My passport went through the wash once. The page with the bar code in the back had come partially detached from the back cover. Other than that there wasn't much damage. A few loose threads on the cover, but that was it. Later that year I was flying from Phoenix to Vancouver. The gate agent was asking people to come show their passports before the boarding process was to begin. She looked at mine and said that they weren't going to be able read it and was threatening not to let me on the flight. She talked to a supervisor who basically said the same thing. I was kind of freaking out since my husband and I were going on vacation and we had flown from New York. When boarding began I had no problem getting on the plane. I don't know why they changed their minds about letting me board, but I was relieved. In Vancouver there was no problem with my passport since the page with my picture was intact and the machine had no trouble with it.

I did another trip in 2017 through Phoenix to Vancouver and had no problems from the gate agent. In 2018 I was returning from a European trip through three countries, it wasn't until leaving Norway (the last of the three countries) when the immigration officer had trouble with my passport and said I really needed to replace it. I finally broke down and got a new one before heading to Iceland later that same year. I guess it's a matter of what is considered damage, and what the person looking at it decides. No more trips through the wash for my passport!