No Date of Birth! thats a first for me………..

Well…….this was a first for me!   For over 20 years in the travel business i’ve never heard of this before.

I booked a Chinese family recently on a Celebrity cruise around the Med. 2 of the family live in the UK and their parents were flying in from China for a few weeks.  Whilst here they all decided to book a cruise………

After searching options they finally decided on a fly cruise out of Rome for 11 nights.  That was the easy part.

Whilst going through the mandatory names and dates of birth I was informed that my clients elderly mother doesn’t have a date of birth.  She was born in an area of China back in the 30’s where apparently the majority don’t know their dates of birth.  The son sent me a copy of her passport and it just shows as XX XXX XX.  It’s even a guess that she was born in the 1930’s!

This was the start of a very lengthy process with Celebrity cruises.  Obviously I had to call as I’d never come across this before, neither had the staff I spoke to at Celebrity.  I was informed the query would have to go to head office in Miami and that they would have the final say on whether she could travel.  Hard to believe with such a big organisation but I was informed that only one man could authorise this, which I accepted, only to be told he was on annual leave!

As it happens I went off on holiday for 5 days after making the booking only to be told on my return Celebrity still hadn’t confirmed whether or not my client could travel on this passport!

Finally after a few more days I got the call saying yes she could travel and that I had to enter the date of birth as 01 JAN 1930.  Phew!!   Why did it take so long, it seemed no-one wanted to take responsibility……….is this because it’s an American cruiseline and they’re being over cautious?   I’m sure if it had been P&O, Cunard or Princess who have a head office in Southampton they would’ve given me an answer almost immediately. I really felt like I was banging my head against a brick wall!!

I wonder if this lady celebrates her birthday, if so what date?   Does she even know how old she is?  I find it really interesting and I’m sure I won’t get this again!

What do you think?  Do you have anything ‘quirky’ on your passports?

I’m sure you ladies would appreciate not having a DOB on your passport………….you could be 21 for many many years.

Let me know your thoughts, call me on 0800 408 6107 or email [email protected].