By Adam Cailler Chloe Dobinson James Martin McCarthy
An Irish family has voiced their frustration after alleging that Ryanair wrongly told them they needed a visa to travel from the UK to Ireland, resulting in them missing their flight from London to Dublin. Christina Finn and her husband, Cameron, were left stranded at Stansted Airport after attending a CBeebies event in London with their young son. The couple had flown without any hitches from Belfast to London on Friday, but ran into problems when trying to return home. Christina explained: “We had flown to London on Friday morning from Belfast for a meeting with the BBC, and we were to fly home from London to Dublin and then get the bus up to Belfast as that was the cheapest option, and it is something we would do all the time.” Their journey took a turn for the worse when they encountered technical issues while trying to check-in online, which Christina initially assumed were due to her mobile phone, according to the Irish Mirror. Stuck with their poorly five-month-old baby who needs regular medication, Christina stressed the importance of getting back home promptly, reports the Mirror . Christina recounted: “When we went to check in on the app, it wouldn’t let me click through to our booking at all and I thought the issue was with my phone so when we got to the airport, we had to check in at the desk where we then had to pay a fine for not checking in online.” After being hit with an unexpected check-in fee at the airport, Christina revealed that a Ryanair representative requested their passports for identification, despite them having used their driving licences for the outbound easyJet flight. They presented their slightly out-of-date passports. “My husband has an Irish passport and I have a British one, which have both recently expired. With the baby due, we were waiting until he was born to renew them so that we could just do it at the same time.” She explained: “We informed the staff that we had flown over on our driving licences so he took them away and came back with a man who told us that because my husband has an expired Irish passport, he would be allowed on the flight to Dublin but as my passport was a British one they couldn’t let me on the plane. “The staff informed me that as a UK citizen I would need a visa to travel to Ireland as it is in the EU and I tried to explain to them that that wouldn’t apply due to the Common Travel Area. “I told him that we lived in Northern Ireland and he then questioned how I had a British passport and couldn’t seem to understand that it was a pretty common thing for people to fly to Dublin then travel on to Belfast. He also said that we would need to have evidence that we had booked onward travel from Dublin to Belfast. “As I questioned it, he said that he was speaking to someone on the phone who told him that if they let us on the plane and if we arrived in Dublin we would be stopped at passport control and the airline would be fined between £500 and £1000 for allowing me on the plane without a valid passport.” Christina shared that the staff member suggested their only option was to fork out for a new direct flight to Belfast, setting them back a hefty €580 (£554). In a right pickle, Christina had no choice but to ask her mum for help covering the flight costs. As they were sorting things out, her mum checked the official government website and stumbled upon a surprising revelation. “We had to borrow the money from my mum for the flights and while I was on the phone to her she looked up the Government website which stated that you did not need a passport or visa to travel between the UK and Ireland. “She sent me a screenshot of this which I showed to the man and he said he would look into it then he walked away.” Determined to get to the bottom of the kerfuffle, Christina rang up the British embassy in Dublin who pointed her towards their Irish counterparts in London. She recounted: “I decided to ring the British embassy in Dublin who directed me to call the Irish embassy in London and the woman on the phone was horrified. “She said that there was no requirement for people to have a passport for travelling between the UK and Ireland and that there was also no need for a visa.” However, she was gutted to find out that Ryanair’s own regulations were a major factor in her travel nightmare. “However, she explained that Ryanair could have its own policy requiring travellers to have a passport.” A spokesperson for Ryanair defended the airline’s stance, highlighting their policy and the customers’ agreement to it. “In accordance with Ryanair’s TandC’s, which these passengers agreed to at the time of booking, these passengers failed to check-in online before arriving at London Stansted Airport (5 June). “Therefore, these passengers were correctly asked to pay the required airport check-in fee (£55 per passenger), however refused to do so, and became aggressive towards the agents at the check in desk at London Stansted Airport.” For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters .