The Good, Bad and Oh Crap moment of our trip to Canada!
It’s 11:30 at night and I woke up with my heart pounding and the feeling like someone had punched me in the gut. I thought it was just a nightmare, or at least I hoped it was. I tried to go back to sleep but I kept tossing and turning. The thought kept reoccurring and I finally sat up and announced “I can’t take it anymore” as I got out of bed. My poor husband was startled awake and asked what was wrong. He squinted as saw me beeline it to my desk and go thru my drawer. My silence caused him to sit up and repeat the question. When I fell back into my chair in tears he was alarmed.
So okay… I’m starting my story backward with the “OH Crap moment” that started our vacation off in a panic. This was really a last-minute decision to go to Canada when we finally figured out that with our hectic schedules, that we only had one week that we could all go on a family vacation right before school started. With the help of the 30-day cancelation policy with our timeshare, a couple of destinations opened up and I was able to reserve Maui, Hawaii and Banff, Canada and then discuss with family. My full intent was to go to Maui and lay by the pool with a Mai Tai in my hand, but with the fires that occurred the month prior and all the random storms they were having, we thought that going to Banff, somewhere totally new and full of outdoor adventure, would be good. So we kept the Banff/Canmore condo, booked our flights into Calgary, planned some adventures and when the nightmare occurred…. we were packed and ready to go. Literally. READY to go!
The Bad: So what happened? you ask…well, not even thinking about it until awaking at 11:30 PM…less than 36 hours before our flight, I realized that I hadn’t checked our passports. I knew that ours had a few years left on them, but it didn’t occur to me to check the kid’s (that expire every 5 years). We travel internationally every year and I just assumed they were all good. So…that gut feeling that woke me up in horror was that theirs had expired…. And sure enough….as I sat crying at my desk chair… they had… 10 …yes TEN days earlier. OMG!!! What do we do? I stayed up till 3:30 AM researching our options. Do we cancel? Will they accept them? It’s just Canada, right? I was on the phone with the airline, Expedia, US border /customs websites, etc until delirium set in and I went to bed for a couple of hours.
The Good: Here’s what we did… the next morning we decided to book a round trip to Spokane, WA leaving that day and rent a car to DRIVE, yes DRIVE the 7-8 hours to Banff, Canada. Apparently, we could’ve flown into Canada without any problems, but US customs will ONLY allow VALID US Passports to return via AIR…only Air. You can cross the international border by LAND/SEA with expired passports and/or Birth Certificates for kids under 16 years old.
So, we left a day earlier, got to see Spokane, WA and the pan-handle countryside of Idaho as we drove all day to Canada and kept our original plans. All worked out. WHEW!
Side notes and Lessons learned:
The Good: Most airlines will allow you to apply the value of the ticket towards another flight as long as you cancel the reservation before the flight. Air Canada said we could apply the amount paid to any flight for a year as long as we canceled our reservation before the scheduled flight time.
The Bad: The airline DOES charge a hefty change fee… Air Canada is $200 change fee…really?…that’s almost half the ticket price. And changes must be done thru the median that you booked your tickets…mine was via Expedia.
The Bad…Air Canada doesn’t fly to Spokane the next closest US airport to Banff, Canada. So we could not apply it to the last minute flight.
The Good: We’ll use the credit to go to Vancouver next Summer which might be a wash since it’s less expensive flying there. (Trying to be optimistic.)
The moral of the story…. CHECK YOUR PASSPORTS BEFORE BOOKING YOUR FLIGHTS. I mean it seems obvious, but it happens. Even a friend of mine told me today that she did the same thing when scheduled to fly to Mexico, but they didn’t realize it till they were at the airport and they had to go home. And we are both incredibly organized people, so it happens to the best of us.
I do hope that this helps some of you that are planning a trip to Canada. You can use expired passports or birth certificates crossing the border by driving (or by Sea)…but only for kids under 16 years old. Best advice, get a valid passport and keep it updated….plan at least 2 months out because the emergency renewals are incredibly expensive. Makes everything much easier so you don’t end up in my situation of traveling kids on expired passports
Happy Travels!!
Awesome post! Keep up the great work! 🙂