Lost Passport

[Frank39]

I thought that this was a classic.
My nephew's wife, whose family live not far from Glasgow, uses her passport as photo I.D. when flying up there and back from either Stansted or Gatwick.
She came back from Glasgow two weeks ago, flying into Stansted, and is scheduled to fly up again from Stansted for a funeral this Thursday, then, on return, to fly from Gatwick to Marbella for her sister's bachelorette party.
Panic set in when after turning their house upside down on Monday, she couldn't find her passport, she emptied every bag she has, and believe me, just like every 32 y.o. woman, she has dozens.
Finally, conceding that it was lost, she contacted the Passport Office, they said one week minimum for replacing a lost one.
Flying to Marbella this Friday, that was a body blow, no Spain trip.
As a last throw of the dice, my nephew called Easyjet at Stansted, they transferred him to another office, who said yes, they had it, deep joy.
She drove to the office, near Stansted, where they told her that not only would she have to pay a £10 'holding fee', they only hold them for 3 weeks, then they are destroyed.
She said, but as a regular Easyjet flyer, always booking on-line, you have my name, address, mobile and land numbers, email etc. in your database, why, when seeing my name in the passport, did you not enter the name in your computer, bring all that up, and get in touch with me, or inform the Passport Office?
They said that that was not their standard operating procedure.
I guess that they mean, you made the mistake in leaving your passport on our plane, tough shit.
I'd interpret that as, you made the mistake booking with Easyjet, tough shit.
If I ever made that same mistake, and an airline contacted me to apprise me that they had my passport, just turn up with photo I.D., (driver's licence etc.) and collect it, I'd praise that airline to the skies, and endeavour to use it over all others in the future.

[Guest]

It's good she's got it back, but like you said, why couldn't they just call her & let her know they'd found it. Black mark on them & I'm not sure it's legal to destroy a passport, surely they should hand it in at a police station?

[traveller]

It's good she's got it back, but like you said, why couldn't they just call her & let her know they'd found it. Black mark on them & I'm not sure it's legal to destroy a passport, surely they should hand it in at a police station?

While I have absolutely no reason whatsoever to doubt the OP, this all sounds very disturbing to me, and I have to admit that it crossed my mind that someone was not happy with something Easy Jet had done, and decided to put this out there as some form of revenge.
I have zero evidence for this, so I may be maligning the OPs niece/nephew for no good reason, but after googling procedures when finding a third party's passport, most answers hammered the fact that a passport is NOT an individual's property, it is a legal document owned by the state.
A Canadian site stressed that any found passport, including one that had been reported lost or stolen, but then found by the holder, must be returned to what they quaintly termed the Passport Program.
In the light of this, you would think that some kind of formal arrangement would exist between airlines in the U.K., and Her Majesty's Passport Office for liaising about found U.K. passports, and not some ad hoc shred 'em and incinerate 'em policy.