bettyk-- I don't believe you are allowed to renew (USA) passports prior to the 6-month expiration date. At least that is what the Continental Customer Service Rep told me when I asked if I needed to renew a passport that expires in Feb 2008 for an Aug 2007 trip to Ireland.

Crossing my fingers for you. I would be a total basket case by now. You will more than deserve your vacation when you finally get there. I have til 2009 on mine so I hope the "rush" is over. With the new laws coming into being, so many people now need passports that didn't need them before. What a mess, ya think?

texgirl:

I think as soon as you check in you should explain the airline employees the situation and tell them that your husband is on his way. Don't wait until you miss the flight. Ask them, IN ADVANCE, if they can put you on the following flight in case your husband is late, tell them he has been there all night, show some emotion, look desparate. They may understand.

I know someone who was able to fly his entire family with passports that had expired a couple of days before the flight. Of course, it was their own negligence. They were foreign citizens and promised to renew their passports abroad before they would come back. It was a NO-No, first, but in the end, it worked. You never know.

If the lead time to renew a passport is 6 months, then what are people supposed to do who travel more often than that? These delays are ridiculous.

schuler, why would the airline offer compensation it is not an airline problem.

texgirl,

I realize that you will probably not be able to let us know how it went down at the airport until you are at your destination but please find an internet connection and let us know. Inquiring minds want to know. Since so many of us have experienced this hardship, we would like to hopefully celebrate with you also.

texgirl

Got my fingers crossed for you two! What an awful thing to deal with so close to a trip.

Oh, Texgirl, I am sitting here sweating for you. It is SO stressful just to get to the airport, through security and on the plane that I can't even imagine dealing with your current situation. I post earlier about a similar problem that our Congresswoman was able to solve. But in the meantime, we were coming up with lots of alternative scenarios in case things didn't work out.

Hang in there as well as you can and just picture yourself on that plane, drink in hand. I am sending my very, very best wishes that you have the absolute trip of a lifetime! Please be sure to post back and give us the HAPPY details.

Now I'm going to drag my husband to the drugstore for photos, then to the post office to put in his renewal application for a passport that expires in February...

Good luck! I hope you make it and have a wonderful trip.

J_Correa, I agree. Obviously the passport office knew this would happen. Why didn't they hire more people? They are there to provide a service, which is not cheap, and right now it's a pretty crummy service.

People from the passport service told everyone MONTHS AGO this was going to happen.

Why they din;t hire more people? perhaps all the moey was flowing elsewhere..and we know that nobody wants to hear about higher taxes..even if it MIGHT have made a difference.

Well, my mothers passport expires this fall and we have already submitted it for renewal. It was more then 6 months in advance, but we told them we would be out of the country when it expired. (Not exactly true, but..... it's close. It expires in November and we will be traveling in October) I am giving them ten weeks and then we are going to call our congressman every day. The nice thing about her congressman is he has a great team for this type of issue!

I am not giving them much slack, thier last excuse was "spring break rush" HUH? It's May!!!

Good Lord, what a stressful way to begin a trip! I'd be stompin' and screamin'!

I do hope everything from here on out goes smoothly for you.

To avoid the frustration and aggravation, I paid the expidite fee for both my granddaughter's first passport and my renewal. We got both within two weeks.

On a wing and a prayer. What a horrible story. All the best.

As posted by <b>J_Correa</b>,

<i>If the lead time to renew a passport is 6 months, then what are people supposed to do who travel more often than that? These delays are ridiculous.</i>

I don't have these problems because I just renew the passport at a US Consulate when I'm in a foreign city. Usually just takes 2-3 days (~2 hours each day) to drop it off and pick up the new one.

I just had extra pages added to my passport last June at the Tokyo US Consulate. No charge and it was done within ~2 hours as I waited.

As posted by <b>schuler</b>,

<i>Are airlines offering any compensation for unissued passports? </i>

huh? why???

wow I hope it worked out

OK, compensation might have been the wrong word but the airlines did offer to rebook texgirl on a later flight.

I am not sure that they did rebook her or that she is hoping they rebook her.

This is just unbelivable. Our tax dollars at &quot;waste&quot;

AA - That is a really good idea for frequent travellers or anyone who is going to be in a city with a foreign consulate for a few days. I do think it is interesting that it takes so little time to get a renewal that way, but it takes months to get a renewal at home.