NC_Girl

My weird experience for the day:

Standing in line to check in. The couple in front of me, booked to fly to London, are quite shocked and angry they can't not fly without a passport! They become quite angry, telling the agent that they don't NEED a passport, they are Americans! They seem to think getting louder and making veiled threats about someone losing their job over this will get them on the plane...



A higher up comes over and escorts them away to discuss the matter. As I pull up and say wow, hope that doesn't happen very often to you, the agent tells me that it happens much more often than you would think!

imslippy

I can picture that. wish I was there =]

brovadeau

OMG!!

BuildingMyBento

They could always visit London, Ontario with an "enhanced" driver's license. At least they wouldn't have to be shocked about drivers on the other side...

Hertzfan

In the same sense although slightly off topic I can't tell you how many people try to rent a car without a driver's license and are angry about it!

Paint Horse

How unreasonable. They could go to Athens, Italy, Paris, even Palestine, a whole bunch of places without a passport.

CaptainMiles

The agent should have just rebooked them on the next flight to LOZ. Too bad no airline flies there, perhaps they should just for these cases. It would be an easy way to please these folks. "Mr. Kettle, unfortunately they are really picky about passports at the London-Heathrow Airport. I can rebook you on the flight to the London-Corbin Airport. It is a much shorter flight, and you will not have any trouble with passports there, and from there it's only 3 miles to central London."

wrp96

Sometimes it would be great if we could just slap our fellow travelers upside the head.

CPRich

Come visit me, you can hit both Moon and Mars with nothing but your US DL.

M60_to_LGA

Sounds like our UK cousins just dodged a bullet.

SFO777

OMG. Classic. You can't make up stuff like this.

abmj-jr

Can just imagine if and when these folks actually get overseas the "impression" they will leave of American travelers and Americans in general. This is why the rest of the world thinks we are such bad travelers.

uszkanni

When I first read this I had the same reaction as others..."what a couple of idiots!"

But I got to thinking about how this could have come about and I actually started to feel sorry (a little) for the couple!!! I know it's just my bleeding heart liberalism at work here, but I couldn't help imagine that this was either some very young or some very old couple with absolutely no experience with international travel. Maybe they relied on some very bad advice from a trusted individual and weren't just jerks. Maybe their argumentativeness and arrogance at the counter was the result of the shock they experienced at being informed that their trip was effectively cancelled (badly handled, of course). Their vacation was ruined; they had non-refundable tickets and hotel reservations; they had taken their vacation time off from work; their first "real" vacation - gone; etc., etc., etc.

Or maybe they were just arrogant, self important b*tards with an unwarranted sense of entitlement. I don't know.

kebosabi

If Americans don't need passports, why does the US State Department issue American Passports?

Seriously, it all takes less than second to *think*

uszkanni

Not trying to justify their ignorance, but it used to be the case (pre 2004, I believe) that US citizens didn't need a passport to travel to Mexico or Canada. It could have been the case that the couple in question, even though they had traveled internationally, never needed one before and maybe followed some very bad (probably online ) advice. And, yeah, they were probably ot-nay oo-tay ever-clay.