Sad about having to renew my passport
Jul 12, 2019, 3:16 am
#16
Join Date: Dec 2014
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Personally I like new passports. I find after a few years passport is falling apart so much from too much use that some immigration officers pull me aside for questioning and reprimand me for having a tatty passport. They really should make them better like the old hard cover blue UK ones.
Jul 12, 2019, 5:50 am
#18
Join Date: May 2019
Location: RTW
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Posts: 406
I don't think anyone was implying some deep connection to a piece of paper.... But I also share the OPs sense of connection to a document that has been the thing that allows access to so many countries and new places.
I am not very sentimental about anything... but I enjoy so much what my passport does in a weird way. So cool.
I am not very sentimental about anything... but I enjoy so much what my passport does in a weird way. So cool.
Jul 12, 2019, 5:55 am
#19
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Roswell, GA
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I still have my old fat passport because it holds visa's for the countries I travel too. The back of the passport is full of stickers (mostly from LHR security),
and yes its fun to watch immigration officers look for the visa... but to be kind to them, I have placed a rubber band on the page that has the visa... and on occasion I do get a look from other passengers waiting in line, asking about all the stickers on my passport..
and yes its fun to watch immigration officers look for the visa... but to be kind to them, I have placed a rubber band on the page that has the visa... and on occasion I do get a look from other passengers waiting in line, asking about all the stickers on my passport..
Jul 12, 2019, 6:14 am
#20
Suspended
Join Date: Jun 2013
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I don't think anyone was implying some deep connection to a piece of paper.... But I also share the OPs sense of connection to a document that has been the thing that allows access to so many countries and new places.
I am not very sentimental about anything... but I enjoy so much what my passport does in a weird way. So cool.
I am not very sentimental about anything... but I enjoy so much what my passport does in a weird way. So cool.
Jul 12, 2019, 10:04 am
#21
FlyerTalk Evangelist
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So few countries stamp passports nowadays that this is no longer really a feature. It's mostly the USA and some African and Asian countries.
Jul 12, 2019, 11:02 am
#22
formerly known as Tad's Broiled Steaks
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 6,412
In their minds, if we've already passed through someone at immigration who scanned us into the system, why do we even need the chits? (perhaps so as to remind some folks of when their legal right to stay is up...)
A few other things that amuse me about the chops:
-Scaring US officials with Arabic
-Getting taken into secondary simply asking for a clearer stamp (thanks, Rostov na Donu!)
-Having someone at Beirut Airport mistaking my Lao visa for Hebrew
Jul 12, 2019, 11:03 am
#23
formerly known as Tad's Broiled Steaks
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 6,412
@Beano, that was the workhorse when I lived in China. Hong Kong stopped stamping eventually, but it had so many from Shenzhen (the border city with HK)...
Can't recall how many stamps were in it, but there were 6 or 7 additions.
Can't recall how many stamps were in it, but there were 6 or 7 additions.
Jul 12, 2019, 7:47 pm
#25
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Michigan
Posts: 328
Yep that's part of the reason. No chance to 'replace' my Australia, New Zealand etc stamp. My single US stamp is also unlikely to be replaced.
Jul 13, 2019, 8:17 am
#26
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I wouldn't say I'm emotionally attached to them, but I occasionally enjoy flipping through old passports. My favorite will always be the one from my college years when I first traveled Europe. Early 90's, so you got a stamp at every individual border. My later passports have a much wider array of countries from around the world, plus several full-page work visas, but the one from my backpacking years always brings back the best memories.
Jul 13, 2019, 8:23 am
#27
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I get the OP's comments. I too had to renew my passport early this year. Bottom line it makes you look like a kettle. My now expired passport was full to the last page with stamps from all over the world. When I went to immigration at LHR the agent looked through my completely new empty passport and then looked at me like I was some novice goober traveler. I just smiled back at him LOL
Jul 13, 2019, 8:32 am
#28
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I get the OP's comments. I too had to renew my passport early this year. Bottom line it makes you look like a kettle. My now expired passport was full to the last page with stamps from all over the world. When I went to immigration at LHR the agent looked through my completely new empty passport and then looked at me like I was some novice goober traveler. I just smiled back at him LOL
Look at it this way: once a decade, you reset your favorite videogame and start leveling up all over again.
Jul 21, 2019, 2:21 pm
#29
Join Date: Feb 2000
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My current passport was issued in 2012 so still has a few years before expiration, but even though it was the extra page version to begin with and I subsequently added another set of extra pages just before the US stopped issuing those, I am running very low on clean pages and will probably have to renew my passport sometime in the next few months. I am VERY fond of this one, and will be sorry to have to put it away. (Not to mention how sorry I will be to have to apply for another Russian multiple entry visa only halfway through the life of the one I have...)
Jul 21, 2019, 6:02 pm
#30
Moderator: Travel Buzz
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