ND76

I was on Virgin Atlantic's A330-300 LHR-IAD on Tuesday 2/25, and the purser announced that there were only 89 pax on board (VS is the only airline I've been on where the passenger load is announced as they are getting ready to shut the door). According to seatguru.com, the total capacity is 268 pax.

AngelMcD

Something similar, but in the reverse, actually happened to me in the UK. I had flown from EDI to LHR and our flight landed at one of those outposts, so we had to get bussed to the terminal. The bus driver opened the door, let us all out and, as we were going up the escalator, asked the "gate agent" what terminal he was at. She said he was at T5 - international arrivals. He said "Oops. That was a flight from EDI. Oh well." This meant we all had to clear immigration...Which would have been fine except that I had flown EWR-DUB and then driven into Northern Ireland, then flown to Scotland. So my passport was stamped into Ireland, but not ROI (the UK). So, I couldn't actually prove when I had entered the UK. This became a huge hassle that ended up requiring multiple supervisors and a phone call to the car rental company to verify I had dropped my car off in Belfast. I spent HOURS there and, after finally being allowed through immigration, couldn't get to where my bag was. Now I hate T5. LOL.

But, seriously, it seems like this should be a relatively easy mistake to prevent.

etch5895

Wouldn't your boarding pass stub from edi to lhr have sufficed to prove that you had already been cleared?

Maxwell Smart

I think Delta's biggest concern should be that there were only 54 people on their LHR-JFK flight.

AngelMcD

One would think so. But nope. The issue was not having a stamp in my passport and, thus, no "official" record of when I entered the UK (I had car rental receipt from DUB to Belfast, boarding pass from Belfast to Glasgow and boarding pass from EDI to LHR). I offered my opinion that if the stamps were so important, perhaps they should then have a true border crossing between Ireland and North, but they were uninterested in my thoughts on the matter

I guess I'm lucky - given the UK's ever increasing crackdown on immigration and visa overstayers, this probably would have ended differently if this happened to me today!

ETA: I suppose I was never really cleared, as I never spoke to an immigration officer prior to my arrival in LHR. You literally just drive over the border in Ireland (or at least you did at the time). There are some officers there, but they weren't stopping people.

GUWonder

The UK/NI and ROI are part of the same CTA for immigration purposes in the largest part. I'm not sure what kind of passport you were using, but as a US citizen I've had no problems in the UK on the rare instances they look for a stamp in my passport and can't find what a UK stamp or whatever else they may have been looking for in my passports. Even in recent years.

AllieKat

In that case, you dealt with an absolute idiot for an immigration officer. It should've been a simple quick interview as they knew you were there by mistake, for one. But two, if they had even the foggiest understanding of UK immigration policy they'd have understood the Common Travel Area and the fact you can get by car or bus from Ireland into the UK without a stamp no problem.

^^^ THIS, EXACTLY ^^^

As long as you weren't a visa national in the UK, this shouldn't have even been a question - it should've been as simple as "I drove into the UK from the Republic of Ireland" "Oh, okay" done.

TheOneTheOnly

What exactly could they have done, denied you "entry" and forced you to "turn around" and live on the shuttle bus for the rest of your life?

danielonn

You should have told the CBP agent to call the Bus Driver and let the Bus Driver and CBP Agent speak while you are "bypassed" You should have said right away that the bus driver dropped me here and play dumb. Sometimes just by playing dumb will make the situation go a lot quicker. Smile and say"I think I'm at the wrong terminal could you please Bypass me through customs by showing your boarding pass?

danielonn

I asked a friend who works at SFO as a Gate Agent in the International Terminal. As I have flown out there and I know there are Domestic and International Arrivals.

If you see as you arrive a sign usually on your left it points to the Baggage Claim. What happens is when you arrive from an international flight they open up this door while the door leading to the Domestic Arrivals is locked. You go through the Customs Door and are led to a long hallway that leads to CBP.

If you arrived Domestically you just go through the normal exit.

stifle

If your passport was stamped into Ireland, this is ROI (Republic of Ireland). ROI and UK are two different countries.

As far as the law is concerned, a non-visa and non-EEA national, which includes US nationals, who enters the UK from elsewhere in the common travel area, such as the ROI, is deemed to have been given 90 days' leave to enter.

Hate the incompetent bus driver, not T5, which is a decent terminal as they go.