A Costly Lesson

[nkereina]

I think putting their passports in the seat pocket was idiotic and don't agree they are due compensation, but I have to wonder what actually happened to the passports. If it's true they know they put them in the seat pocket and realized they forgot them within two minutes of stepping off the plane, how is it that the airline crew wasn't able to find them? It should have been relatively easy. Unless they were lost at the previous airport or perhaps thrown out with their magazine. But even in the latter case, the garbage bags from the plane could have been searched through. Just curious on the timeline and actual efforts made on the search of the passports.

 

[VandVsmama]

Those people were stupid. And there's no compensation for stupidity.

 

[kdonnel]

The last place you show your passport is at security.

I have often been asked to show my passport again as boarding when flying in Europe.

I had to show it at least 5 different times to leave the airport for Paris.

 

[lorimay]

Is there a GOFUNDME page yet?

 

[sk!mom]

I'm a big believer in karma so I'm going to have some compassion for them. Traveling can be overwhelming- boarding, finding a spot for carry ons, etc... Mistakes happen.

I do lose some compassion though when they turn to blame and expecting others to rectify their mistake.

They might have gotten more help had they been apologetic rather than entitled.

My niece got to the airport last year, for her honeymoon, without her passport. It was 3am after her wedding the night before. Thankfully the airline and resort in St. Lucia bumped their trip by two days so that they could get to the passport office 3 hours away and get an emergency replacement. It all worked out but I would imagine that she was kind and apologetic as she cried her eyes out. The groom was very calm as he called around asking for help and suggestions. I have heard her tell many people that her mistake was booking a flight that required heading to the airport without any sleep after the wedding.

My point...weddings, vacations, etc...have a lot of details that can overwhelm you and stuff happens.

 

[BLAZEY]

When travelling we've always had to show our passports while boarding. I collect our families passports and put them in my travel folder in my backpack. Each of us and someone at home have copies of the picture page. We use these for using to fill out forms.

 

[SC Minnie]

I flew to Canada 2 weeks ago and had to show my Passport at time of boarding going and coming back.

 

[Mamabun]

When travelling we've always had to show our passports while boarding. I collect our families passports and put them in my travel folder in my backpack. Each of us and someone at home have copies of the picture page. We use these for using to fill out forms.

Great idea, seems silly I never thought of this myself. I hate having to take out my passport and visas to fill out forms - I like those things staying in their nice secure locations as much as possible. I'm definitely bring an easy access photocopy for exactly this purpose next trip. I always make copies anyhow, so easy to make one more. Thanks!

 

[BLAZEY]

Great idea, seems silly I never thought of this myself. I hate having to take out my passport and visas to fill out forms - I like those things staying in their nice secure locations as much as possible. I'm definitely bring an easy access photocopy for exactly this purpose next trip. I always make copies anyhow, so easy to make one more. Thanks!

Ever since I started travelling as a child it was always drilled into me how important your passport was and how you need to guard it. The most important items you need when travelling are passport/visa, travel documents, money, and medication. Everything else can be easily replaced. Maybe not cheaply but they can be replaced.

 

[RedAngie]

Another thing I'm wondering now is how they got back through Customs into the UK. The biggest problem we had was not being able to get home. Any airline was prohibited from flying us because we wouldn't have been re-admitted to Canada without documents. Wouldn't this couple have ended up like Tom Hanks in "The Terminal" until they had some papers?

They never officially entered Greece, so technically they were still in the UK. I'm guessing when they arrived back in the UK, the airline explained the situation, the couple showed other ID, and customs was able to verify that they were indeed British citizens since they had passports when they boarded into the flight,

What compensation do they expect??? I’d never leave something that valuable in the front pocket of a plane. We found an iPod on a plane once. We just turned it into the flight attendants. But we also check those pockets before we de-plane.

I don't know if they want just the cost of the pre-paid hotel reservation refunded, or the cost of the flight too. Based on some of their quotes, they might even expect MORE than what they paid for their emotional distress. After all, it was the biggest nightmare you can imagine.

I suppose, for goodwill reasons, the hotel could give them credit toward a future stay. But they used the round trip air travel, so no refund from the airline is warranted.

 

[AnnaFloridaLover]

Calling these two stupid or idiotic for losing their passports is dramatic. Mistakes happen. My son's girlfriend left her iPad in the front pocket of her seat on our particularly long and many hours delayed flight from Hawaii one year. My son has left a gameboy in the pockets once after a trip home from China and almost again after another long flight.

Many times I have needed our passport information on the flights to fill out the declaration cards. Most of the time we have to show our passports when we board the flight.

Crap happens to the best of us. Should they have been compensated? I don't think so. It was their fault.

 

[okeydokey]

I am not going to call them idiots for losing their passports. I have lost things too, as I am Sure everyone here has. People make mistakes, travel can be overwhelming for some people and sometimes stressful and confusing even for seasoned travelers. There is too much negativity in the world and I will not add to that.

 

[paisleys]

I am not going to call them idiots for losing their passports. I have lost things too, as I am Sure everyone here has. People make mistakes, travel can be overwhelming for some people and sometimes stressful and confusing even for seasoned travelers. There is too much negativity in the world and I will not add to that.

On our trip two weeks ago I left an entire bin of stuff at the TSA area and didn't even realize till we landed three hours later. Lucky for me I had at least retrieved the bin with the important things. It was early in the morning and crazy there. I rarely lose things but I'm over it and learned a lesson.

 

[ronandannette]

I am not going to call them idiots for losing their passports. I have lost things too, as I am Sure everyone here has. People make mistakes, travel can be overwhelming for some people and sometimes stressful and confusing even for seasoned travelers. There is too much negativity in the world and I will not add to that.

I've though a lot about this tendency people have and I've come to the conclusion it's kind of like whistling in the dark.

As long as you can convince yourself the person/people did something so reckless (or failed to do something prudent) that they had it coming; and you can convince yourself you'd never, ever do the same, you feel "protected". It turns out human beings are incredibly uncomfortable with the vagaries of life and the random nature of so much misfortune. Mind you, this technique only works for people who have never experienced anything similar. I hope very sincerely for the sake of the harsh-judging-no-grace-giving ones that they never find out differently the hard way.

 

[Imzadi]

One thing that confuses me about this story though is why the Passports weren’t found, if indeed they were in the seat-back pocket. If I was 100% positive that is where I left them,

They probably accidentally got stuffed down between pages of the Sky magazine & in-flight directions that are always in those pockets. The person who looked probably didn't open up the Sky magazine, just pulled open the pocket & peered in.

And if the couple told the wrong seat numbers, the person could have been looking in the wrong row.

 

[bcla]

They never officially entered Greece, so technically they were still in the UK. I'm guessing when they arrived back in the UK, the airline explained the situation, the couple showed other ID, and customs was able to verify that they were indeed British citizens since they had passports when they boarded into the flight,

It might be a little bit more convoluted than that. They still left the UK, entered Greece, but were denied entry at the airport.

Still - no country is really in the business of keeping its own citizens from returning simply on the basis of not having paperwork. However, if someone has applied for a modern passport, that means electronic records of everything, including the passport photo and possibly biometric (facial recognition and/or fingerprint) info. When I travel I make sure to have a photocopy of my passport photo page. While that's not an official document, it could be useful if I lost my passport and need the passport info. If they didn't have access to that info, then something is terribly wrong with their information management.

 

[Imzadi]

Why would you put your passports there? I’ve travelled overseas a lot and I always stop to put them back in my purse immediately after they’ve been checked. Putting them in the seat back pocket is just stupid. That’s totally different from loss or theft.

This reminds me of an incident someone posted about a few months ago, of an elderly couple who were about to take a cruise. They had put their passports in the luggage that ended up being taken away & stowed on ship, before they realized they needed their passports. They told the person at the desk, who called in an order to try to find and bring their luggage back.

Problem was, there are certain procedures for embarking. The crew responsible for bringing on board the luggage are bring aboard hundred of cases, they can't stop procedures & sort through the hold for the 1-2 cases, take it back out, and make their deadline. Somehow the order got lost pr forgotten about. And the desk person forgot about the couple. They never got up again to check on what was going on, even though they sat around for a couple hours. And the ship took off without them. They at least, took responsibility for where they had left their passports. But, cruise should have worked with them better to rectify the situation and gotten back to them. And the couple should have gone back to the desk a couple times.

 

[ronandannette]

It might be a little bit more convoluted than that. They still left the UK, entered Greece, but were denied entry at the airport.

Still - no country is really in the business of keeping its own citizens from returning simply on the basis of not having paperwork. However, if someone has applied for a modern passport, that means electronic records of everything, including the passport photo and possibly biometric (facial recognition and/or fingerprint) info. When I travel I make sure to have a photocopy of my passport photo page. While that's not an official document, it could be useful if I lost my passport and need the passport info. If they didn't have access to that info, then something is terribly wrong with their information management.

No airline would board us to fly back to Canada as we were not eligible to be re-admitted. We had other ID; it just simply wasn't an option - nobody would sell us a ticket. The Canadian Consulate in Barcelona was also not able to issue us "emergency" papers since we were not really in an emergency situation. The ascertained that we were safe and secure and able to follow the standard processes to replace the Passports; at no point did they give us permission to fly home until we had papers. (FTR we did have photocopies of our Passports - they were valid for absolutely nothing.)

 

[ronandannette]

This reminds me of an incident someone posted about a few months ago, of an elderly couple who were about to take a cruise. They had put their passports in the luggage that ended up being taken away & stowed on ship, before they realized they needed their passports. They told the person at the desk, who called in an order to try to find and bring their luggage back.

Problem was, there are certain procedures for embarking. The crew responsible for bringing on board the luggage are bring aboard hundred of cases, they can't stop procedures & sort through the hold for the 1-2 cases, take it back out, and make their deadline. Somehow the order got lost pr forgotten about. And the desk person forgot about the couple. They never got up again to check on what was going on, even though they sat around for a couple hours. And the ship took off without them. They at least, took responsibility for where they had left their passports. But, cruise should have worked with them better to rectify the situation and gotten back to them. And the couple should have gone back to the desk a couple times.

I remember that...I agree completely with everything you've said. Again, our own situation made me feel a great deal of compassion for the old folks. We sent my IL's on a cruise a number of years ago and we both literally lost sleep worrying that something similar would happen to them.

 

[VandVsmama]

Some may think that I'm being judgmental, but I'm going to double down on my previous comment. What those tourists did was stupid. What was even more stupid was expecting the airlines, hotel, etc. to give them financial compensation for their mistake.

My own parents made a similarly stupid passport mistake once. That mistake cost them about $4000. Story time!

My mom and dad had an epic & wonderful cruise planned. The cruise departed from Fort Lauderdale on Christmas Eve, would sail through the Caribbean, and eventually end in Chile. They lived on the west coast and flew to Florida the day before the cruise, spent the night in a local hotel, and went to board the cruise ship. Well, they went to get on board the cruise ship and before boarding, had to show their passports. Why? Because the cruise ended in Chile. Once in Chile, everyone would have to get off the ship.

That's when they discovered that my dad had brought his expired passport and had left his current passport in his dresser back home. He had a photocopy of the new passport, but that wasn't sufficient. They let my mom get on the boat, but not Dad. My mom was so upset that she almost threw up. Out of desperation, they called me because they had literally no idea what to do. They did not have a smart phone at the time...just a flip phone, so they couldn't look up airline prices and stuff like that. I was enjoying Christmas Eve with my family and my in-laws. I ended up spending about 3 hours on the phone with my parents helping them sort out the mess and come up with a plan B.

Plan B ended up being this:

• Mom got on board the cruise ship and was befriended & taken in by a very nice couple who felt really bad for her and my dad. She spent Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and I think 2 days after that with them.
• I helped my dad get a very expensive last minute flight from Ft Lauderdale to San Francisco (they lived in the Bay Area) that left that very day on Christmas Eve.
• Then he took a taxi (this was before Uber & Lyft) from the SF airport to their house about an hour away.
• Then he went to get the passport and it was right where he had left it.
• Then he took a shower, had something to eat, etc., killed some time before he went back to the airport.
• Then took another taxi back to SFO to get on a flight to Miami. Pretty sure that he had to change planes either in Dallas or Atlanta first, though.
• Didn't arrive in Miami until Christmas Day.
• Then changed planes to get on a smaller plane to Aruba.
• He landed in Aruba. Took a taxi to the hotel I helped him book online (since he had no laptop and no smart phone with him...just the flip phone).
  
• I also helped him find one of THE last hotels on that island on Christmas Eve that had any rooms available for Christmas Day. The cruise ship would arrive 2 days after Christmas, so he had 2 nights to kill there.
• He spent ~ $900/night before tax each night for that hotel stay.
• Then boarded the cruise ship in Aruba 2 days after Christmas. They thoroughly enjoyed the rest of their cruise.

They were NOT owed compensation by the cruise line nor did they ask.
They were NOT owed compensation by the airline nor did they ask.
They were NOT owed compensation by any hotel nor did they ask.

My dad made a stupid mistake. But when it comes to immigration & travel, it's a big deal. They were lucky that I actually had my phone turned on that day and that I was answering it because otherwise, they really would have been screwed because they opted not to get any travel insurance when they booked the cruise.

My parents did ask the cruise ship folks if my dad could get on board anyway and agree to go straight to the American embassy in Chile once the cruise ended, but that request was denied because they would essentially get stuck in immigration limbo...because going to the embassy would have required them to be allowed to leave the immigration area in Chile. So no passport, no getting on the ship.

#1 rule in international travel - Keep your passport in a safe place with you at all times.
#2 rule for my dad - pay attention and don't rush and accidentally grab the wrong passport
#3 rule for my dad - don't wait until you're on the other side of the country before realizing that you grabbed the wrong passport