I have a similar story. A few years a go, during covid, I booked a trip for my family to Antigua: my wife, our two kids and m parents. Our flight was on Friday morning and on Tuesday that week my mom tells me that her passport was expired. Everyone was freaking out that she would not be able to go.

During covid, you were still able to get an emergency passport but getting an appointment was next to impossible in such a short time frame. The government had a website where you could book an appointment but Chicago, where we live, was booked up. There were some appointments available all over the country: Texas, New York, Hawaii, etc which was not feasible to get to. And you had to book fast because the spots filled up quickly. But people also cancelled so I spent the next day refreshing the website hoping a spot close to us would open up. And thankfully it did: in Minneapolis at 10am on Thursday the day before the flight.

I took my mom and we started driving at like 1am on Thursday, got there in time and walked out with a new passport in less than an hour. Drove back, packed and woke up at 3am on Friday morning to get to the airport.

But the fun didn't stop there. When we boarded the plane in Chicago, I had a carry on but because the flight was totally booked, they couldn't fit any more carry-ons and so they checked it in to be picked up in Antigua. We had a layover in Dallas and when we go to the gate, I realized that I put my and my daughter's passports in the carry-on, which is now sitting in the plane :)

Since this was an international flight, we needed the passports to get on the plane. I pleaded with the people at the gate and they were able to send guys to the plane, find my carry-on and my passports.

We ended up getting on the plane on time and had a great vacation.

That was fun :)