‘Help': Aussie fashion CEO Jane Lu in turmoil over passport detail

News.com.au

4 days ago

Aussie fashion boss Jane Lu has issued a warning to fellow travellers after a tiny passport detail put her entire Europe trip on the line.
In a four-part series of clips posted to social media, the Showpo CEO looked anxious as she grasped her chest in front of the service desk at Sydney's International Airport.
'I'm here with all my luggage and I cannot get onto my Paris flight,' she begins.
'I'm at the airport and they're telling me that I can't get onto my flight to Paris because my passport has water damage.'
She then pans to a quickly depleting line as the rest of the flight boards while she stands nearby while revealing her work campaign trip may be in real jeopardy.
In the next part of the gripping adventure, the business owner reveals she successfully made it through but was made to sign a waiver.
'I just got through, so she said that I have to sign a waiver to say that if Paris turns me away I'll just have to come back
'So I signed it but I still might get turned back. Hopefully the French are chill
'It's a really long flight to get turned away but I have to try,' she added.
After waiting an entire day for the update – it finally came.
'We've just touched down in Paris and this is the moment of truth,' she says from the cosy business class pods.
'Oh my god, oh my god, it worked!' she declares.
It's a tale as old as time, but not everyone has been so fortunate
Just last year, a tiny mark on one woman's passport kept her from boarding a flight to a much-anticipated holiday in Bali.
Sean Ferres and his partner Brooke were headed to the popular holiday destination when she was stopped because of a 'microscopic coffee stain' on her passport.
'Virgin Australia decided that this microscopic coffee stain on Brooke's passport made it 'unreadable' and denied us boarding our flight to Bali,' they said on social media.
Another woman was left in tears after being turned away from her flight just hours prior to boarding.
Sydney woman Elyse Elmer said that after arriving at the airport ahead of her flight to Bali, she was denied entry due to a small tear in the spine of her passport.
'That is literally … all it took for them to totally refuse entry,' she said of the relatively small tear.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) website states that 'even minor passport damage can stop you from travelling.'
'Damage that might require you to replace your passport includes water damage, unofficial markings on the data page, missing visa pages or tears,' it stated.
As of 1 January 2025, the going rate for an adult passport is $412. If you're after a fast-track passport (5-day processing), you're looking at an extra $104 on top of that. And last but not least, if you need priority (2-day processing), that's an additional $300 on top of your original fee. Affordable!