Going to Crete again

[Kurt]

Gonna be in Athens for Sept 6th mostly sleeping and then we head to Heraklion for a few days and then renting a Fiat and driving around the island.

On the off chance anyone is gonna be there hit me up via PM and we will grab a Tsikoudia or something.

[Kurt]

Well fuck.

I go to Newark airport yesterday and I am actually not allowed a ticket.

Why?

Cuz E.U. denies airlines the right to issue tickets if a passport is within 6 months of expiration.

I called the Greek consulate to ask them if it was OK and they said that as long as I had a return ticket combined with an itinerary I would be fine.

My guess is that if United gave me a ticket the Greeks would have let me in but they didn't so now I am in a state of "Not Traveling"

Wayyyyy back when, a US passport holder was often allowed to travel six months AFTER expiration. An expired US passport was more valuable to travel with than many country's valid passports.

It was kind of funny, I was confident and cocksure that I would get issued a ticket once I "spoke to someone" because another thing that used to be a thing was if you were calm, polite and just asked "how can you help me?" airline employees who were tired of adult-children throwing tantrums would just do stuff for you. Like let me fly with a valid passport.

Kind of funny getting shot down like that. Everything I assumed was wrong and I got fucked. The people that claimed to help me just gave me re-assurances and *pooof!* I could not even name drop. So this was all my fault for assuming that a Government official's word superceded an airline policy.

So US passport holders: Your 10 year passport is really only a 9 1/2 year passport and it is probably best to treat it like a 9 year passport.

[snaark]

Cuz E.U. denies airlines the right to issue tickets if a passport is within 6 months of expiration.

I thought this was true of most countries.

[Kurt]

Cuz E.U. denies airlines the right to issue tickets if a passport is within 6 months of expiration.

I thought this was true of most countries.

I thought so too at first. But usually it was just a suggestion. The Greek consulate called me after I posted this and apologized for giving me bad advice three weeks before (which is weird, as I never called them to complain or anything). They said that it used to be that way if there was a return ticket but now the policy is a 90 day visa means 90 days, even if you are going to leave in two weeks. And the airline that ships you there is responsible for shipping you back so no one wants to risk the financial hit.

When I first started traveling it was possible for a US citizen to travel to many places with a passport that had expired less than 1 year ago.

I suspect if I had been a less experienced and worried traveler I wouldn't have been so confident in myself and I probably would be in Crete right now.

[snaark]

Might have been a blessing in disguise. Pretty nasty floods in Greece right now.

[Kurt]

Might have been a blessing in disguise. Pretty nasty floods in Greece right now.

Yep. And two days of me feeling like an idiot has lead to acceptance of my idiot state.

[snaark]

Might have been a blessing in disguise. Pretty nasty floods in Greece right now.

Yep. And two days of me feeling like an idiot has lead to acceptance of my idiot state.

So you avoided a natural disaster and reached an enlightened state. Sounds like a win.

[seektravelinfo]

Oh Kurt, that sucks. You really got the rug pulled out from under you. That’s happened to a couple of people I know. Only because I had anecdotal info from a couple of acquaintances did I know to renew my passport no later than 6 months before the expiration date, and that was immediately following the worst of the pandemic and travel was resuming, so of course the State Dept had a backlog of passport applications. So of course I paid the extra $70 for expedited.

I hate my new passport because I hate my passport photo. I look as bad as the defendant’s mug-shots from the Georgia RICO case (shout-out to Fani Willis) and I’m stuck with it for a decade. I’m gonna find and catch that Benjamin Button disease so that my next passport in 2031 looks better.

[ROB]

Post 911, the US decided to be cunts to everyone who wasn't American who owned a passport.

It shocks me, shocks me I say, that the rest of the world decided to return the favour.

[Kurt]

Post 911, the US decided to be cunts to everyone who wasn't American who owned a passport.

It shocks me, shocks me I say, that the rest of the world decided to return the favour.

There is some truth to that. But the E.U. part had more to do with things being set in motion by Trump. After 9/11 we really felt the pain in Turkey. When I crossed the Bulgarian / Turkish border in 1993 the Turkish border guards actually gave us tea and baklava and proceeded to be dicks to everyone BUT Americans. 2004 when I crossed the same border I was brought into a room, yelled at, and told I had to pay $100 for a visa or go to jail.

This is just more of the shittification of America that has been happening for a long while, but accelerated under Trump.