Passport numbers are written on your travel documents, and are unique to each individual person – meaning they are made up of a long string of digits.
However, it is often wondered whether these unique numbers change when you renew your passport, or stay with you throughout your life.
The UK government website provides clear guidelines on your British passport, including what happens when you renew it.
The site says: “Your new passport won’t have the same number as your old one”.
This has implications for the time leading up to your holiday, once you have booked it.
Therefore, the website provides some advice: “Don’t book travel until you have a valid passport – doing so is at your own risk.”
If you have booked with your old passport number, it won’t be the same when you fly.
Make sure you don’t add your passport number to your booking until you have renewed it, if your passport expires at your time of travel.
If you need to renew your passport before you fly, make sure you do it in good time too.
This is because it usually takes three weeks to get your passport with standard procedure, according to the government website.
For urgent passport services, like the premium same day one, you will have to book an appointment at your Passport Customer Service Centre.
Alternatively, there is a fast track (1 week) service where you apply online and have to arrange to be at home to sign for your passport.
It was recently revealed some stolen passports are being sold illegally on Craigslist for huge sums.
The Belfast Craigslist website listed one Irish passport being sold by a user for £1,000.
The passport had an expiry date of November 2020, and was said to be a “male Irish” travel document.
The sale of passports is prohibited under the site’s regulations, which forbid selling “ID cards [and] government documents”.
