Originally Posted by
Steve M
At first, this surprised me. I would have expected that the UA computer would be programmed to catch an expired passport when it was scanned at check-in. Then, I realized the error in my logic: when I travel internationally on UA, they don't scan my passport at the airport, as I already have it in my profile. The visual checking at the gate is to make sure that the passport matches the ticket, and that my face matches the passport. I'd be surprised if they ever check the expiration date at this point, although they have an obligation to the destination country (but not the passenger) to ensure that the traveler has a valid document. This must be a very rare situation, or they'd have better controls to guard against it.
It doesn’t surprise me at all. It is even less surprising when someone has/had (at the time or until relatively recently) two passports with some overlapping validity periods and uses DS-82 applications more than average. [Secondary US passports are done against DS-82 forms.]
If the passport loaded in the PNR — whether loaded from a stored passport file in a FFP account or otherwise — is with an expired passport date in the PNR, the PNR would probably reject without a boarding pass getting issued for a US departure to foreign lands. But when doing online check-in to PYOBP or to get a mobile phone boarding pass in the US, it’s possible to use a recently expired passport to clear the TSA TDC but then usually the TSA will note the expiration date; however many put away the passport and instead use a hard card ID or maybe CLEAR to pass TSA TDC and get airside even as the check-in itself would have been done against a stored passport that hadn’t shown an expired date and appeared valid for the trip at the time of remote check-in. At the gate often it could be just a quick look at passport page rather than a machine scan of the passport, and that’s how people do get by the airline even when they shouldn’t.
My bet is that whatever passport expiration date was loaded in the PNR for US-AMS wasn’t an already expired date at the time of check-in. It may have even had the passport number and expiration date for a valid passport in the US which the State Department only was to electronically cancel after the FTer was noted in Europe in need of an emergency replacement while unable to physically hand in any currently valid passport prior to being given a 1 year or less validity one to use in the interim.
Ending up listed in the Interpol database for a lost/stolen passport can lead to some hassles at times even if the electronically or physically cancelled passport is not part of the journey. Could be a bit of a problem at times even for those who merely share a name with the person for a listed LSTD.