Woman angry after losing £5,000 cruise due to misplaced passport

Janice Humphries and her husband, from Daventry, had been saving up for a number of years to go on a cruise with their friends in the Adriatic Sea.

The husband and wife had booked the trip costing £5,000 back in January.

On June 7, with less than a week to go before her holiday, Janice went to the Tesco Travel Money bureau in Daventry to purchase euros.

The branch had asked her to provide proof of identity in order to exchange the currency.

When she returned home, the 74-year-old woman discovered that her passport was missing.

The Tesco bureau had already closed when she returned to New Street.

Janice said: “I felt dreadful. My husband was so looking forward to the trip, and he just thought I'd lost it and I was being careless. And so did I. To be honest, it was just a horrible feeling.”

Tesco Travel Money is provided by Travelex International Limited, a foreign exchange company.

Janice called Travelex twice on June 10, with a friend's assistance, to confirm if her passport was at their bureau. The local bureau would only be open again on June 12, the day before her holiday.

She said: “They were very dismissive.”

Janice claims that at the time, the company was unable to verify if she had left her passport at the Tesco bureau.

If a passport has been lost, the person must cancel it before applying for a replacement. On average, it takes around three weeks to replace a lost passport.

Three days prior to her holiday, on June 10, Janice cancelled both her vacation and her passport. Because of his dementia diagnosis, her husband was unable to travel without Janice.

“I didn't have any other option at the time.

“It was too late to transfer to another cruise or any other excursions,” said Janice.

The £5,000 holiday she and her husband lost was not reimbursed to her.

Janice's passport was found to be in the Tesco Travel Money bureau in Daventry. According to her, a Travelex employee informed her of this 10 days later and said that they were unable to get in touch with her sooner.

A Travelex staff member stored the passport in a safe within the bureau.

“I found that really not conducive to good customer relations or service at all,” said Janice.

Janice contacted Travelex shortly after to request a reimbursement for the lost holiday funds.

According to her, Travelex said they would not accept responsibility for the incident, but they may provide Janice with £180 in compensation if she accepted it within 14 days of receiving the email in September.

“It is a lot of money to us. It's not money we would spend normally on anything.

“I was so angry. I couldn't believe the audacity,” said Janice.

Janice rejected Travelex’s offer.

A Travelex spokesperson said: “ We were sorry to learn about Mrs Humphries' experience. Once we were aware Mrs Humphries had left her passport at the bureaux, we tried to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, as we were not left any contact details, we were unable to return Mrs Humphries' passport as quickly as we usually could. We have however, subsequently offered Mrs Humphries a gesture of goodwill.”