Passport Book VS Passport Card??? About This Page:

[MaryEL8775]

Ok I am a little unsure about which to get for our trip. The book is $100 and the card is $45. So budget wise I am thinking of the card but for safety's sake if anything were to happen while we are at port which would you recommend?

[Colexis Mom]

I'd recommend the book. The "card" is not valid for air travel, and if one of you gets sick and needs to be airlifted out, that's going to be a problem!

[TLisi]

Yep, the book. The card is only good for land travel...Mexico and Canada...it's costly...we just applied for ours...make sure when you do it, you take all forms of payment. The website doesn't breakdown who takes what. We were able to pay for the processing fees and photos with a credit card, but had to write a personal check for the actual passport. The check got sent to California with our applications...fees and photo money stayed with City Hall where we applied. The whole process was much quicker than we thought it would be. I do recommend filling out your forms on line and taking them in...that was part of what made it so fast.

[iamgrumpy]

The passport card won't allow you to fly in from outside the US its only for travel between Mexico, Canada and the US by car, or for flying within the US say from CT to CA or FL but not from an outside country.

So while the book is more expensive it will give you more freedom over all and if you have a medical emergency will help you get you to the US faster etc. Plus for those who are over 16 its valid for 10 years and 5 years for those under 16 so you do have the opportunity to use them again maybe for an Adventures by Disney trip abroad or another cruise etc.

[MaryEL8775]

Well the reason I asked this was because you can use the card for sea travel to and from the caribbean. And we don't intend on traveling again anytime soon.

[iamgrumpy]

Right but if your mom, your kids, your DH or yourself have to fly home from one of the ports due to medical reasons, or just another type of situation for any reason you won't be able to fly into the US without a full passport.

You can choose to get the passport card and it might work for you but in an emergency you might find that you should have gotten the full passport and been done with it.

Plus while you may not plan right now to go anywhere else, you never know what might pop up and having one might be useful.

So its your choice what you get but personally I rather just get the full passport and know I am covered regardless rather then worry about later on having something happen and getting stuck and have more stress.

[Wendyismyname]

Originally Posted by MaryEL8775

Well the reason I asked this was because you can use the card for sea travel to and from the caribbean. And we don't intend on traveling again anytime soon.

Okay, but what are you going to do if someone gets sick and has to fly home or something happens like a death in the family? I had thought about just doing the SeaCard but those questions right there made me realize having a Passport would be the best option.

[chezp]

I would go with the book as well.

[Hartster]

Take the cost of the passport book and divide it by the number of years it's valid for. That's the true cost of the book, per year. And IMHO, the $55 difference between the card and the book really isn't a lot - that's like a good family dinner out, or not buying three photos on the cruise.

[Dave Marx]

I'm a "book" person myself. The way I look at it is, while you have no plans to fly out of the U.S. right now, within the next 10 years, what are the chances of getting a really great deal on a long weekend in Cancun, a week's stay in Jamaica, or a romantic getaway to Paris?

Since Michigan is a border state, eventually we'll have the Enhanced Drivers License - the equivlaent of the passport card. I'm going to get one of those, too, because it never hurts to have a waterproof, back-up Federal ID. If I'm flying domestically, driving over to Canada, or leaving the ship in a Caribbean port of call, I'd rather carry that than the more fragile and bulky passport book. BUT, the passport book will still travel with me on cruises, too.

While they're allowing the passport card for sea travel to the Caribbean and Bahamas, it has always really been intended for people who live near and commute across the border, as a compact and durable daily pass.

[VB_Family]

Hmmm the book has it... but then I travel all over the world and it is so worth it!! Just go for it

[dmpyron]

The book. You can make spur of the moment travel plans and not have to worry. There's something real attractive about Qantas' $1100 three stops tickets.

And some Caribbean countries are starting to require passports.

I read a while back that something like 30% of Americans have passports, while almost 65% of Europeans do. Even though they don't need them to travel between EU countries.

[VB_Family]

I bet that number for Europeans is higher than that... I found in Eastern Europe that people couldn't even get a phone without a passport... so everyone I knew or had contact with had one with them all the time!

[Hartster]

Another advantage of the book is that it can also be used an ID, for renewing driver's licenses, cashing checks, changing money in a foreign country, verification of who you are for employment (and in my case, verification of who I am when I'm visiting a local school....)

The card can do the same thing, but most people are familiar with the book than the card. It's like the IDs issued by the county and non-driver IDs issued by the state... they're valid, but I give them an extra scrutiny since I don't see them that often.