Avoid this passport mishap – unless you want to spend $4800

An Australian traveller became stranded in Rome because of a mistake while using an emergency passport. Photo / 123rf
An emergency passport may get you out of one sticky situation and land you in another.
When seasoned traveller and renovation expert Steph (@stephadiy) lost her passport during her trip to Italy, she didn’t think it could get any worse.
However, the Australian tourist didn’t realise she would face a series of stressful incidents on her quest to return to Melbourne.
Steph shared in her now-viral TikTok video how her stressful journey started when her passport was stolen on a recent trip to Italy.
After reporting the incident, Steph said the Australian embassy in Rome advised her not to board any flights without a passport, even within Schengen states (an area comprising 29 European countries that have abolished border controls at their mutual borders).
The Aussie traveller followed the advice and hopped on a ferry from the island of Sardinia to Rome, where the embassy managed to get her an emergency passport within 48 hours.
Despite the immediate action of the embassy, Steph still missed her original flight back to Melbourne.
Would you have made this mistake too or am I a bit stupid?! #travel #mistake #stolenpassport #tryingtogethome #diy #fail
To cut costs, she looked for the cheapest flights back home on online booking sites and found an A$1700 ($1840) flight with two stopovers.
“Once I got the passport in hand, I went on to eDreams and Booking.com and tried to find the cheapest flight home. And I found one for $1700 that had two stops,” she shared.
However, this is where her “silly mistake” would eventually cost her triple the original amount of her flight.
“Unfortunately, I didn’t realise that one of the stops was considered the destination, and that meant you’ll get your luggage and check in again.”
Steph shared that she knew the flight she booked had two stopovers, and that she had to pick up her luggage at the first stop.
“When I read that you have to pick up your luggage, I wasn’t too worried about that and thought ‘I don’t mind, it’s going to save me $600. I might as well get the extra stop and couple of extra hours of flying time’,″ the Aussie traveller recalled.
But she didn’t consider that picking up luggage meant she is officially entering the country. In certain countries, this is not permitted if with an emergency passport.
“So in an emergency passport that I have right now, which I had to get replaced, you’re not allowed to enter a lot of countries,” she said.
Because of this, she was not allowed to board the flight and had to book another flight to Melbourne.
“That resulted in the $1700 being wasted and I had to book another flight,” she shared.
Steph ended the video with some advice for viewers, saying, “If you ever end up on an emergency passport and you’re booking a flight home, make sure it’s with the one airline and the stop is definitely a transit, and at no point do you have to get your luggage.”
Many seasoned travellers in the comments section of her video thanked the Australian traveller for sharing her experience, stating that it isn’t common knowledge.
One user wrote, “That’s not an obvious mistake at all, I’m a very seasoned traveller and would have done the same thing without realising this could occur, thanks for pointing it out.”
Thankfully, Steph had travel insurance and is currently waiting to find out if it can cover some of the expenses.