Airport Drama

So Alison and I were all packed up and ready to go. We arrived at SFO airport at 9am for our 11:08 am flight. After checking our bags, getting boarding passes and making sure we could get into Thailand, we proceeded to security check point. We took off our sweaters and shoes and put our bags through the machine. Lo and behold a miracle happened. Once we passed through security we were cleared instantly. It was 10:10 am and we still had just under an hour to get on the plane.

Alison was ahead of me and she went to get her purse and shoes, but in the 10 seconds of walking through the metal detector and picking up her things, her passport and boarding pass disappeared. I was putting my laptop back in my backpack when she said, "Uh my passport just disappeared." So of course it had to be somewhere around, maybe misplaced or on the floor or something. No panic. We informed security who searched through the bins for the missing documents, but searched to no avail.

As timed inched near our departure, the security guards told us to wait while they looked through video surveilance tapes. I went to the gate to see if they would let Alison board without a passport. She had a photocopy of her passport, birth certificate, social security and she had her driver's license. None of that mattered. She needed a passport.

One security guard said that the airport would refund her money or reschedule her flight free of charge. I asked about me and they said no. I had no excuse, they deamed as valid for missing my flight. Pricks. Alison tried to contact Customs to see if she could get a temporary passport. No luck there. Not to mention that today is Veteran's Day, which basically means all government offices are closed. While she was asking around for passport info, our bags were pulled from the plane and it left without us. We were not going to Asia today... or tomorrow.

I had gone back through to the United desk to see if we could change our flight. Luckily, they said that they would change it free of charge for both of us! Next step was to get our backpacks from baggage claim. In the meantime, Alison was checking up on how much it would cost to get an expedited passport. A whopping $450 otherwise known as a three weeks of living expenses in Thailand. Bust. She'd get the passport by 4pm tomorrow and our new flight was for 1pm. So it was back to the desk to change it for 11am on Thursday arriving in Bangkok Friday at 11:45pm.

Jeff (Alison's Dad) picked us up at around 1:30 and we've been researching visas and passport stuff for the last two hours. Let's just hope this is the only ridiculous mess we get into. So keep your fingers crossed and maybe we'll get to Thailand after all.