Originally Posted by
3dot14
That's a fair response. Let me amend me question to how to minimize chance of having to verify documents "with an actual person"?
It's not the doc check itself I object to (well, the double take at boarding is annoying but I get that is hard to avoid) it's the fact once the agent has you at the podium, and has your passport hostage, then go do some thing unrelated and crazy. (tearing off my TN, forcing me to check carry on.)
The SFO flight called about 10 ppl to podium on a plane of maybe 100 ppl. Based on what you suggest, these are the ppl who checked in online, and have no checked bag. So the airline hasn't seen the passport. But I could swear I have gone through the border with the identical situation before, where the only check was at boarding.
If this is true, would reprinting the boarding pass at a kiosk cure this? Joining the checked baggage line just to do a doc check is not an inviting use of time...
Reprinting at kiosk will cure the first passport check for transborder flights with US or Canadian passports (not sure of other nationalities). Passport check before boarding cannot be avoided but as I said earlier that's more cursory and involves matching the name on passport to the ticket. This is based on my experience of 30 roundtrip transborder flights this year.