Canada is NOT the 51st State

Good Tuesday morning to everyone, and welcome to the 7th edition of Tuesday Travel Tips with Tiffany! To read previous editions, you can find them here.

Are we sensing a theme, yet, for the overly obvious titles? I know that I shouldn't have to tell you, dear readers, some of these overly obvious facts, but unfortunately, there're a lot of people out there that are JUST.PLAIN.CLUELESS.

Picture this:

You're standing in the security line at Terminal D at DFW airport. 90% of the flights that depart from Terminal D are international. So it's a pretty fair bet that 90% of the people going through security are headed somewhere other than...here.

The line inches forward. The couple in front of you dutifully has their tickets out, as well as their drivers' licenses, ready to present to the TSA employee. So...perhaps they're part of the 10% who happen to have a domestic flight departing from Terminal D.

They're not.

They're headed to Vancouver. As in Canada.

The TSA employee is well-grounded in geography. When the couple hands over their drivers' licenses, he politely asks them for their passports.

You, standing patiently behind them, can only sigh.

"What do you mean, you need to see our passports? We're only going to Canada." The wife is a bit...indignant.

"Ma'am, you need a passport to fly to a foreign country." They don't pay the TSA folks nearly enough.

"We fly to Canada ALL.THE.TIME. We've never needed a passport before!" The husband isn't about to say a word...wifey is handling this one.

"Ma'am, when is the last time you flew to Canada?" Like I said, they don't pay these people enough.

"Well, uh, three years ago." Her voice is oh so slightly less strident.

"Ma'am, three years ago, you wouldn't have needed a passport. But due to security regulation changes over the past two years, anyone flying to Canada or Mexico now needs their passports."

"Oh. I may have seen something like that on the news. Well, we don't have our passports with us. Could we make an exception this just one time?" Suddenly, wifey is TSA dude's best friend. Her voice is now butter.

"No, ma'am. It's a federal regulation. You will not be allowed to board a plane to Canada without a passport."

Before your head explodes, dear passenger stuck behind these people, we'll leave this scene before it becomes really ugly.

So the moral of this story is...Canada is NOT the 51st State. Passports, people. Travel prepared!

Until next time...

Safe Travels!