Denver Family Stranded After Passport Denied Because of Crease
February 22nd, 2012Via: KDVR:
A Denver family was supposed to be in Belize this week enjoying a beach getaway with their loved ones.
Instead, they’re in a hotel room in Dallas, TX because an American Airlines official there claimed they had a mutilated passport.
“We started at Denver International Airport, where we checked in and all our passports were checked very thoroughly,” said Kyle Gosnell.
Gosnell, his wife Dana, and their young son, Kye, received boarding passes all the way through to Belize City.
But in Dallas, they hit a roadblock. “They took a look at our passports and said that my passport was mutilated, therefore I wasn’t able to fly,” Gosnell said.
Little Kye’s passport has a crease on the back cover, which Gosnell says came from him accidentally sitting on the passport.
His passport was questioned, but not denied. It was Kyle Gosnell’s that was the real problem. It has a small crease on the back cover, and is overall weathered and worn.
Doesn’t surprise me – those idiots have looked at me in disgust when they have had to unfold my declarations statements that I had folded to stick in my back pocket.
It’s the same story throughout the countries that made up the old USSR. Have pristine documents or be ready for a seriously hard time… or be willing to throw an “unofficial payment” at the situation.
That’s odd. I’ve traveled extensively with my passport. It was the only ID I used for years when flying and crossing international land borders (i.e., walking into Mexico and Canada). I usually kept mine in my back pocket, and it was well worn, and even went through the wash a couple times. It recently expired, so I have to get a nice fresh one, which will be treated the same way.
The only complaints I ever got were when I started carrying it in a leather case. Most TSA agents didn’t care. Some absolutely tweaked out, saying it was illegal to present it in that way. That was less than 10% of the time though, and I just took it out of the cover, and handed it to them again.
It’s not really practical to believe that a passport will remain pristine through the years, if you’ve actually used it. Mine has been handled by countless people in dozens of airports, as well as being my primary ID for other purposes (opening bank accounts, staying in hotels when traveling, etc).
I can’t imagine that they were really stuck. They are in the US. They do have the option of returning home. Children are not required to have a photo ID for domestic travel, and that passport is indicated to belong to one of the children. They may not be allowed out of the US, but they can still go home. Worst case, they demand that their air fare is reimbursed, and they rent a car to drive home.
It’s a simple matter of a single TSA agent has misunderstood the rules. That’s actually a serious flaw with the TSA. Different rules are applied at different locations, and they will be loud about you making the “mistakes”. For a while, some airports in colder climates would tell you to wear your jacket while going through the metal detector. Others would demand that it be put through the X-ray. Some want you to put them with your shoes or laptop. Some demand it be in a separate bin.
Some want *all* electronics in their own bin. That presents a problem for me. Cell phone, laptop, tablet, digital camera, video camera, shoes, jacket. So it can be 2 bins, 7 bins, or somewhere in between. So I do what seems average, and let them be pissy after that.
The one concession I won’t make is, I will not, under any circumstances, go through the body scanners. They can whine, moan, cry, and question why I refuse. They don’t really care when they ask why, since they won’t believe anything I tell them. I usually start off by asking about their precautions, and why they aren’t wearing dosimeters. 🙂