An elderly Bristol grandmother was booted off a Ryanair flight and forced to catch another plane on her own after staff refused to accept her ID.

Grace Dunsmore, 85, who lives in Knowle, was told in the departure lounge of Bristol International Airport that she would not be allowed on a flight to Belfast with her daughter and son-in-law.

Mrs Dunsmore, who has never had a passport and does not have a driving licence, showed an EU Citizen’s ID card to Ryanair staff only to be told it was not a valid form of identification.

The family were told that rival airline easyJet would accept the ID and advised Mrs Dunsmore to take a later flight with them.

Mrs Dunsmore’s daughter Janet Harding, 58, a customer adviser for Nationwide, said: “It was so upsetting, she was crying and shaking.

“She’s going blind in one eye and it was a big step for her to go on this trip. This was supposed to be a once-in-a- lifetime visit to see her sister, grandchildren and the great grand-daughter she had never seen.

“I don’t think she had been before because she was worried about travelling alone.”

The family had booked the tickets well in advance and paid about £139 for the three of them to fly to Belfast City Airport with priority boarding. Mrs Harding, who is married to Ken, said she had double checked whether the citizen’s card would be accepted by the airline.

She said: “I’m sure about six years ago mum used the card to fly to Ireland. I rang the EU citizens’ bureau and they said it could be used to fly anywhere in the UK with any airline.

“I wanted to double check so I tried Ryanair but couldn’t get through. I went through all the paperwork and I couldn’t find anything that said it wouldn’t be accepted.”

The family used the airline’s online check-in facility to print off boarding tickets and Mrs Harding said her mind was put at rest because the serial number on the ID card was accepted by the website. They then checked in baggage, travelled through security and into the departure lounge to await their flight on June 5.

It was only as they were about to board that staff told them the card had not been accepted.

Mrs Harding said: “Why couldn’t they have said something before? They could have said at the time we checked in online, it shouldn’t have accepted the serial number. To leave it to the very last minute meant we couldn’t do anything about it. We had no choice but to put mum on another flight.”

The family were forced to cough up another £138 to get Mrs Dunsmore on an easyJet flight to Belfast about an hour later and then a further £48 to get her on a flight home.

Mrs Harding said: “The staff were quite snotty and we were pleading with them to let her on the flight, they kept asking if she had a driving licence, but she’s 85.

“I don’t understand what additional information that would have given them – her photo and date of birth are on the ID card.

“We had paid for priority boarding and made all the right checks before we travelled and as it happened we were the last on the flight and we were one down. The other thing is they let her luggage stay in the hold – they never asked about that.

“My auntie had to pick us up at Belfast City and then we had to drive to the international airport to pick up Mum and we were so worried about her.

“She kept saying we should go without her and she was crying. In the end her flight was delayed and she didn’t get in until 10.45pm.”

The family said the ordeal cast a shadow over their holiday.

“She said she was OK but at the back of her mind she was probably worrying about coming back on her own. It wasn’t how we had planned it,” Mrs Harding said.

Ryanair spokeswoman Maria Macken said , spokeswoman for Ryanair, the family would not be eligible for compensation as the policy on identification was explained on the company’s website.

She said: “It is very regrettable that this happened. At the time of booking via the web or via our call centres, customers are advised that a valid travel document is required for travel.”

These forms of identification include a valid passport or a national identity card issued by most EU countries but not the UK.

She said that bookings made before May 21, on domestic routes, would accept a photo driving licence, but customers must use the airport check-in desks.

The spokeswoman addedShe said: “We have not accepted any other forms of ID on our domestic routes for nearly 10 years. This is an unusual case as Ryanair mentions photo ID requirements throughout the online booking process to avoid this type of situation.

“Customers are also sent an itinerary which remind customer of our photo id requirements.

“At the time of the web check, the customer is again referred to the acceptable type of travel document. The UK and Ireland are not listed as countries which issue these cards.

“The system has a limitation – it relies on the customer inputting the information correctly once they have followed our guidelines.”