Travel documents and money

mattharris692

Hello,

First holiday abroad in several years and am travelling to USA.


My holiday includes international and domestic flights within USA.

What documentation will be required for the international flight as well as my passport?

For USA domestic flights as a UK citizen.   Will I need my passport for these flights and what documentation will be required?


Additionally, what is the best way to take holiday money and spends.   I am able to use my debit card abroad without charges, so my thoughts are to use that and also take some dollars in cash as well? 

Robin9

For your International flights you will need an ESTA -    

I found the US to be quite backward in terms of credit cards and contactless -   its still quite a cash society


Edit -  don't joke with US Security and Customs staff - and the process is slow.

NoodleDoodleMan

You shouldn't need passport for internal domestic flights AFAIK - although it is the "senior" form of ID where required.

I would suggest a Chase UK current account debit card - the American parent bank have a widespread network of branches and ATMs.

Works a treat with the app on an iPhone etc. - and no fees at Chase machines.

https://locator.chase.com/search

DullGreyGuy

mattharris692 said:

What documentation will be required for the international flight as well as my passport?

For USA domestic flights as a UK citizen.   Will I need my passport for these flights and what documentation will be required?


Additionally, what is the best way to take holiday money and spends.   I am able to use my debit card abroad without charges, so my thoughts are to use that and also take some dollars in cash as well? 

In principle your passport should be enough but if border control decide they dont like the look of you it can be helpful to have print offs of your hotel bookings, return flights, ESTA etc. You technically aren't allowed to use your phone at the border though these days most agents are probably more relaxed. 

For a domestic flight, you need proof of ID, the official list of acceptable items are https://www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening/identification for which the easiest is going to be your passport. 

Debit card is widely accepted, US is more backwards than UK and chip & sign is more common there too. Make sure your card is signed, problem I had, your more likely to avoid ATM fees via Chase rather than my normally preferred Starling. Generally would carry some cash but get it from an ATM when I'm there.

amanda1024

I think there's quite a bit of variety within the US - I managed a week in DC without any cash a couple of years ago (due to lack of organisation on my part). But I would suggest taking some currency. I found contactless was quite widespread - and for small transactions, even if contactless didn't work, you'd just need to press enter rather than entering the pin (slightly worrying for security!)

Also one thing that caught me out - if you're paying at e.g. a restaurant, they'll take the card to the till and bring back the receipt, which will have a space to write how much tip you want to add and the total and a signature - they won't need to run the card again with the tip included. Unlike in the UK where often they'll bring a card reader to the table and it'll ask if you want to add a tip.

heatherw_01

A lot will say just take a credit card, but I personally ALWAYS take cash too.

For the USA, I pay gas and restaurants by cash.

I had issues using a card at the pump, and restaurants often swipe the card that puts a hold on a certain amount until the amount is finalised (think this is due to tipping?) so I never pay card for restaurants to avoid that hold.

I have also had some places that were cash only (only a few).