Originally Posted by PHX777

I just came back from GCM (Grand Cayman Islands). Travelled on a multi-leg journey. My passport had no empty pages, but several valid spaces for entry/exit stamps. Had no difficulty departing PHX to ATL. The next day, when I checked in again at ATL the Delta CSA thumbed through my passport and gave me an odd look and went to fetch his supervisor. With his supervisor at his side, the man (a very unfriendly, foreign man by the name of Mohammad) told me I cannot travel because I didn't have any blank pages in my passport. I went nuts, started hyperventilating because I had paid for a week at a the Ritz in Grand Cayman which was non-refundable. The Delta Supervisor informed me that she had to deny my boarding becasue GCM would refuse my entry and Delta would be charged $25,000 by the government. Is this true? I find it hard to believe. The insensitive, apathetic Delta Sup. blocked my ticket and nastily told me she had informed the gate not to board me.

With a panic attack ensuing, I tried to calm myself down among the throng of holiday travels. I collected my thoughts, looked at my friend travelling with me and said: "Let's go! We're going through security, we're going to Grand Cayman! I have an idea!" We meandered through the medallion/FC security line, boarded the airtrain and headed to E concourse. I was almost crying and I never cry; I was genuinely scared.

Arriving at E concourse, I hastily dashed for the CRC (now the "Sky Lounge"). Upon entering, I grabbed the strongest drink available and a mug of boiling water. Why the boiling water, you ask!!!? Herein lies my grand idea and providential solution!

My friend and I quickly occupied one of the cozy, private business workstations in the Delta lounge and I pulled out my mini swiss army knife and my passport. I realized that all I needed was one empty page. All that was stopping me from going to GCM was an expired, full page Chilean student visa from college a few years back.

In a most precise and surgical manner, my friend and I opened my passport to the infamous page and placed it face up, with its underside resting taughtly about the coffee mug. With minutes until the final boarding call, we noticed the hot steam immediately permeating the visa page and the Chilean visa began to just peal right off. I was gasping with relief with each gentle pull as the fresh, unscathed page underneath began to reveal itself. The procedure felt as arduous as neurosurgery.

We polished off the rest of our drinks and raced to the gate. As the GA scanned my BP, an audible warning beep was emitted, tantamount to the exit seating assignment warning. The GA went to her station and paged a supervisor, a RedCoat, who was on scene within minutes. The Sup could not understand why they would deny me boarding for passport issues. She proceeded to call a DHS Customs agent who, with gun and all, came and examined my passport and concluded that there was nothing wrong and I was good to go. The supervisor extended her apologies to me and documented the incident for investigation of this Mohammed character and the landside supervisor at check-in. She was embarrassed and bumped me up to FC for the 3 hour flight to GCM.

All in all, it was by far the worst travel nightmare I've ever experienced. In the end, if you need an extra page in your passport, NEVER simply pull the visa out because it will rip the page and render your passport patently mutilated. Use steam and it comes off like "butter!"

Cheers,
Jordan