Tag Archives for passport.
Starting Sunday, airline agents will have to choose “M” or “F” for every passenger entering the U.S. — even when the traveler’s passport lists “X.” The government is rejecting the very gender markers it issued, leaving airlines to guess who passengers are in order to satisfy new federal rules.
A flight from Milan to London was unexpectedly diverted to Paris after two passengers damaged their passports in bizarre ways during the journey.
A dog chewed a woman’s passport while she was packing for an international trip. She was set to leave in 12 hours.
Saturday’s United Airlines flight 198 to Shanghai was forced divert because a pilot forgot to bring his passport on the trip. Passengers received $15 meal vouchers when they landed in San Francisco.
Apparently people are taking glamor shots for their passport photos, staging the lighting and trying to make themselves look “hot.” This is… not a good idea. That won’t look like you when you get off of a 12 hour overnight flight.
Some of the folks trying this are finding out.
A year ago U.S. passport renewals without paying extra for expedited service were taking months. Things have gotten much better, and expedited service recently turned my daughter’s passport around in under two weeks.
To speed things up, the State Department briefly introduced online renewals as a test, then they removed the option. It’s back (in beta).
A woman shared video this month after being “pulled into a room” and “interrogated” in Turkey because she didn’t look like her passport photo. She’d “undergone different facial treatments, such as Botox” which contributed to the difference, and wound up “interrogated by 6 members of passport control.”
A passport with X or U as gender is ineligible for entry into or transit through the United Arab Emirates.
When government knew little about its subjects, their location, and their wealth it was difficult to monitor, tax, and regulate. Over time we saw the development of permanent last names, land surveys and population measures, and standard weights. We get planned transportation networks. Local systems and customers were mapped onto more standard grids that allowed for central recording. State institutions seek to order nature and society.
And that, it seems, is why one woman can’t have her name printed on a passport.
When you need your passport renewed, and you have travel within 72 hours, it’s possible to get emergency expedited service. However the State Department has taken the ability to schedule this offline.
The State Department did this because people are using bots to schedule these appointments and then sell them. But this is a cop out.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
