Passport: The Appendix of Travel — Too Foreign For Home
As I’ve written about before, I have done a good amount of international travel over the years. I just flew in from Hungary about a week ago, stopping off in Frankfurt and Washington on the way. Nearly every step of the way I had to prove who I was and that I belonged there using my boarding pass and the bane of my travel life, my passport.
In a world that is going more and more digital by the minute, is there anything more antiquated and cumbersome than a paper passport?
What purpose does a passport serve when not traveling?
Don’t get me wrong. Like every Instagram “influencer” worth a damn, I like all the random stamps from the various places I’ve been able to travel. All the overlapping stamps create a rainbow collage basically made for social media posts. How else are all the people on the internet going to know that I’m out here living my best life?
Other than flexing on my old high school friends, what use is my passport though? It sits in a file folder for months and months on end, occasionally being pulled out when my bank locks up my card for daring to buy something online. They don’t care if I buy a thousand dollar plane ticket, but a 99 cent phone app is a bridge too far apparently.
And have you tried to flatten a passport out to take a proper picture without glare with all edges and corners visible? It’s impossible to get it on the first try.
Passports are redundant money pits
Newer passports have a chip in the cover that has all your information and a picture that is able to be pulled up in an instant. It took me and my daughter all of three minutes to go through immigration control in Washington thanks to how fast it can be pulled up now. So, why the hell am I still having to drag this paper book around with me?
Just look at all the ways your passport can screw you over. Does it expire in the next six months? Looks like you’ll need a brand new passport. That’ll be a couple hundred dollars and six weeks of waiting. Only have one blank page left? New passport time. Your money and time, please. Your kid ruins a single page in it with a crayon? Whole new book.
Needing that book with me at all times for travel is an anxiety nightmare. I would rather nearly get run over by a semi than feel like I lost my passport. More than once I’ve had that fear cut right through me and nearly caused a panic attack. Backpacks and carry-ons getting emptied in the middle of the airport is not my idea of leisurely travel.
It’s time for a change
I mean, all I really need is the chip, right? Let’s not pretend that we aren’t being tracked everywhere we go anyway. They make passport cards for travel to Mexico and Canada. Why can’t we use that instead? Slips right in my wallet and can easily be printed at an embassy or passport office. Makes too much sense to actually be implemented I’m sure.
I’m just saying that if I can check in online, have digital boarding passes, and can track my luggage in real time, why are we still dependent on some useless paper and cardboard for international travel?
Something tells me that Big Social Media is behind it. I’m looking at you, Mark Zuckerberg. What’s your endgame, lizard man? I’m on to you.
Originally published at https://tooforeignforhome.com on June 16, 2021.
