We all know that there are currently four different colors of us passports...

Black: Diplomatic passports.
Maroon: For official non-diplomatic government business.
Green: Commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the State Department.
Blue: Issued as either fee or no-fee. General

But I was wondering if there should be one for frequent intl travellers? Maybe to cut down on the harassment?

More like one with 200 pages in it so you don't have to keep sending it in to get more extra pages!

Speaking of sending in the passport...anyone know the turn around time for a renewal these days? I send mine in Jan 19th.. should i be okay for a March 20th trip to Sweden?

Extra pages is merely an option that can be added to any passport. I'd rather have one that shows I'm not once-a-year-joe-blow-tourist.

Hey, no thread-jacking!

RFID Implant would save some trees. @:-)

I'm all for the 200 pager! Currently have 3 sets of extra pages, and dreading asking for a 4th. Afraid it might be time for a new passport

At least you have the option of adding extra pages. My passport is unable to have pages added - only comes with the standard 48 which of course is nowhere near enough to last 5 years let alone the 10 years issued for.

Never been "harassed", but have had to wait while the "security officer" before checkin (outside the US) checks every page (they usually give up after 10 or 15 pages of various stamps/visas), or the immigration "officer" looks over every stamp I have...

I had one poor bored dude stop me coming back into the US, check about 10 pages, and then ask me about my last trip to Japan... I often connect through Narita, but it has been years since I actually went into the country.... I looked down, and he was staring at a visa for PRC.... Oh well!

Having a 2" thick passport would be a sign that you're something special! Plus it might stop bullets, think of the possibilities!

Yeah, but I wanted a neon colored passport.

I don't see why that should be a problem. You can add pages to a 48-page passport as readily as to the 24-page kind - as I expect to ask them to do well before my new one runs out. The only legal requirement is that each set of 24 new pages be taped to an original page on both sides, not to another expansion set. From a practical point of view you can't get very many in, but unless you spend every week of the year going in and out of countries with full-page visas, you should be able to get enough.

You are missing the point. Most countries do not allow their citizens to add extra pages to a passport. Passport full? Get a new one. I replace one of my passports once a year because of that.

Pickles has it right. In the name of security (and ahem thanks to certain rules imposed by US) my country has decided to not allow any extra pages ever. While I am fortunate to not need visas for many countries, I still fill my 48-page passport ridiculously quickly.

Some flashing LEDs would be nice too!

You are talking about a U.S. passport of course; you may note that some of the posters are members of non-US programs, and hence likely to have other-than-US citizenship :-) Many countries don't allow for extra visa pages. Some give you additional passports (in some cases the passports are fused together).

The U.S. does have a limit to the number of additional 24 visa page inserts allowed. One used to be able to get these extra pages at every US consulate around the world (or in the US, the center in Philadelphia/Delaware). http://travel.state.gov/passport/fri/add/add_850.html

Now, most consulates will only give you a first or second set of extra visa extension pages; I run out of these rapidly, and once I got to 5 sets of extra 24 pages inside my 48-page passport, I was generally refused and told that I should do this in the U.S. While nominally these pages are free, expedited service costs $60 plus FedEx both ways. Since my passport is seldom in any one country longer than 3 days, this presents a hassle.

Once I got to my 9th additional set of visa pages, even the passport agency balked. True, he passport had started bulging obscenely and coming apart as well, presenting potential problems with an overzealous immigration inspector in some random country. So, unfortunately, even though I still had a good 4 years left in it, I had to renew. I still feel like a virgin. The biggest hassle is in transfering multi-year visas from the old, cancelled but still-unexpired passport to the new one.

Also, they have stopped issuing the 48-page passports, so what they now do to accommodate frequent travelers is issue a 24 page passport with your first set of extra 24 pages. From http://travel.state.gov/passport/fri/add/add_850.html:

Argh.

I did discover a while back that one can request a second, valid, passport. You need to explain why you need that passport, but if you have an existing passport that's bulging with visas, the explanation is fairly obvious. With a peripatetic travel pattern, it becomes quite a challenge to obtain visas. If you're going to most normal parts of the world where you don't need visas, it's not an issue. But if you're visiting various African failed states and kleptocracies, Arab countries and rogue states, even with good visa expediting services (I swear by TraVisa), it sometimes takes a week or even longer to get these visas. Hence a second passport is required. The U.S. does issue these passports (2 year validity) for cases where prolonged delays are anticipated for a required visa. Documentation is necessary to prove travel requirements to such countries where visas are slow to obtain.

A second passport is also mandatory in the case of certain "tit for tat" countries that due to whatever confrontation is going on between them, country A refuses you entry if you've been to country B (i.e. a stamp from country B in your passport). Our passport agency does understand this. For example, you can't enter Syria or Lebanon if your passport shows an Israeli passport stamp and the US will issue a passport for this purpose, limited to two years. Second passports are, however, extendable if required for additional 2-year periods. You need to show documentation of upcoming travel to two countries embroiled in conflict. Another example is Cyprus; if your passport is stamped in Northern Cyprus (occupied by Turkey), you may be denied entry into Cyprus. A normal Turkish stamp is no problem.

Hint: Countries whose passport stamps may cause problems elsewhere will generally give you the option of either not getting your passport stamped, or getting a loose sheet of paper (in some cases a plain sheet, in other cases, a special form) stamped so as not to inconvenience you. This is an option at Ercan airport in Northern Cyprus, and it is an option in Israel. It is also an option in countries who allow Americans, but where the U.S. Government forbids or restricts travel (example, Cuba).