Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s $110.

We haven’t been able to travel anywhere much. My last time internationally was in 1998. Yep. A good amount of domestic travel for family though. All of my travel budget has gone there.

I have an intl trip booked for July!

It's $110 for the book + $35 for the acceptance fee. So $145 total.

true, but I don't think it's the cost that holds americans back from getting one, it's lack of interest.

You must be one of those who think that they are middle class on an HHI of $300K and think that living in a SFH in Bethesda or McLean is standard Middle Class living.

You are out of touch with the reality that the average family of four does not have $580 to spend on something that they will not use before it expires. Very few people can afford to travel out of the country on a whim just because they got a good deal. Most average Americans have to plan for an international trip and will get passports as part of the planning and will budget for the passports as a part of the trip, rather than just a staple to have lying around, just on the off chance that they get the opportunity to go on a trip out of the country and can afford it.

I know a lot of people who have to budget for a trip to the beach, so are unlikely to be able to afford a trip out of the country without some budgeting.

um... over 60% of Americans don't have a passport. Some probably because they can't afford it. I was just speculating that an even bigger reason main is they really don't have any interest in traveling overseas, and many of the above posts conform that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s $110.

We haven’t been able to travel anywhere much. My last time internationally was in 1998. Yep. A good amount of domestic travel for family though. All of my travel budget has gone there.

I have an intl trip booked for July!

It's $110 for the book + $35 for the acceptance fee. So $145 total.

true, but I don't think it's the cost that holds americans back from getting one, it's lack of interest.

You must be one of those who think that they are middle class on an HHI of $300K and think that living in a SFH in Bethesda or McLean is standard Middle Class living.

You are out of touch with the reality that the average family of four does not have $580 to spend on something that they will not use before it expires. Very few people can afford to travel out of the country on a whim just because they got a good deal. Most average Americans have to plan for an international trip and will get passports as part of the planning and will budget for the passports as a part of the trip, rather than just a staple to have lying around, just on the off chance that they get the opportunity to go on a trip out of the country and can afford it.

I know a lot of people who have to budget for a trip to the beach, so are unlikely to be able to afford a trip out of the country without some budgeting.

It's conceivable that we might save up money and vacation to take an international trip someday. But it's not going to be last minute! We'd plan it out for months, which would be plenty of time to get passports. It's a tiny, tiny proportion of families that can not only afford international travel, but can also do it spontaneously without planning at least a month or two in advance.

After my passport expired, I had no interest in renewing it. I no longer want to travel outside the US any more, certainly not to *hole countries our great president has declared them to be.

I have seen all of Europe and Asia I ever want to see. I would not travel to Africa even if given a free trip, neither S. America or Latin America, heck, not even south Texas for that matter.

I'm done. If I am itching to see a place I'll go to Google maps and take a virtual tour to see old buildings and cobbled streets, tiny crappy cars squeezing between run down buildings, and other things.

I can save myself the hassle of kicking my heels at airports, waiting, and waiting, and waiting some more, checking in and out of hotels or Gasthauses, and the general hassle and inconvenience of it all.

No more travel for me. It is not a money issue, it is a "I have better things to do with my time than look at stuff over there." If I want to be treated like a money bag, I'll watch an infomercial to get the same experience.
That seems all tourists are these days, something to take as much money from all the while smiling and wishing you a pleasant trip.

Done!

DH, DD and I all got ours 4 years ago. We'll be using DD's for the first time this summer (she's currently 6). I think we'll end up renewing hers in the spring before it expires. We like to have it just incase we plan a last minute international trip (most likely Caribbean).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I lived in Raleigh, NC a few years ago, I had to renew my passport and the Post Office offered passport renewal like once a month. Reflective of the demand down in that backwards red state, which is most of the US

We took a cousin who lives in an impoverished area of Ohio on a trip abroad with us. She got her passport with a next-day appointment at the local courthouse. Meanwhile around here, the soonest appointment at our nearest post office (after 10 phone calls to get them to answer the phone) was 6 weeks out. The demand just isn't there where she lives.

What are you taking about? You can get your passport renewed same day at the passport office in downtown DC, something they don’t have in rural Ohio. I have done it multiple times.

Yes, but there's a premium for that service. PP was indicating that demand is so low in Ohio she just happened to get a next day appointment. Doesn't mean the passport actually arrived the next day.

My brother lives in rural Maine. We happened to be visiting him when it was time to renew my 10yr DDs passport. I called up the courthouse in his town to inquire about getting an appointment. They asked me why would I need an appointment. I packed all of the necessary documents and we went on our visit. One morning we got up and strolled into the courthouse. In and out in under 15 min with no appointment. The passport arrived back at our house before the date of my DC based appointment would have occurred.

Anonymous wrote:Passports are expensive

Americans don't have the kind of annual leave that other countries have. I'm at the point in my life where I have extra money for more travel, but I have zero annual leave. I'm still in the annual leave hole thanks to a similar lack of maternity leave.

Ditto to this--lack of annual leave, plus the cost, means that many people don't travel internationally.

Also--America is a really big country. There are lots of places to vacation that do not require a passport.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I lived in Raleigh, NC a few years ago, I had to renew my passport and the Post Office offered passport renewal like once a month. Reflective of the demand down in that backwards red state, which is most of the US

We took a cousin who lives in an impoverished area of Ohio on a trip abroad with us. She got her passport with a next-day appointment at the local courthouse. Meanwhile around here, the soonest appointment at our nearest post office (after 10 phone calls to get them to answer the phone) was 6 weeks out. The demand just isn't there where she lives.

What are you taking about? You can get your passport renewed same day at the passport office in downtown DC, something they don’t have in rural Ohio. I have done it multiple times.

Yes, but there's a premium for that service. PP was indicating that demand is so low in Ohio she just happened to get a next day appointment. Doesn't mean the passport actually arrived the next day.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s $110.

We haven’t been able to travel anywhere much. My last time internationally was in 1998. Yep. A good amount of domestic travel for family though. All of my travel budget has gone there.

I have an intl trip booked for July!

It's $110 for the book + $35 for the acceptance fee. So $145 total.

true, but I don't think it's the cost that holds americans back from getting one, it's lack of interest.

I know it's hard to believe, but it's the cost for me and my family. 40% of Americans can't cover a $400 unexpected expense. We're in that 40%.
Not likely I'm going to find $580 for our passports plus some number of thousands to travel overseas this summer. Deplorable!

Thank you, OP. You reminded me to renew my child’s passport.

Passports are expensive

Americans don't have the kind of annual leave that other countries have. I'm at the point in my life where I have extra money for more travel, but I have zero annual leave. I'm still in the annual leave hole thanks to a similar lack of maternity leave.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s $110.

We haven’t been able to travel anywhere much. My last time internationally was in 1998. Yep. A good amount of domestic travel for family though. All of my travel budget has gone there.

I have an intl trip booked for July!

It's $110 for the book + $35 for the acceptance fee. So $145 total.

true, but I don't think it's the cost that holds americans back from getting one, it's lack of interest.

Anonymous wrote:It’s $110.

We haven’t been able to travel anywhere much. My last time internationally was in 1998. Yep. A good amount of domestic travel for family though. All of my travel budget has gone there.

I have an intl trip booked for July!

It's $110 for the book + $35 for the acceptance fee. So $145 total.

The reason I don't have a passport isn't the cost. It's because I literally haven't needed it since my honeymoon 9 years ago, after which it expired. I meant to get it renewed, but I never got around to it because it wasn't a priority. I don't travel at all for work, and we use up all of our vacation days traveling domestically to visit or vacation with family anyway.

I have many family members that have never been on a airplane or even left the state I was born in.