An expiration date does not an expiration date make.
I usually resist jumping on the bandwagon to rage against the machine but have to take my turn tonight. They tag teamed us and sent Antony packing. He was going to go witness the nuptials of his friend Brian in Honduras but they got all funny on us and rained on his parade. I was this close to having a John Q. moment there in terminal 6 of LAX airport.
Word to the wise - It seems that even if you have a passport that expires in June 2009 it doesn't mean you can just hop on a plane up until that point and travel with it. Some countries, or maybe it's Uncle Sam, have requirements like your expiration date cannot be more than six months out from your arrival date in another country. After you've reached the 15th of a month it's like that month doesn't figure into the equation - round down. Despite the guvments website statement that you can find there today, the info that Can'tinental abides by says 6 months. They won't bend. Supposedly they could be fined and/or the traveler could be stranded at any other point along the trip. They asked us to show them this info (below) which we couldn't 'cause we got it when we phoned a friend. They brought us into the inner sanctum and showed us their statement from immigration but wouldn't look this one up:
- "ENTRY/EXIT REQUIREMENTS: A U.S. passport valid for at least three months from the date of entry is required to enter Honduras." [Confirmed current with U.S. Dept. of State by phone on 12/17/08 1-877-487-2778]
Additionally, their recommendation is to camp out in L.A., go to the American Embassy and ask for a rush job on a new passport that costs an arm & a leg. Then, they want to send you off two days later if the rush job thingy works for an additional $400. Where's the love?? The buyer was given no caveat emptor - a term I learned when I had to bring the weight of the BBB and the CA State Attorney General's Dept. of Consumer Affairs to bear on Ticketmaster when they reneged on an agreement.
Our night in a nutshell.
Continental Airlines could not be reached Wednesday for comment.... well I got cut off after waiting in line on hold for 5 minutes. We'll see if they answer their e-mail.
1 comment:
Wow! Frustrating, to say the least. The last two times I've flown out the country, I've found out WAY too last minute that my passport either doesn't have enough pages in it to travel with OR that it was expired like a month before I traveled...and it is an arm and a leg to get things processed in any timely manner... but, to be otherwise prepared and then refused because it wasn't valid for 10 days long enough!!! booo.
Your blog is really interesting. Glad I remembered to start reading it again :)
Post a Comment