Best man manages to renew passport 'in under 12 hours' after being turned away from stag party flight

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

A best man who was denied boarding for a flight to Poland for his best friend's stag do because his passport was three days out of date managed to renew it in less than 12 hours and make it to the party James Crane, 35, had meticulously planned his best mate's stag do in Krakow, which included a "fancy" steak dinner, bar crawl, shooting range, vodka tasting, VIP night club, and boat party.

However, he was informed at Stansted Airport on June 1 that he couldn't board the plane due to his expired ID. Unaware of the changes in passport rules since Brexit, James, also known as Crano, decided not to give up and miss his best friend's bachelor party.

The next morning, he showed up at the passport office in Peterborough without an appointment, determined to argue his case. He was issued a new passport the same day after convincing security to let him in despite not having booked an appointment for that day and only having a passport photo in his pocket. "Because we left the EU and Brexit, the new rule is your passport can't be more than 10 years old," James explained. "I renewed my old passport early and it was issued on May 28, 2013, so if you work it out, my passport was 10 years old and three days." Renewing a UK passport usually takes around 10 weeks according to the Government's website or people can pay £193.50 for the Online Premium Service, but still have to book an appointment for, at the earliest, "two days from when you apply." James, from Colchester, who said he was "in it to win it," immediately booked a last-minute flight to Krakow for £480 and went straight to the nightclub to surprise his best friend Ben French, 35, who did not think he was going to make it. "I keep getting messages saying how did you do it?" he