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During my holidays in Alicante (Spain), my wallet was stolen together with my id. I left my passport home, because I live in another Schengen country. Will Ryanair let me enter the plane after seeing police report and/or the copy of original id/passport? I know that I could visit my national embassy in Spain and ask for a temporary passport, but it's located in Barcelona and my flight is tomorrow!

This question and a self-answer are based on real events and and are written in hope to be useful. At this very moment I'm not in Spain any more, but home. Don't worry about me!

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    @jcaron There is no regulative requirement that airlines check ids for flights within the Schengen area. If airlines still check ids (and Ryanair do so), it only to protect the airline's interests, e.g. to prevent that a ticket is used by anyone else but the person for which is was booked.
    – Tor-Einar Jarnbjo
    Feb 25, 2016 at 9:53
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    @Tor-Einar Jarnbjo That's wrong, it depends on the country. You are not going to be able to board any non-domestic flight (Schengen or not) in Italy without showing an id at the gate. It's not an airline's decision, it's a rule of the country. I fly to / from Italy all the time since several years with at least 6 different airlines and I never noticed any exception. They also always say that on the loudspeakers and they mention national regulations. cubuspl42, by all means just ask Ryanair.
    – SantiBailors
    Feb 25, 2016 at 13:35
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    @PeterTaylor A British consulate would not help me, but you flatter me and my English level.
    – cubuspl42
    Feb 25, 2016 at 21:15
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    Sorry to hear that your id was stolen. Do you still have your ego and superego?
    – user5017
    Feb 28, 2016 at 0:23
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    @BenCrowell Ba dum tss :)
    – cubuspl42
    Feb 28, 2016 at 0:25

9 Answers 9

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In theory, it's against Ryanair policy to let anyone enter the plane without a valid identifying document.

In practice, you have to try! Do not call their telephone infoline or anything like that, because they will tell you it's not possible. Be sure to contact Ryanair at the airport as early as possible during your flight day. Take the police report with you. If you have some identifying document left at home and it's possible for a family member or a friend to send you a scan of it - it will help, too. Good luck!

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    Considering you're self answering, is this what you tried and it worked? Or is your flight really tomorrow or what's the story here?
    – David Mulder
    Feb 24, 2016 at 18:49
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    That's what we tried and it worked, and it was one day to the flight when the id was stolen. To be honest, it wasn't my own id stolen, but my close family member's, but we were together and it was our problem as a family. I didn't want to go into technical details, just let others know that reality is different than Ryanair's official policy and it is not a good idea go give up and travel half a country in order to visit your embassy.
    – cubuspl42
    Feb 24, 2016 at 20:43
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    @cubuspl42 +1 but could you edit your answer to incorporate the info from your last comment, that is indeed not quite clear.
    – mts
    Feb 24, 2016 at 21:02
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    @cubuspl42 While we appreciate the self-answer, I'd suggest making it more clear that you're answering from experience and going into more detail about what you did and how it played out. I'd also advise cutting out the fake sense of urgency you added in the question and adding your disclaimer to that instead of the answer.
    – Lilienthal
    Feb 26, 2016 at 13:05
  • Are you an EU citizen? Their policies might be a lot less lenient towards non-EU citizens.
    – JonathanReez ♦
    Feb 28, 2016 at 19:40
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I'm not sure it is relevant (and the case is closed anyways) but some countries (checked for UK, Poland and Germany) allow you to get a temporary passport not only from an embassy, but also from a consulate, which are usually located in other major cities besides the capital.

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    Actually, that's precisely what consulates are for. Embassies usually (but not always) also offer consular services, whereas consulates always do, by definition… (beware however that honorary consulates typically don't do much that's useful to a traveller).
    – Relaxed
    Feb 24, 2016 at 23:16
  • Well, while I googled for this I found the website of the Swedish embassy in Tokyo which states Emergency passports can only be issued at the Embassy - that's what gave me doubts.
    – jaskij
    Feb 24, 2016 at 23:40
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    Actually I've now checked and I must admit that I didn't recall correctly - that's the consulate that is located in Barcelona. The embassy is located in Madrit. And both are far away from Alicante. But yes, when that incident happened we contacted both and it was possible to get a temporary passport in both. But it wasn't necessary, fortunately.
    – cubuspl42
    Feb 24, 2016 at 23:51
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    Technically, it's indeed always the consulate that deals with this (the embassy deals with nation-to-nation relations (hence the reason they're always in the capital), while the consulate deals with relations with people: issue passports, register births, issue visas, etc. (hence the reason there may be more consulates to be closer to the people to serve). There is nearly always a consulate in the same city as an embassy, and in most cases the consulate is in the same building as the embassy. Some countries may not make a difference between the two.
    – jcaron
    Feb 25, 2016 at 0:02
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    @jcaron To back up your comment, Australia and Japan have their Embassies performing the same roles as their Consulates in most cases.
    – The Wandering Coder
    Feb 26, 2016 at 0:48
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From my experience, it entirely depends on the flight personnel. They can do a lot of things when they feel like it. So if you have the police report (which you apparently got), even a copy of your ID and maybe some other ID document (drivers license?) it should be fine.

And like the others mentioned, you can get a temporary passport at a consulate:

http://www.alicanteturismo.com/konsulate-alicante/?lang=en

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    In fact always go to the police immediately if someone steals your ID. My daughter did this and it saved her, when a few months later the thief used her ID when caught fare-dodging. My daughter got a nasty letter. She replied with a copy of the police report.
    – RedSonja
    Feb 25, 2016 at 8:39
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Had the problem with Ryanair, on a back flight from Germany to Slovakia noticed at the airport that the passport stayed at home. Since it was timely not possible to go back, after talking with them the boarding proceeded with just a library card that had a photo on it (and a name).

Talking to them and explaining will greatly increase your chance but it depends on your attitude, their goodwill, mood and a bit of luck in the end.

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    This makes perfect sense. Within the Schengen area, passport or identity card is generally not required by the authorities, except perhaps temporarily under tightened security conditions. However, post-9/11 the airlines made all tickets non-transferrable for economic reasons. Almost any kind of photo id or even bank card is enough to enforce this. (And for families traveling together, as in the OP's case, not waiving the lack of a single id would be stupid for the airlines.)
    – user24594
    Feb 25, 2016 at 11:17
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Even within Schengen, Airlines can demand passport or national identity.

Everyone, public carrier or Joe Public is held legally responsible for transporting an illegal immigrant across borders, and not just across an 'external border'.

I am Irish, and I have lived the best part of a dozen or more years across the EU and have read debates within various groups about having passport on hand for inspection. I don't have the URL now but I was pointed towards an EU legal document that said there is a legal requirement for the traveler to be able to prove residency.

The methods to prove need to satisfy immigration/law officer are not explicit. Thus even a Q&A with an officer could prove sufficient.

I know of this being tested in Prague, CZ where a few Taiwanese students were jostled by police for not having any ID on them. They called a contact at the Taiwanese embassy (who I was having dinner with) and it was sorted out over the phone. I have also been checked on a CZ/DE train without my passport. I was able to provide my UK based license, plus answer questions about my German home address which satisfied the officer (who politely reminded me to carry my passport or national ID next time to avoid problems).

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I had the same problem in Spain (Madrid), the response is NO, for security issues that´s not possible, i had to go to the embassy of my country to get a new id to be able to take the flight.

apply for local and international flights.

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I left my passport at home in the UK and was travelling with a customer to Germany. I was able to travel on my UK Driving License (which has a photo). I had to pay in cash on arrival at immigration in Germany for temporary identification papers. As I only had a credit card my customer was kind enough to pay for me and I refunded him later.

So you can travel outbound too within the EU without a passport but you do need ID and you may need to see immigration on arrival.

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  • Are you German, though?
    – JoErNanO ♦
    Feb 25, 2016 at 10:23
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    I don't see how this is relevant to the question, which was about how to travel without any ID.
    – Joe
    Feb 25, 2016 at 15:55
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    And how is "As I only had a credit card my customer was kind enough to pay for me and I refunded him later." relevant for this answer?
    – idmean
    Feb 27, 2016 at 16:07
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You can board a Ryan air flight with any form of photo id. I've used my company id card just because I dislike showing people my official id if they have no right to see it.

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I'd say with any other airline maybe but RyanAir? No chance. SO brought her passport for id except it had literally just expired. To go to Ireland from UK you do NOT need a passport. RyanAir is an Irish company, they alone insist on these rules - nothing to do with security, just profit. She had other photo id but they said no current passport no fly. She had to get another RyanAir flight. They monopolise the routes. I have to use them still. Nasty, cynical company.

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    Please avoid insider nicknames. Not everybody can appreciate your irony. Submitting this to the LQP queue...
    – Gayot Fow
    Feb 28, 2016 at 15:51

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