Passport refusing to scan
 

I'm not a very frequent flyer (1-2 internationals a year, 1-2 domestic a year). Last time I flew in from Europe, my passport would not scan at customs in America (I'm a citizen with a US passport if that means anything). They tried several machines and even the border agent couldn't do it. My wife was with me and her passport had no problem. Eventually they let me through anyway but is this something I need to be concerned about with future travel? Do I need to look into replacing my passport?

How old is the passport? Has it ever been damaged?

AFAIK any currently valid passport should have the scannable technology, but YMMV if it was issued for a rush emergency trip or overseas at a USA consulate.

It is only 3-4 years old now. It was a normal passport that I've scanned on numerous trips in the past but it seems to have been damaged somehow. I've never spilled anything on it or caused any damage that I can notice. Will I ever be denied entry into a country because I'm unable to scan my passport?

Thanks

Were you trying to use the Global Entry kiosks or the Automated Passport Control kiosks?

When you say would not scan, do you mean that the machine readable portion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine-readable_passport) could not be read/scanned, or that the chip in the passport (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biometric_passport) could not be read?

REFUSED you say in the title. Was it openly protesting? Crossing its arms like a child? :D:D:D

Did you see that machine work for someone with the same type of passport?

They just type in the (supposedly) machine-readable code instead. If the code used to work, your passport should obviously still be in the system.

My last Danish passport did not scan either, and they always tried like 5 times before (the smart ones!) finding the old, cancelled H1B visa and scanned the code on there instead (the rest sighed mightely and started typing).

I would be irritated (like I have been for my chip not working in the UK, but with the new T2 at LHR this seems to be solved), but not worried.

DanishFlyer