It’s not so strange that some people forget their passports… Those from continental Europe can travel with just their drivers licenses or government IDs inside the Schengen area.

Still doesn’t make English travellers who forget theirs any less, well, absent minded!

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within Schengen we can travel only with an ID card, so many people from the mainland are surprised when they hear they need a passport to get into the UK. The same works in reverse, travelers from the UK are surprised to hear they need a passport to enter the Schengen zone.

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Fortunately I’ve never left my passport at home. Currently I am a bit paranoid about it and I check that I have it with me every step of the way. I didn’t used to be that way but ever since I lost my passport on a plane I’ve been a little paranoid about not being with it. I was even anxious when I had it sent away to have additional pages put in. It was back soon, but I felt much better once I had it back.

The full account of my passport story is on my blog: http://grahamstravelblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/time-i-lost-my-passport.html

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Schengen visas – it”s a sort of “Travelcard EEC” visa, which covers all those EEC Countries who signed up to it. The UK did not, henece you need a UK visa for the UK. They are very useful things, for those that require visas.

I thought people really went everywhere with a passport, given that even for domestic flights, one has to/ is supposed to have ID. I very often find that people forget to renew their passport in good time. Many countries require you to have at least 6 months validity left – from the date when you leave that country – before they will let you in, some you can have 3 months. I do tell people to check this NOW rather than 1 week before departure.

Airports have a very strange effect on people, totally irrational. I can sell someone a rail ticket from London to Edinburgh and they take the ticket and off they go, don’t even ask if it’s Euston or Kings Cross – but by air? Which terminal? Where will I sit? What colour of blue is the toilet door…. ? and arrive at airport, switch on stropy hat. Arrive back and people tell you that Edinburgh was “Okay” and then give you a (yawn) blow by (Yawn) blow of the flight from first checkin… So yes, people leave home singing “Good Bye Braincells, I must l-e-a-v-e you…”
Er… Is this on topic?

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I did once travel on business with someone who didn’t realise her passport had expired until she got to the check-in desk. Luckily that was in the days when you could get a passport at the Post Office in the airport.

Howewever, I did once turn up with the family at Zurich airport to be told that our plane had left yesterday. It was my husband’s fault of course!

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I left my passport back in Florence on my way to my Uncle’s wedding in Lake Como. I was freaking out because I needed it to check into the hotel. Thankfully my Italian boyfriend checked in us both with his ID. Whew!! I was freaking out for no reason.

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As a Canadian who’s lived in the UK for most of my grownup/travelling life, I’m a chronic passport checker. Even at home, once every couple of months, I’ll have the urge to check that it’s still there and still in date. So when I travel, I’ll tend to check it before leaving the house, then as I lock up the house to leave, once again arriving at destination. Never ever will I lose track of where it is, and at hotels, it’ll either be on my body or in the hotel safe if trustworthy.

I’m always amazed to see Brits keep their passport in their handbags, work bags or on the dresser, torn and tattered from being carried around for non-travel purposes. No wonder it goes missing at the most important times!

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When I was a teenager I went to stay with a friend’s family in the south of France. At the end of the holiday, I packed my bags and got in the car to be dropped off at the airport by my friend’s parents.

Throughout the journey, the father – at first seriously, then jokingly – must’ve asked me about six times if I’d remembered my passport. I just laughed it off. Anyway, as we pulled into the airport car park, I realised that I didn’t, in fact, have it. Cue, terrifying, wheel-screeching hurtle down narrow French lanes both ways, conducted in absolute stony silence. I deserved it, though.

Amazingly I made the flight.

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Luckily, I’ve never left or lost mine.

However, the conundrum – especially as a 20 something hosteler – is always what to do with it when going out for the evening. Do you take it with you to the night clubs, bars, etc? How do you balance the necessity of having it on hand with the added risks that go with being drunk and out on the town late at night. How do you integrate it into your club/evening attire?

I recently had a buddy who met up with his folks while traveling. When they headed home they accidentally scooped up his passport. Needless to say the poor guy spent an extra couple of days in London getting an emergency document put together.

I usually err on the side of caution and keep it with me at all times, but i’ve definitely had a few good scares/close calls.

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I was traveling with a group of people from the U.S. to Germany about 15 years ago. One of the women in that group accidentally knocked her passport off her tray table on the plane while filling out the immigration documents. I helped her look all over, under the seats, between the seats, everywhere. It was nowhere to be found. As luck would have it, it had slipped in to the wall of the plane where the interior panels were slightly misaligned. While everyone deboarded, the maintenance crew had to disassemble the plane from the luggage compartment to retrieve it. We greeted her with applause when she finally joined us, passport in hand.

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Darren – I moved to the UK (from Oz) in 1999. The very first time I went to a day trip meeting to the Continent (Brussels) I raced to Heathrow without my passport like a dumb rookie Australian traveller – not thinking that a flight for 1.5 hours would require a passport. I realised as soon as I joined the check-in queue at Virgin-Express. First response – panic. Second response – turn and run for the Heathrow express. I lived near Paddington station so as I was running for the Heathrow Express I quickly did the numbers in my head – 5 mins to run to the train, 15 mins on the train to Paddington, 15 mins return cab ride from Paddington to house and back again, 15 mins to get back to Heathrow and 20 mins for waiting for trains and taxis. Therefore I needed one and quarter to one and a half hours to get back to the aiport. But my flight is due to leave in 30 mins. So I call Virgin-Express to see if the flight is running late.

Me to Virgin Express – Is this flight on time?

Virgin Express to me – Yes sir, right on time.

Me to Virgin Express – I know you are supposed to say that but I actually need the flight to be delayed as I am running late. So tell me, is the flight on time?

Virgin Express to me – OK sir, the flight is running about 20 mins late.

Me to Virgin Express – Are you sure. I need the flight to be about an hour late for me to make it.

Virgin Express to me – OK sir, I am tracking the flight at about an hour and a half late.

Me to Virgin Express – great. Thanks. I’ll make it.

And I did… Who new that departure times were so negotiable. True story.

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On my very last trip out of the country, to Mexico, I grabbed my expired passport instead of my new one and didn’t realize until I tried to check into my flight. Now there’s a sinking feeling… My husband went on ahead and I got a flight later that day. Spent the day sitting in my cold lonely house feeling like a moron.

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On route to Manchester airport, 15 minutes from the terminal I asked my girlfriend (now my wife!) to hand me the passports. She responded “You picked them up..” I responded “No, you picked them up!”

She had left the passports on the roof of the car. We called the neighbours who found the passports in the street and rushed them to us by taxi.

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Just last month it was a busy week and I was off to Dubai for a few days. I was to leave for the airport from the office directly so I packed in advance. On my way to work I picked up “a passport” from the usual drawer and headed out. At check-in, just before reaching the counter, I opened the passport to see my wife’s photo looking back!!! There was just 1 hr left to departure. Luckily I knew a friend was in the neighborhood and got him to pickup my passport from home and drop it off. I was the last guy to check-in and one of the first guys on board the air-craft since the queue was so long they pushed me all the way to the front.

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My story – it was at the time when I had two passports (dual nationality), and I accidentally grabbed the wrong one. Unfortunately, it was also the one that would have required me to have a visa for the country I was traveling to. I realized that at the airport. My boyfriend did some miraculous driving that day. And oh yeah, we lived like 4 hours away from the airport.

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Darren,

Just a little note, did you know UK is the only country that is required to have a passport to travel in the EU. Any other country just requires there ID card. When we get our ID cards the same rules will apply here.

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@Darren

“I check that I am carrying my passport as I leave the house, before I get on the train or taxi to the airport, then at the airport I have another check.”

Yep, same here.

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In the mid 1990s I traveled with my wife and daughter to Switzerland for vacation. Returning home things started to get interesting. We checked in a Zurich Airport and not having a visa in our passports the agent asked me if we were U.S. residents and I said yes and showed her my green card. Then asked my wife and daughter to show theirs…..and, get back a blank stare! Oh, the green card, well we left them at home as you told us to always keep it in a safe place in order not to lose them!

Not only did we miss the flight, but got an involuntary two days extended stay as we had to personally visit the U.S. Embassy in Bern to get temporary documentation allowing us to return to the States a tedious process with finger printing and all.

With the related additional hotel costs an expensive lesson to learn!

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Just this morning I have missed a flight because I forgot to bring my passport. Feeling really really awful about the whole thing. I know I’m quite absent-minded and impractical but this takes the biscuit. I only found out at the very last moment and the panic was all-consuming. I think from now on I will have nightmares about going to the airport without a passport.

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nothing beats my story
i have been in eurpe for 6 months waiting anxiously for my vacation in xmass
wake up early ; looked at my bags and think “i am not forgetting anything”; went outside the house and though “got keys; camera; wallet; cell phone; i am all good”. everything went perfect got the first tram in the morning for central station; got the bus i needed just in time. one hour bus ride to airport arrived 3 hours early for chek in. in the line i realized i forgot my passport;;; in panic i went by taxi back to my house; because it was snozwing it took 1.5 hours instead of 30 min;;;; needles to say i missed my plane and i had to stay 4days for the next one:::: i am an experienced traveler ; my paasport today has no pages without stamp because of my constant traveling;;; this is the first time in my life that this happened and in the worst possible time;;;; learned my lessons ;;;;; dont feel bad if u forgot ur passport it can happen to anyone

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As a Brit living in Canada in the 80′s I had need to go to a conference in the UK. Pulling out my trusty UK passport two days before my trip I discovered to my horror that it had expired some time before. On phoning the Brit enbassy in Ottawa I discovered that the only way to get an instant renewal was in person in Ottawa. So, filling out the forms and getting the appropriate guarantors within the next 24 hrs I then leapt on the next redeye from Vancouver to Ottawa and duly lined up at the embassy for a replacement.. The service then was magnificent. Aware of my need and underlying stupidity they produced the replacement within two hours. Back on the flight to Vancouver where I left for London the following day. On my return I applied for Canadian citizenship in order to have belt and braces. Irritatingly the Canadians only give out 5 year passports so have to be watched closely.

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