Cunard Queen Elizabeth passenger refused boarding and refund

David Hornsby, 78, flew 10,700 miles from Southampton to Sydney to go for a 14-day cruise to Singapore on Cunard's Queen Elizabeth on February 11.

But when he arrived at the Overseas Passenger Terminal in Australia, his seven-year-old passport was considered not acceptable for boarding.

He had flown with his wife from the UK using the same documents, walking through manual passport control in Australia and during his changeover in Singapore.

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"We were absolutely staggered," David said.

"We arrived at the cruise terminal, went to check in as usual having already dropped our luggage off and they looked at my passport and then called somebody over, and then took it away.

"My wife was cleared for boarding but they said there was damage on my passport, which there wasn’t."

David Hornsby, who volunteers at a Southampton visitor information stand that helps cruise ship passengers. (Image: David Hornsby) David says that "about a centimetre" of the stitching on the left hand side of the passport had come loose, resulting in one of the photograph pages "lifting up a centimetre".

He and wife had to wait for "several hours" as their luggage was removed from the boat.

They then had to book new flights home from Sydney, costing an additional £700.

"I’m absolutely amazed at Cunard’s attitude, we flew back without the slightest problem," the 78-year-old said.

David has since been appealing to either receive a refund, compensation or a replacement cruise from Cunard, who told the pensioner that they would be issuing no further communication on the topic after emails back and forth.

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He said: "I think I had about five or six different emails and everyone had a different name coming back from it.

Cunard's Queen Elizabeth. (Image: Supplied) "It’s disgusting treatment really. The passport was fully legal."

In his spare time, he volunteers as part of a tourism team that welcomes Cunard and other cruise passengers, giving them visitor information.

Cunard has refunded part of the excursions David booked to travel on throughout the cruise, but the cruise company refused a refund or an alternative sailing.

Passport advice in the UK is that it is considered damaged if you cannot read any of the details, any pages are ripped, cut or missing, there are holes or rips in the cover or if the cover is coming away.

'We appreciate this is not the outcome Mr Hornsby would have wanted' 

A spokesperson for Cunard said: "We were very sorry to learn that Mr and Mrs Hornsby were unable to board Queen Elizabeth in Australia and appreciate how disappointed they would have been.

"Our understanding is that Mr and Mrs Hornsby were refused embarkation to the ship by Immigration officials at the international cruise terminal due to a damaged passport.

"The planned voyage included a port call to Indonesia, where they have strict standards for damaged passports. Unfortunately, the actions of foreign immigration authorities are outside of our control, and any associated costs should be directed to the guests’ travel insurers.

"We appreciate this is not the outcome that Mr and Mrs Hornsby would have wanted, but this set of circumstances is not one Cunard can take responsibility for.”