No passports stuck in Canada. Help Please.

[bumbershoot]

Simultaneously asking the attendant what I should do as my passports were on the plane. The young man directed me to a line and bypass the kiosk. During this time I'm on hold with Delta being connected to a department that would be able to help me find the plane and request the removal of my passports from the seat back. I woke up to immigration and tell them that I have Delta online trying to get my passports off the plane. She tells me "hangup this minute" or she'll put me into detension for obstruction.

I've noticed that customs/immigration people don't really *listen* at all. I imagine they hear everything all day long, and just grow tired of voices, but gosh I wish they would actually listen.

And yeah, they really don't like phones in that area.

Then I got an idea from one of the posts that perhaps I should get copies of our birth certificates. I knew I would be able to get them faxed to my iPhone with no problem. But I got a wild idea to find overnight shipping of the original documents. Maybe it would be enough to make it a "yes" for the ship or immigration or whoever was going to keep us from our destination.

Yay!

Just too bad about Canada Day, the weekend, and July 4th. That messed everything up.

Bryan the director of Delta baggage had called to tell me another airline had located my folder and delivered it to Delta. I called Brian practically in tears. They offered to have personal carrier from Delta drive it straight to the hotel at 4 o'clock.

Whew!


I, too, wonder how you got "into" Canada, through the checkpoints, without birth certificate at the very least.

The lesson I got from this is to never participate in FE's.

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

I feel like I just finished reading a great novel, even though I knew how it turned out I was hooked. I'm a pretty sappy guy and it literally brought a couple tears to my eyes when the lady had your passports! I can just hear you 40 years from now, "Remember when we did that Alaska cruise......."

Thanks for telling us "The rest of the story."

 

[gismo1554]

So glad you came back to share! After all the people moaning you hadn't been back over here I worried it would put you off but from someone who genuinely felt your pain and was hoping for a happy ending I am glad you did!

 

[Markonefive]

People like to bash airlines, but it sounds like Delta really worked hard to try to find your documents, and even had an employee personally deliver them to your hotel. And they must have done some kind of alert to all their agents, so that when your binder showed up, they knew you were looking for it and found a way to contact you. Sorry our Customs officer was so abrupt, but glad that you were allowed to leave the airport and not denied entry.

 

[RedSox68]

Curious -- how did your binder end up on another airline? What airline was it found on and where was it flying to?

 

[phinz]

Curious -- how did your binder end up on another airline? What airline was it found on and where was it flying to?

She states at one point that the cleaning crew found it while in Canada and handed it to ground personnel from another airline, who gave it to Delta personnel.

 

[GrannyDee]

Snowwhyt, this reminds me of the "klfhngr's story" from another cruise board. The kind of story vacation nightmares are made of.

 

[CamColt]

Wow! That is quite the adventure! I hope you took full advantage of the relaxation offered on the cruise. You earned it!

 

[BuzzLightyearInTampa]

People like to bash airlines, but it sounds like Delta really worked hard to try to find your documents, and even had an employee personally deliver them to your hotel. And they must have done some kind of alert to all their agents, so that when your binder showed up, they knew you were looking for it and found a way to contact you. Sorry our Customs officer was so abrupt, but glad that you were allowed to leave the airport and not denied entry.

Delta is my favorite US airline. The others no longer compare, IMO.

 

[BuzzLightyearInTampa]

Carrying copies had been suggested for eons.
I think it's an outdated idea from the ore-digital era. Now, since the embassy person helping will be sitting at a computer they can access your info and picture in the blink of an eye. I think carrying a copy is useless, personally. ....

Yes. Physical security of your passport is far more important. I nearly had a similar issue as the OP in Frankfurt, Germany once. My passport was in my bag on the train on my way to the main train station in Frankfurt, and I was flying back to the states that same morning. Well, I took it out (along with my flight ticket) and put it in my coat pocket so I would have it readily available when I got to the airport. I stopped at a counter at the train station to buy something and put my carryon on the ground next to my suitcase. When I looked down again ~ 1 minute later, it was gone. I found out that the Frankfurt train station is notorious for baggage thieves like that. Ever since then, while in transit, my passport stays on my person (normally in my WDW fanny pack). On the ship or at the hotel, it stays in the safe.

 

[bumbershoot]

I stopped at a counter at the train station to buy something and put my carryon on the ground next to my suitcase. When I looked down again ~ 1 minute later, it was gone. I found out that the Frankfurt train station is notorious for baggage thieves like that.

Ugh. Thank you for sharing that. Great lesson for everyone.

If I'm doing something at a counter I tend to stand over my bags, straddling them I suppose is the best description. If someone wants to steal something I'm probably going to notice, LOL.

 

[Snowwhyt]

The lesson I got from this is to never participate in FE's.

MUN

I have no FE regrets. Gets me a longer vacation in a way. I enjoy the prep/stress(makes it exciting) and then I get little reminders around the house of the trip. That I wouldn't have otherwise. A gift I would not have bought for myself but glad someone got it for me.

Some people were questioning how you got into Canada without the passports. Other than being ordered off the phone and the drug offender, did you have any trouble? What did you have for id that worked for you?

Well I think that I must have needed the passports as proof to get ON the plane but I think that the workers at the airport must have IDs to get through customs/immigration but not required to have passports.
I was told by one of the border agents you can come into Canada with just a Drivers license by boat and car. So I don't get it myself.

Curious -- how did your binder end up on another airline? What airline was it found on and where was it flying to?

The baggage Director seemed to be holding back information. But I didn't want to make an issue. I was just happy to have them.

 

[jtba]

I was told by one of the border agents you can come into Canada with just a Drivers license by boat and car.

did not know that!!!

 

[su_A_ve]

Deja vu...

A couple of years ago we were 10 miles away from our hotel in MIA the night before our cruise, after spending Xmas at WDW, when we realized we had left our passports back home in NJ. This was about 9pm so too late to take a flight back to NJ to pick them up.

DCL was very nice but there is nothing they can do to help. It's up to Homeland security (or whatever it's called) to allow you to board with copies of the passports. DCL suggested:

* Try to get emergency passports in MIA and hope they do them before 4pm
* If they don't, hope they would let us board with copies of the passports

Then at the last minute they said:

* Try Delta Dash

Delta wouldn't work since they didn't have any non-stop flights to MIA and required a minimum of 2 hours between flights. There was a connection with a 1:50 but they wouldn't do it, so the passports wouldn't get in to MIA until 4 in the afternoon. In the end we found out that United also had a same day courier service. I had a family member pick them up at my house, drive to the airport at 1 in the morning. The passports were to leave in the 6am flight and arrive by 9am. The inbound flight was delayed for over 2 hours so not until 3am I was able to close at least one my eyes shut.

Got the passports at 11:30am, and were on the ship by 12:30pm.

 

[phinz]

Delta is my favorite US airline. The others no longer compare, IMO.

We've flown other than Delta on three occasions and that was four times too many. We flew US Air to SFO a couple of years ago. It was so horrible that we ate the loss of funds for the return flight and booked a one way on Delta back just to avoid another US Air flight. It's my understanding that nothing has changed since US Air was bought by American.

 

[Snowwhyt]

Deja vu...

A couple of years ago we were 10 miles away from our hotel in MIA the night before our cruise, after spending Xmas at WDW, when we realized we had left our passports back home in NJ. This was about 9pm so too late to take a flight back to NJ to pick them up.

DCL was very nice but there is nothing they can do to help. It's up to Homeland security (or whatever it's called) to allow you to board with copies of the passports. DCL suggested:

* Try to get emergency passports in MIA and hope they do them before 4pm
* If they don't, hope they would let us board with copies of the passports

Then at the last minute they said:

* Try Delta Dash

Delta wouldn't work since they didn't have any non-stop flights to MIA and required a minimum of 2 hours between flights. There was a connection with a 1:50 but they wouldn't do it, so the passports wouldn't get in to MIA until 4 in the afternoon. In the end we found out that United also had a same day courier service. I had a family member pick them up at my house, drive to the airport at 1 in the morning. The passports were to leave in the 6am flight and arrive by 9am. The inbound flight was delayed for over 2 hours so not until 3am I was able to close at least one my eyes shut.

Got the passports at 11:30am, and were on the ship by 12:30pm.

No one mentioned the United option. I would have tried that.

 

[RedSox68]

We've flown other than Delta on three occasions and that was four times too many. We flew US Air to SFO a couple of years ago. It was so horrible that we ate the loss of funds for the return flight and booked a one way on Delta back just to avoid another US Air flight. It's my understanding that nothing has changed since US Air was bought by American.

I've heard that American is actually worse now -- the stories and reviews are awful!