U.K. and Ireland - Is questioning @ Boarding Gates and on Jetways the norm now for UK?

Recently while returning to Canada from VIE via LHR, I faced a few questions at the gate in VIE (OS flight to LHR). Questions like where I am coming from, for how many days I stayed, where am I headed, etc.

My flight from VIE to LHR was on OS. The kiosk check-in in VIE are all automated and only issued me the boarding pass to LHR. It did not give the boarding pass for the AC flight from LHR to YYZ. I was to check-in for AC @ LHR.....
I did not check any baggage, I only had 1 carry-on.

And when we landed in LHR, we had the UKBA checking everyone's passports in the jetway when we got off.
Since I could not get the AC boarding pass until I get to transfer desk, could they be thinking I am going to the UK?

I want to know whether this is normal or was I singled out for extra questioning, specially at the gate in VIE......I know the gate agent was doing document check for everyone but I didn't notice many being asked a lot of questions. I was asked a lot of questions which I answered. Didn't want to spoil the journey. She did have some sort of paper with little squares for checking documents or something.

I was traveling on Canadian passport all the way. Is this the norm or are certain people singled out because of color and religion despite holding a western country's passport?

Would be good to know, so that I can avoid (transiting through) UK in the future and use the Schengen airports instead such as FRA, MUC, AMS, etc.
Don't wanna upset the British by making them think I will stay in their country.

Apologies if this has been asked before, kindly point me to the old thread if there is one on this issue. I was more puzzled by the gate questioning rather than the UKBA in the jetway.....that one was very brief.

My friend was asked similar questions while boarding at ams on dl to Bom. 5 of us were not but he was. Looked random to me, but he did freak out a bit.

In common with many countries, the airline will get fined heavily if they fly someone to the UK who isn't eligible for entry. This would explain the questioning at VIE - something which would otherwise have taken place at check-in had you done that in person. Presumably you had a copy of your itinerary with you?

Passport inspections on the air bridge are again a tactic to foil illegal immigration - people were 'losing' their documents (in the bins of a public toilet etc).

Don't think I've ever had this myself in the UK but they must know which flights are particularly 'hot' for this. I do remember having it years back at AMS coming in from Istanbul.

I had this for years when commuting to/from AMS.

I've had a few unexpected checks on the jetway, both at LHR and other European airports. I've always assumed that either my flight has been chosen for a random check, or there's specific intelligence about my flight that demands extra attention.

Nothing to worry about, and I wouldn't avoid transiting a country because of it :confused:

I have had it too, as Swiss Tony says, it is just a tactic to try to catch people who dump or change documents at a later stage.

Not having the connecting ticket is normal too - that's why they have all those connection desks issuing them!!

You have not had anything out of the normal range of events IMHO.

"Extra" documentation checks at the gate have been the norm for flights to Canada from the UK and Europe for as long as I can remember. They usually ask me basic questions about why I'm going to Canada. Sometimes they do passport checks at the gate on arrival in Canada as you disembark, too.

I believe these checks are performed by private contractors, they aren't UKBA or CSBA employees.

For flight to the US they do it slightly differently - usually there's people in the check-in / bag-drop queues who attach a special sticker to your passport once it's been checked, then the airline gate agents check for that sticker at boarding time.

Interesting that they are now doing gate checks at VIE for a flight to the UK, I don't think I've encountered that before. But either way, although it's slightly annoying, it isn't specific to the UK and it hardly constitutes harassment!?

The VIE thing was probably the airline or its contractors trying to make sure people had the right documentation. The UKBA in the jetway is a random check; sometimes as mentioned above people seek to destroy their travel documents in order to impair their removal from the UK.

I've had extra checks flying to/from the US and even had my bag searched on they jetway one year at LHR. Not too fussed as it was a seemingly random pick, they just grabbed every xth passenger and asked them to step over to the table.

I want to know whether this is normal or was I singled out for extra questioning.....I was traveling on Canadian passport all the way. Is this the norm or are certain people singled out because of color and religion despite holding a western country's passport?
I am presuming by the way you write this that you do not look/act/talk like a stereotypical Canadian.

The UK Border Agency are trying to deal with an enormous number of frauds by those trying to enter and stay in the UK illegally. This is why documents are checked before departure and upon arrival of individual flights. There are a range of further frauds between those point by those who destroy their documents mid-flight and then turn up in the UK and claim asylum or claim they are UK citizens. They can be turned back but if they do not have any evidence of their nationality, and deny it then they get into a stalemate position. To overcome this checks at both points are part of the attempts to overcome this. Vienna, by the way, has a record as a transit point for such travellers.

Canadian passports do appear to have been given more freely to those from the target countries, as you are possibly aware, so the passport type is not as significant as the actual characteristics of the passenger. Hence the close questioning, which if you can answer straightforwardly without getting into a hiatus about it, so much the better. If you do originally come from, or appear to come from, one of the target countries (and there are a limited number) then you really need to look first to your fellow, or former fellow, citizens who have caused such trouble and grief to the UK border controls.

At one time there was talk about the British government requiring airlines to take a photocopy or scan of each passenger's passport details page: this was going to apply, at the outset anyway, only to flights from certain places (of which, I imagine, Vienna was not one).

The idea of this was to prevent passengers arriving in the UK from saying, "I lost my papers on the way but I'm really a Somali/an Iraqi Kurd/a Sri Lankan/whatever."

Does anyone know if this was very implemented? (One of the objections from the airlines was that it would increase their expenses and make check-times appreciably longer.)

At one time there was talk about the British government requiring airlines to take a photocopy or scan of each passenger's passport details page: ......Does anyone know if this was very implemented?
I believe it was given up because it was held to be insufficient evidence to repatriate those claiming asylum upon arrival in the UK.

I believe it was given up because it was held to be insufficient evidence to repatriate those claiming asylum upon arrival in the UK.
Yes, I did wonder about that aspect of it at the time. Of course, it is now still open to people to "lose" their papers while on the plane ("My passport fell down the lavatory and I accidentally pushed the 'flush' button...") whatever checks are carried out just before passengers board.

One of the issues is that the administrations in key target countries require "positive" proof that the person being deported to their country is actually one of their own citizens. If they have destroyed their real, original passport and deny where they really come from, that again is one of the stalemates that the officials can get into.

I believe it was given up because it was held to be insufficient evidence to repatriate those claiming asylum upon arrival in the UK.

There was also significant concern raised regarding data privacy when these copies were collected at points outside the EU (and hence not subject to EU Data Privacy restrictions). This never stopped the Dutch for example from enforcing the same policy, but the UK decided to back off as a result.

One of the issues is that the administrations in key target countries require "positive" proof that the person being deported to their country is actually one of their own citizens.

Pretty much every country that insists on "positive proof" is not somewhere that the UK involuntarily deports people to anyway.

Predictableness (is that a word) is wonderful for terrorists. Remember those silly SSS on one way ticket boarding passes in the USA? If you were a terrorist - you would avoid that. Being unpredictable and random and checking in jetways all helps to foil terrorism.