21-Year-Old Man Denied Flying EasyJet Because of Name Incorrectly Added to Blacklist

Englishman was given less than a day’s notice 

Kieran Harris, a 21-year-old man from Cheshire, in North West England was scheduled to fly to Alicante in Spain with the low-cost carrier easyJet on May 25 but was banned from boarding “due to disruptive behavior.” He was told that he had received a “10-year no-fly sanction” with the airline, lasting until March 15, 2031. 

Aggressive and Abusive?

Harris claims that the company had actually somehow confused him with another man with the same name and birthday, who was given 12 weeks in prison after “behaving aggressively and abusively” while drinking on a flight in 2021. He told the press his friend received an email at 6 pm the night before the flight saying that he was banned. Harris was no longer booked and did not have a seat. He said that he had experienced this before and that it was due to someone who shared his name and date of birth.

Incredibly Stressful

The airline resolved the issue by requesting a picture of his passport to confirm his identity. Yet, he was only left with a few hours to make his flight. Harris said the entire experience was “incredibly stressful” and admitted he is going to be “less likely to travel “with easyJet in the future.”  

He stated that the trip had been booked one month in advance, adding that he had even verified the flight details online more than one week previous, and thus the airline had a lot of time to call him. Harris noted: “I was gutted because I’d booked a day off work” for the flight and was not even able to go to work that day because he had to spend the entire time calling the company to resolve the issue.

According to The Independent, an easyJet spokesperson said that they were sorry that Harris was erroneously told that “he couldn’t fly with” them. The spokesperson explained that easyJet made this decision “in good faith” because Harris had the same date of birth, and the same name and was also traveling “from the same UK region as a passenger they’d previously banned for a serious offense onboard.”

The company spokesperson said that they corrected the problem as soon as Harris reached them. The airline representative concluded that even though Harris “flew as originally planned” they understood “the frustration” the confusion created and that someone from easyJet will keep in contact with Harris and will offer him “a gesture of goodwill in light of” the unfortunate incident.

More Problems

Harris has had other problems due to the name share. Sheena, Harris’s mother, told the Mirror that “last May, in the early hours of the morning,” the Metropolitan Police Service came to their home. She said: “They burst into the house, burst into his bedroom, and got him to come downstairs.” 

She recalled: “Then their attitude started to shift, and it became quite obvious that they’d seen him”, took stock of his appearance “and started to back off…” I’m starting to think that we need to seek legal advice. If this incorrect information is shared by easyJet, that could cause some quite serious issues.”