Top Reasons to Avoid Placing Your Passport in Your Carry-On

Here’s a reminder to always keep your passport in your personal item.

Every time I head to the airport for an international flight, I constantly check to make sure my passport is where it’s supposed to be — even if I haven’t touched it since the last time I looked. As any frequent traveler knows, your passport is your lifeline when going abroad.

While most travelers keep their passports on them at all times during international travel, there’s a potential hiccup in the journey to avoid — and it involves putting your passport in your carry-on suitcase.

Travelers are typically allowed to bring a personal item and carry-on luggage with them in the airplane cabin (though basic economy tickets might only allow a personal item). However, it might seem like a good idea to place your passport in a secure pocket of your carry-on suitcase where it’s less likely to get lost, this could be a major mistake.

The issue arises when a gate agent or flight attendant informs you that you’ll need to check your carry-on bag at the gate. Most often, gate-checking occurs when flights are full and there’s insufficient overhead bin space for luggage. Typically, gate agents will ask passengers to voluntarily gate-check bags before boarding starts, but if not enough bags are checked then, passengers in later boarding zones may be required to gate-check.

Packing Tip

iBestTravel recommends a protective passport cover with RFID-blocking technology to keep your identity safe.

When you gate-check a carry-on backpack or suitcase, your bag will be tagged to your final destination and then brought by a member of the ground crew from the gate to the cargo hold of the plane. Consequently, you won’t be able to retrieve your bag until reaching baggage claim. If your passport is in that bag, and you’re traveling internationally, you probably won’t have your passport on your person when you get to border control, which occurs before baggage claim at the airport. Without your passport, entering the country could become impossible.

“If you accidentally gate-check your bag and it has your passport in it, the best thing to do is approach an airline customer service representative at the gate where the plane arrived to inform them of what happened,” Dan Bubb, a professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and former airline pilot, conveys. In some cases, airport staff might locate your bag and bring it to you to complete your immigration process. However, this situation might require a bit of luck.

Another option would be to contact the embassy at your destination and hope they might provide assistance, but entering the country without your passport might prove difficult. As noted by Simple Flying, one passenger who lost their passport during a flight to Japan was presented with the option of applying for a special visa to enter the country without a passport. If granted, that scenario would likely trigger extra security on all flights moving forward, certainly not an ideal circumstance.

More likely than not, if you arrive at a border without a passport, you’d be turned away and sent back on the first flight to your country of origin. And who knows when your gate-checked carry-on, with your passport inside, may arrive.

If you mistakenly gate-check your passport on your flight home from an international destination, it presents a different story. In that case, you may work with border patrol officials to establish your identity and be let into your home country, but this is entirely at the discretion of the agents. In any event, it will certainly take some time, and it won’t be a particularly pleasant process.

The bottom line: always, always, always keep your passport on your person or in your personal item — one that will never be gate-checked. Moreover, you should keep important travel documents, like visas and vaccination records, in your possession at all times, along with essential medications or medical equipment.