacement, they add on the amount left over upto 9 months (I think it is) so you're not really losing anything
(except a lot of hair perhaps, if you realise too late that you've got left than six months left and you're about to go on holiday!)
(except a lot of hair perhaps, if you realise too late that you've got left than six months left and you're about to go on holiday!)
We (me and two kids) had to get computer readable passport renewals (Irish - not that I'm Irish
) to go to Florida or it was getting US visas meaning £££s.They still had years to run, but when the new ones came, they were 5 year passports for the kids and 10 year passport for me.
