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Lots of lessons to be learned from this entire thread. Like this one. What sane, rational, educated person would EVER fly to a foreign country (prepaid vacation or not) without money or a credit card? Is a $100 dollar bill and one credit card too heavy for your pocket? :rolleyes:

A few minor notes on this thread:

1. A few people have mentioned getting documentation requirements (visa/passport/etc) from US Dept of State or Timatic. Don’t do this. Get your information directly from the consulate of the country you intend to visit. Rules change and there's no guarantee you will get the correct info from a third party. Go direct to the source and you are more likely to get the correct info. And if DoS, Timatic or even the consulate get it wrong, you won't be able to hold them financially responsible either.

2. ZResnik, you talk about the error of the AA in allowing you to travel without correct documents. But you are mistaken from blaming them for the situation. They made a mistake (and will be penalized by Costa Rica) but their error simply compounded your error in not carefully checking travel documentation requirements. The source of the problem started with you, not with them. I sympathize with you, but I cannot place the blame on AA in any case.

3. Some people have spoken about ZResnik's naivety as a traveler and blame him. Another mentioned that Americans are often naive travelers who are astounded that would be required to even get a visa. I live/work in Russia and we often have business visitors from all over the world, all of whom need visas. Without a doubt, with Americans we have to do the most hand-holding to walk them through the process of getting a visa. I think Americans really do need to examine why their travelers have an unrealistic idea of what traveling to a foreign country means. The point is, we should not exactly blame ZResnik for this situation: it is endemic in America. That's a problem, but not one the ZResnik can be held responsible for. (Of course most readers of FT do not fall into the category of naive American travelers. And many of you might agree with my generalization. But I believe my experience reflects reality.)

Ron

This didnt happen to me, I really didnt think anyone would think it did, I was just using it as an example.

But I do know where someone did forget his wallet and thusly did travel without any CC or $$$. But in as much as he had his wife and kids who left a few days before him he was covered.

Could also tell you Stories of friends who in a Mad Rush (very late) missed their flights , simply cause they left their Passports or paper tkts back in their Homes. With more and more tkts being E-tkts today that will solve the Forgot the Tkt Problem.

Many of us can relate to the experience. We call it a mileage run.

If you're looking for sympathy from others and compensation from AA, you might wish to avoid such hyperbole. They turned you around and sent you back home. Three airplanes in one day and not being able to enjoy your destination is not "inexplicable" -- it's exhausting and very disappointing. This sort of thing happens to travelers regularly, albeit for different reasons (e.g., illness, family emergency, severe weather at destination, etc.)

"Trauma" and "fright" have nothing to do with what you describe -- at least they shouldn't.

here's a pickle.... after reading all this.... does anyone here want to sit near the OP and/or his family on a long flight?
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...... I didnt' think so... :)

I'm reading this thread and shaking my head.

Maybe I've been around too long, but I learned a long time ago to simply ignore newbies who show up just to complain. I've even seen a few post on every travel board they could find to give some bad "press" to the hotel or airline or whatever service provider did him wrong. Most often, they don't give all the info and/or it comes out later in the thread.

Do yourselves a big favor, ignore newbies with 1 post that start finger pointing :) ;)

Probably Americans don't have much experience with the visa process because we don't need visas to travel to the places most Americans go when they travel abroad. e.g. Canada, Mexico, Western/Central Europe, Japan, Hong Kong, the Caribbean, etc.

Probably I'd say that many foreign countries need to examine why Americans need a visa to travel to their countries (except for reciprocity, perhaps).
^

I know I'm 100+ posts late to the party, but are there any countries in the world that have different passport requirements for children? We travel frequently with a 2-year-old, and everywhere we've gone the requirements for her are the same as that of an adult. She has a passport...we chuckle at the fact that when she's 6 years old she won't look anything like her photo. :) Guess that's why they don't issue them 10 years at a time for little kids.

Anyway, the main lesson to be learned is that the rules these days are changing rapidly. The US documentation requirements are changing quite a bit over the course of the next couple of years, which will cause other countries to make their own changes in many cases. I think we Americans have been used to being able to travel to/from quite a few places - particularly here in North America down through the Caribbean and Central America - with a mix of documentation ranging from nothing at all to driver's licenses to birth certificates to passports. Sometimes there are mixed rules - for example, I've gambled in Windsor without my passport on several occasions, but was told not to even board the boat from Seattle to Victoria without one. You can enter Mexico undocumented in some places - and your US driver's license will get you home.

Since the rules with respect to most of the nearby countries that Americans travel to frequently are changing, the best advice if you think you will travel internationally is to just get a passport NOW. You can read the rules and react to changing Visa requirements - sometimes those require US currency when you EXIT the foreign country. I wouldn't think of traveling internationally (beyond Mex/Can daytrips) without several credit cards and a couple of Benjamins - even if everything was prepaid and I didn't plan on using them.

Haha... You'd be amazed. It wouldn't be the first time.

Stupid story about flying without cash
 

I'm moderately embarrassed to say that I effectively found myself in that situation one day back in 1999.

With about 8 hours total warning, I was invited to join an two week long exploratory whitewater kayaking trip in Mexico. So I threw my stuff together and arranged a pre-dawn flight for the next morning.

My ride to the airport didn't show up, but I was able to get a last minute taxi ride to Dulles thereby burning the last of my cash (and burning through to much time to stop at the bank). That's okay I thought, I'll just get some cash on the way to the gate. But the one ATM I passed in the airport was out of order. Then we sat on the tarmac for an hour before taking off, making my connection in Houston too short to get cash. Then we sat on the tarmac in Houston for 90 minutes before leaving for Mexico City. By the time I cleared immigration I was sprinting to make the flight to Veracruz and couldn't get any cash in Mexico City.

I finally arrived at the Veracruz International Airport. *Everything* was closed (not, mind you, that there's a lot of "everything at VER) [apparently because the Pope was in Mexico and live on TV] and there were no ATMs at the airport. So there I was. No Mexican cash. No US cash. No one to get cash from using credit cards. And no one to sell me anything in any case.


The good news was that I was going on a two week camping/kayaking trip. So I had plenty of food and water. The better news was that I was pretty sure that some of the people I was eventually meeting (while strangers to me) were flying in later that evening. If not, I knew some people were flying in the next day. So I just slept on top of my gear until someone else flew in with kayak paddles. ;-)

I will admit to being a lot more dedicated to making sure I have sufficient cash on hand nowadays. ;-)

reinharden

Yes, certainly Americans dont need visas to many places and as a result dont have experience- for better and worse. Most of the places that do not require visas from Americans also do not require visas from citizens of the UK, Germany, France, etc. Nevertheless those people dont take for granted that they can travel with no more than a birth certificate.

That's mostly geographical. The UK is roughly the size of Illinois. If Wisconsinites needed passports to get into Illinois, then yeah, Americans would all have them from birth.

Personally, I think Missourians should be required to have passports to get into Kansas, because Missourians don't know how to drive. :p ;) (While we're on the topic of sweeping generalizations. :D)

Ah, yes, but how many foreign countries can Brits and Germans go to with only their birth certificates? Americans can go to (at least up until now) Mexico, Canada and a number of countries in the Caribbean with just a birth certificate. Until recently even a drivers license would get you in. Growing up near the border with Canada, I went there plenty of times without a passport. Now that I have one I always travel with it. Before I was old enough to drive I had gone to Canada a bunch of times without any ID at all.

Nevertheless, I agree that Americans could be a little more knowledgeable on the subject.