Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me, Simon Calder.

It's Thursday the 1st of August.

Yes, the start of the peak month for travel, at least in the Northern Hemisphere.

And I most firmly am in the Northern Hemisphere.

I'm on the balcony of the Obeige Sir Mayor, a wonderful 19th century boarding house.

Now, a comfortable hotel overlooking the St. Lawrence River.

And if you're not familiar with the St Lawrence it is a

mighty waterway through the morning mist I can't quite make out the far side it's a good

10 miles or so away and as you might hear there'sirds cackling as they start the day.

I'm here in Canada with a British passport.

And I'm glad to say that if you are one of the 15 million people who have, I estimate,

a passport valid for more than 10 years, well, the good news is that you can use that

passport up to and including the expiry date here in Canada in many other places such as the

US, Australia and Mexico. But until this morning, British Airways said that was wrong.

They claimed, incorrectly, to travel on an international flight, your passport must have been issued less than 10 years before the day you enter a country.

That is frankly absurd.

I was alerted to the fake news online by a reader or listener who said,

I'm really cheesed off. I saw this information online and because I was going to the US,

I had to get an emergency passport renewal appointment take a day off work pay extra

money and since then I've heard that it was incorrect and that you can perfectly happily go

into the US and many other countries with a passport issue more than 10 years ago so I got

on to British Airways immediately and said,

...