There is a passport application sitting on a credenza next to my front door. It’s been there for a few weeks — not yet yellow and dust coated, but showing every likelihood that it will become that way down the road. The initial burn of my travel dreams warmed me through the online portion of the process, but fizzled at the thought of getting photos and making an appointment to turn in the paperwork. It’s all such a huge bureaucratic pain in the ass, and it’s spendy.
What I’m saying is that, like many Americans, I just haven’t been able to gather the financial and emotional resources needed to get a passport.
Qantas Air is ready to help people like me who don’t yet hold a passport or need a renewal. They will pay your passport fee when you book one of their Australia flights from the U.S. This is part of the airline’s “Not Your Typical Airline” campaign which has been timed to herald the arrival of Qantas new 787 Dreamliner.
And, there are a lot of people who can benefit from this deal. In 2016, the State Department reports 131,841,062 passports were in circulation. That means 59.19 percent of the population are in this promotion’s sweet spot.
It would be really excellent if the deal meant that a marsupial of some sort would accompany you throughout the process, like a therapy wombat perhaps. Sadly, the fine print doesn’t indicate this is the case. Instead, what the airline offers is a $135 discount on the base price of tickets to Australia. That’s roughly the price of a passport. If you are interested in getting in on this deal, go to https://quantas.com/passport and enter the promo code PASSPORT. It’s valid for every U.S. citizen scoring tickets, regardless of whether or not they currently hold a passport.
And, for those interested in visiting Australia, Qantas is definitely the airline of choice with more non-stop flights per week between the U.S. and Australia than any other carrier. Plus, they offer direct flights from San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Dallas/Fort Worth, and Vancouver.
