I have now changed my Easyjet flights to 23 July it was a free change because they had cancelled the original one but I could do with flying out sooner, I have another Ryanair flight booked for Tuesday but there is no way the passport will be here to take that, it does have a free change (pay the fare difference) option but not sure when it might be possible to change it. I’ll probably just change it to an August date and wait on the passport and go on 23 July or if it shows up earlier then I may book another flight earlier. I go to this destination a lot for business so it’s not a big problem moving flights.
I’m still in the same situation on the passport front, it’s still not showing the documents have been received and I know they signed for them on 18th July.
Yesterday I rang the passport office again and requested a callback, it was late around 4pm and they have not rung back yet. I did send another message through the online portal and received a message back from a Liverpool email address saying they can’t give updates or timescales, panic set in thinking that they’ve forwarded my renewal to the Liverpool office who are taking by far the longest to process applications (my old passport was originally issued there), I queried it and they confirmed Durham were handling the renewal but all messaging and updates come from Liverpool.
I’m no further along to receiving it, very frustrating especially when you see others applying, sending documents and receiving their passports back after I started my application. There doesn’t appear much control in the post room at Durham. It’s a bit of a lottery some fly through in 2 weeks others are taking much longer with no explanation. The only consistent appear to be once they register on the tracking that they have received the old passport then it seems more often than not it’s quite quick from that point, unless there are further complications with photos etc.
