Check your passports...

As a point of reference , my US passport , issued in 2009 , is equipped with the electronic chip

Passports with chips began being issued in 2006 sometime, so anyone who has a passport older than that wouldn't be able to travel on it anyway. The problem is with people whose passports were issued immediately prior are just about to expire.

Canadians and US green card holders are processed like US citizens when arriving by air.

How can I tell if my passport has an electronic chip?

How can I tell if my passport has an electronic chip?

For US passports, there is a small gold symbol that looks like two bars with a circle in the center towards the bottom of the front cover. See a picture here.

Airlines would be smart to warn passengers as they're making online reservations that chip technology is required.

Airlines don't care about it when you buy the tickets, though there may be some small print somewhere with a warning. However, when you check in for your flight, they do check to make sure you are eligible to enter your destination country and if you aren't, they will refuse to check you in. They don't want to be stuck with you. Or maybe it's in the IATA or Warsaw regs.

And, yes, Nicole, VWP doesn't apply to Canada or Mexico.

It is a small window of people this may affect, but just in case - it's not something I would have thought to check - I would just figure my passport was valid and off I'd go. Most Ricniks seem to do their due diligence :)

I received an email from Virgin Atlantic/Delta Airlines back in March notifying me that they require an electronic passport for my upcoming trip to England in July. I got my passport in 2011 and it does have the electronic chip.

My US passport was issued June 8, 2007 (so it's still good for a year). It does not have the chip, and was one of the last ones not to have it. The official website says that chips were started for US passports in August 2007 (scroll down to "The U.S. Electronic Passport"): https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/passports/FAQs.html

Thanks for the heads up; I'm not going to Europe until the fall, but I'll make sure my low tech passport will still work then.

Thanks Eric. I am flying to London next month on Delta and they have not sent me any notification about needing a passport with a chip. Now I will have to get my passport out of a safe deposit box on the mainland and check out if I have that chip. aloha charlie

I read it that the British need the chip, not that US citizens do.