A Lakewood resident endured a frustrating and costly travel ordeal after discovering shortly before departure that he needed a UK electronic travel authorization before boarding a flight to England.

According to the traveler, who shared the ordeal with TLS, he was unaware of the requirement until shortly before leaving for the airport. In a rush to complete the application, he enlisted someone to assist him with the registration process. However, the official website repeatedly malfunctioned, with the application process reportedly glitching for more than an hour before it was finally submitted.

Although approvals are often returned quickly, no response was received. Hoping the authorization would be approved by the time he arrived at the airport, the traveler proceeded to the terminal with his family. When they reached the airline check-in counter, the authorization still had not been approved, and airline personnel informed him that he could not board the flight.

The resident was forced to purchase a new ticket for the following morning. Yet even by then, the authorization had still not been issued, so he could not fly. An attempt to obtain approval through an expedited processing service also failed to produce results in time.

The traveler later learned that he was not alone. According to information he received, the authorization system had been experiencing technical difficulties for approximately two days, leaving numerous applicants waiting for approvals. Several dozen travelers were affected by the outage and missed scheduled flights while awaiting authorization decisions.

Faced with the prospect of missing a family wedding overseas, the traveler’s agent devised an unconventional workaround. The agent booked him on a flight to another country that included a stopover in the United Kingdom. While the traveler was en route, the onward segment of the itinerary was canceled.

Upon arrival in the UK, another complication arose when his luggage continued through the system because of the canceled portion of the trip and was placed into storage. The traveler later explained the situation to airport personnel, telling them he had changed his plans and would not be continuing to the final destination. After reviewing the circumstances, airport staff released his luggage.

After nearly 28 hours of delays, uncertainty, and multiple rebookings, the resident finally reached his destination. While he ultimately made it to the wedding, he arrived approximately five hours after the Chasunah had already begun.