Lost U.S. Passport Pearson Toronto Airport Customs Experience.

Sharing this experience in case it helps anyone who might be in a similar situation in the future:

disclaimer, this was my experience and that may not be yours. We may also have different risk tolerances. If in doubt, contact the embassy for emergency passports.

I lost my U.S. passport in Toronto this week while traveling for work and had a return flight home booked with American Airlines. I didn’t have a checked bag, so decided to just keep on through the TSA pre-check lane (s/o to American customer service call rep who told me to “give it a shot”) where they only scan your boarding pass. Then at CBP (with Global Entry/precheck), they only scan your face before clearing you, so just walked through customs with no passport request. At the American Airlines gate, i calmly explained my situation and they asked if i made it through customs with any issue and then said it was fine and i could show my U.S. drivers license or a picture of my passport during the actual gate boarding passport check. Walked onto my flight.

A few things helped:

- I had pictures of my passport and global entry ID on my phone just case (though I wasn’t asked for them)

- Being enrolled in Global Entry was the main variable here in my favor

- No bag check so I didn’t need to wait at airline check-in counter and had a return flight

- American Airlines could have been more flexible than Delta or Air Canada, etc.

- i had uploaded my passport to the AA flight app before my departure to Toronto in the U.S. (I mentioned this to the gate agent)

Quite lucky but hope this helps someone if you’re in same situation.