So Easy, A Travel Agent Can Do It...Or Maybe Not

This is really sad to say because I am a travel agent and should know better, but...I was denied boarding once when I was taking my daughter to Cancun for a few days!

 

I am married and myself and my daughter were heading to Cancun for four days along with my cousin and her daughter. (My cousin is ALSO a travel agent!) I was flying Continental and my cousin was flying American and we both were denied boarding because we didn't have the proper documentation. My cousin is divorced and she had a letter from her ex-husband along with a copy of his drivers license, stating that he gave permission for her to take their daughter out of the country.  I am married, and had the same letter giving me permission to take our daughter out of the country.

The problem was.... neither of our letters were NOTORIZED, so they both denied us boarding.

The airline put us on the next available flight schedule and we scrambled to figure out how to get the letters notorized before the next flight left (The airport was 1.5hrs from our home). We paged the airport to see if there was a notory around.  Two pages...no response.  Just when we were ready to leave the airport to drive to where we worked (an hour away) to get a notory to sign our papers.... we paged one more time and someone answered the page! 

It was a worker in one of the airport shops!   We went to that shop, got our papers notorized and each of us gave her $10 just for helping us out! We got to Cancun later than expected, but DID get there! I always share that story with my clients who are traveling out of the country with children!  I let them know that even ME, a TRAVEL AGENT, can get denied boarding!