If you've already bought a ticket or are about too, always pay for expedited processing for passport, visa, whatever if there is any chance you'll be cutting it close. That's common sense. Aren't these bloggers supposed to be travel experts of some kind? I

Sorry but what is the big deal about getting a passport? JUST GET ONE ALREADY! It's not that hard and not that expensive either!! Of course, there are those who whine about everything you have to go through to get a car or a drivers license too...but it all boils down to if you want to drive you have to have a license and a registered car. So too, you want to travel abroad, GET A PASSPORT!

Congrats on getting the passport on time, but why does the Passport Office turn away offers of more revenue - if someone wants to pay $60 to expedite processing, they should be able to do so at any time - hasn't the PO heard that there's a huge federal deficit?

about 15 years ago, there was a same-day passport office in DC that you could go to in person. Is that still around?

I learned the hard way about fast passport processing. My husband did not look for his passport until the Thursday before the Tuesday we were leaving for Australia. If you google fast passport, you will get many brokers who will charge you hunderds of dollars to walk your renewal through the passport office and fedex it to you. OR if you live near one of the regional agencies listed on the page
http://travel.state.gov/passport/about/agencies/agencies_913.html
all you have to do is get all your documents stamped and verified at the post office as usual, then call the phone number listed for each office and schedule an appointment with the automated booker then show up at that time. You do have to wait a couple hours while they make your passport afterwards. It does cost more but my husband got his passport on Monday and we flew out the next day.

I don;t know who is in charge of the passport office, but that person needs to be commended for doing a great job. I had some problems renewing my passport and I got a letter in the mail stating that I needed to provide more documentation. I got the letter on a friday night but decided that I would try to call the number listed in the letter. Not only did I get a live person but that person actually called me back within an hour after they had called the office in Rhode Island where someone was able to get a hold of my passport, flip to the page in question and determine that I did not need to send them extra documentation after all. I got my passport back within days. The passport office does in deed ROCK! (I just wish that I could remember the name of the woman who helped me so that I could send her boss a letter).

I think the passport office is doing a fine job and Ms. Summers needs to understand how to PLAN AHEAD. Just because a website says "4 to 6 weeks" doesn't mean it works that well. Why didn't she pay the extra $60 if she was going to get so anxious. And sorry, one week out is not "down to the wire". That would be one or two days before her scheduled departure date. What a tempest in a teapot!

As she learned, the passport office did a great job of keeping her informed and keeping its promises. Mine expired in Sept of this year and although I don't have travel plans, of course I sent for a renewal. It arrived just when they said it would, priority mail, no problems. Let's commend the government offices that do a great job and not blame them for our own personal planning failures.

Woo! Go passport office!

Just to clarify -- when I sent my passport in for renewal, I didn't have any trips planned. Then, right after I sent it in, I impulsively decided to join a friend on a trip, hoping against hope that the Passport Office was correct in its estimate of taking four to six weeks to return renewed passports. I figured if not, I could always expedite it -- not realizing they'd make me wait till a week before the trip.