In the letter titled “Avoid Passport Glitches” (Aug. ’07, pg. 33), tour company owner Bob Parda provides important information about passports. I travel frequently and, due to the visa-page considerations he mentioned, have always requested a 48-page passport.
I read with interest the letter titled “Missed Cruise Due to Visa Snafu” (June ’07, pg. 32), about passengers not having enough blank pages left in their passports for stamping.
Regarding extra pages for visas in your passport, I’d like to point out another problem.
Most folks know that bags are inspected at airports and, if necessary, checked bags are opened. If a bag is locked, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) may chop the lock off, unless it is a special TSA-approved lock which they can open. These special locks are available at TravelSmith, Sharper Image and the like, usually for $10 and up.
I found TSA-approved locks in the hardware department at Wal-Mart: four to a package for about $8, keys included. Packs of two were available for a bit more per lock.
In the letter titled “India (and Asia) Travel Tips” (June ’07, pg. 14), Jane Holt wrote, regarding an upcoming trip to India, “Since our current passports will expire before our visas, we’ll just travel with both old and new passports rather than each pay the $25 fee to transfer the visas to our new passports.”
This is in reference to the letter from the couple who missed a cruise due to the lack of, in a passport, an entire blank page for a South African visa stamp (June ’07, pg. 32). We encountered a similar problem on a Holland America cruise from Lisbon to Cape Town, Oct. 17-Nov. 7, 2006.
The letter “Missed Cruise Due to Visa Snafu” (June ’07, pg. 32) highlighted the potential danger in not having sufficient blank pages in your passport. A couple was denied boarding in Frankfurt for their flight to South Africa because they each did not have a full page remaining in their passport for the required visa on arrival (they had booked the cruise and flight through Princess Cruises). They, like many travelers, were unaware that a full blank page was needed.
Dear Steve, I’d like your input regarding the editor’s statement on page 2 of the February ’07 issue. He wrote that U.S. air travelers can lock their checked bags and added, “Of course, Travel Sentry® Certified locks must be used.”
That these locks must be used is not entirely true. For the past several years I’ve checked bags at both Washington, D.C., airports for international flights and used my own little padlocks.
I was part of a group of eight friends who arranged a trip to Iran, Nov. 19-30, 2006, with the help of a guide, Saied Haji Hadi, or Hadi, at All Around Persia (Tehran, Iran; phone 0098-21-2357580 [or 81, 82 or 83], fax 2357584, e-mail info@allaroundpersia.com or visit www.allaround persia.com). All our correspondence was in English; we told Hadi what we wanted to see and he added the things we did not even know existed.
