I had a FANTASTIC time in London last week with my friend and Stefano, but I’ll tell you about that another day. Today I wanted to let you know what happened at the airport on Sunday, because it might be useful to anyone who has future travel plans to Europe…

Let’s see. I went online to get my boarding pass on Saturday evening. Everything was fine up to the very end, when I got a message stating that there were some problems with my travel documents, and that I needed to go to an airport check-in desk the following day, that is, departure day.

We left the hotel a bit early in order to see what the “problems” were. I figured they just had to take a second look at my permanent Italian resident visa, so I wasn’t worried, even though I’d never received a message like that before…

When I got to the check-in desk, though, the airline representatives told me that my passport wasn’t valid for travel. WHAAAAT??? I was stunned.

Here’s why, and what happened afterwards:

My passport expires on April 19, 2019. That’s less than three months from now. The rule is that you can’t travel with a passport that has a three-month expiry date. Indeed, in some countries, the rule is SIX months.

I had no idea. I mean, I knew my passport was going to expire in April but figured I could use it in the meantime and had PLENTY of time to renew it. Who knew about the “three month rule”?

Back to the airport check-in desk.

1. I made the point that I shouldn’t have been issued a ticket in the first place (NOTE: I booked with the airline directly, not with an agent). The airline reps agreed with me.
2. I added that I should have been stopped in FLORENCE on my way to London, not in LONDON on my way back to Florence. Again, they agreed.

But they kept insisting that they couldn’t let me travel with this passport, that my passport wasn’t valid…They called their superiors who, at least in the beginning, confirmed my no-travel stance. I began to get worried…Flashes from the Tom Hanks movie called “The Terminal” kept popping into my mind…

Luckily, in the end I got the go-ahead from the top floors, my boarding pass was printed yaaaay, and I boarded the plane with Stefano and my friend…

As you can imagine, I’m getting a new passport ASAP…

So here’s my point today: before making any travel plans to Europe, make sure your passport doesn’t expire three months after your departure date. In fact, just to be on the safe side, make that at least SIX MONTHS……………………