At 10:00 p.m. Sunday, Greg looked at his passport and realized it expired 3 months prior. We were leaving for Brussels, Belgium 12 hours later. That was it... we weren't going. Greg decided he ruined our whole trip and there was no way we would be able to go. As he continued to beat himself up, I grabbed the computer and started researching our options (if we had any.) This could have easily happened to either one of us. Neither of us even thought about looking at our passports well in advance. We didn't even get them out of the safe until that Sunday.
On the government travel site we learned there are a few options and one included submitting your application at a Passport Service Agency if you are traveling in 14 days or less. Our flight out of St. Louis wasn't until 11:00 a.m., so we would just head down to the office first thing in the morning. Well, St. Louis doesn't have an office. Little Rock, Arkansas has an office but St. Louis doesn't. Alright.. we had 4 hours in New York before our flight to Brussels, so we could just visit the office there. We called the 800 number and learned that they didn't have an appointment until Wednesday. We spent the next hour trying to find a passport office on the Eastern half of the U.S. that had an appointment on Monday at a time that Greg could fly into town, make it in and out of the office, and then fly to New York to make a 6:00 p.m. flight to Brussels. This is, of course, if they even processed a passport in a day (or hour). Nowhere on the website did it say they did this but nowhere did it say they didn't.Finally we made an appointment for 12:00 noon in Philadelphia and booked the flights on-line. We were very fortunate that our tickets to Europe were purchased with airline miles so up to this point, there was only minimal expense. The cost of the flights in and out of Philadelphia at the last minute made it more like a normal European vacation. The next hour was spent preparing a photo for the new passport and other paperwork. Luckily you can print your own photo if you have the right paper. We went to bed about 2:00 a.m. and woke at 5:00 a.m. so that I could drop Greg off at the Metrolink to get to the airport for his 7:00 a.m. flight to Philly.
Smooth flight in, fast taxi to the office and Greg enters at his designated appointed time to learn that he has to wait in line to get a number to wait in line.
"How may I help you?"
"I need to renew my passport."
"When are you traveling?"
"Well, I would like to go today....."
"Oooh, that is tight but I think we can do it. You are making it tough on us. What time are you leaving?"
"6:00 p.m. ...... from New York"
"Wow, you are making it really tough on us. Take a seat and we will be with you shortly"
Minutes felt like hours for Greg and he didn't have anything else to occupy his mind except what was going on in line in front of him. He watched as each person met with a worker at the counter and then proceeded to tell him/her their life story. At least it seemed like this was the case. No phones were allowed in the office so he could not fill me in on his status. Greg was the next person up and got ready to go to the counter, the worker went on break. Finally, he got his chance and he would be getting his passport by 1:30 p.m. This means he was going to miss the flight he originally booked out of Philly to New York at 2:00 p.m. He snuck out of the building to call the airline and learned that flight had been cancelled and he was automatically booked on the next one. Take off at 3:00 and land at LaGuardia at 4:00.
Meanwhile, I flew out of St. Louis at 11:00 a.m. heading for New York still not knowing what was going to happen. We decided that if he couldn't get the passport, we would just stay in NYC for the week; a trip we have been wanting to make any way. As I descended into Manhattan and saw the city skyline, I got excited about being in New York. I devised a plan as to what would happen next. I would call friends for recommendations, start asking for help on Facebook, and I would look into booking a hotel. But, eager to learn my fate I turned my phone on a little early (shh...), looked at the text from Greg and saw that he had his passport, he just needed to get into LaGuardia in time to taxi to JFK and check in for our flight to Brussels.
I took the shuttle from LaGuardia to JFK and they were running behind so I found myself impatiently standing around for a while. I imagined I might still be there when Greg arrived. I pretended I was on the Amazing Race and had to learn as much as I could to be fast and win. Waiting with me was an American Airlines pilot that was making friends with all the people around him. I figured he wouldn't mind me seeking his professional opinion so I asked him about check-in. Greg and I worried that he would need to be at the airport two hours before our flight and there was definitely no way he was going to make that. Joe, the pilot, wasn't sure but he thought only an hour was needed. He gave me the number to a cab company Greg could call if the taxi stand line was too long and said he would help me talk to the right people once we got to JFK. I started feeling better.
Due to the shuttle being late, Joe was late for his flight so we ran up the escalator once we got there. He rushed me to the entrance of the ticket counter and explained my situation to the Manager and then took off. Thanks Joe!!! Glenn, the Manager, said to get in line to talk to someone at the counter. He urged me to NOT go through security. Once past that point, there wasn't anyone who could help me. I waited in line and probably felt similar to Greg at the passport office. He texted to tell me his plane had landed at LaGuardia. Now it was a matter of rush hour traffic. I talked to Alison behind the counter and she confirmed that Greg needed to be checked in one hour before. He had until 5:10 or no go. She said to stay in contact with Greg and as soon as he arrived to wave at her and she would help us but she was going on break soon and left for the day at 5:00.
Greg walked into the terminal and found me in line ready to wave at Alison. It was 4:40....we had a whole half hour. Glenn and Alison saw us and were amazed he was able to make it so fast. They joked that we had plenty of time and we could sit and relax for a while. Alison quickly checked him in and Glenn walked us to security convincing the TSA agent that we could enter the First Class line because we had a bad day. Not sure how to type the sounds of a big sigh of relief but you can imagine that Greg and I both did this as we passed through security. We sat down for our first meal of the day at 4:50 p.m. and celebrated the official start to our vacation.
Lesson learned.... as soon as you book your next international trip, check your passport right away.
