GUWonder

Sometimes, yes it still does. Just not very frequently, and very uncommon now.

JimGateB

How would you get the other border pass for the second flight?

GUWonder

Online checkin -- via computer or smartphone browser/app. Airside or landslide kiosks or check-in agents. Airside airline gate/customer service agent. Those are the ways it's frequently done.

televisor

Don't know why the TSA would be involved, but at LHR - at least in T5 - airlines are perfectly aware of when you're through security. In fact, you'll be denied passage through security if you're too late. (I think T2 might be similar, since it's newer.)

GUWonder

Not true. The so-called conformance check only informs some airline DCS, and that too the information is not about when all passengers have been through security.

The LHR conformance checks only work to allow some airlines to know when a passenger has passed the conformance check and been allowed to go toward the security screening checkpoint. That's very different than the airline knowing someone has been through security.

Even at LHR T5, I've managed to circumvent the conformance check cut-off to make my originally scheduled flight. BA had no clue at what time I had been through security at LHR. They weren't even always clearly aware about what time I had cleared the conformance check.

televisor

This is all semantics. Being at security usually means you're on your way towards being out of security again. And security times are fairly predictable.

And OP explicitly asked about boarding passes being scanned before the checkpoint, and whether that is sent to the airline. Which, as you mentioned, it is.

GUWonder

It's not semantics. It's about accuracy/inaccuracy of the specific information being commented upon..

Clearing security times at LHR are fairly predictable? ROTFLOL I more or less live at LHR T5 this year, and the variance in time to clear security at LHR T5 is horrible. This extreme variance in time to clear LHR T5 security is sort of what drove the move to set up the conformance checks to be allowed to even head toward security screening.

The boarding pass scans at LHR T5 don't tell the airlines when the passenger has been through the security screening checkpoint. It simply just doesn't do that. And that's at a terminal which is more integrated with an airline DCS than any other terminal at LHR.

flyerCO

However they have a general idea of the speed of the lanes. I was just there yesterday. There's a big sign that shows the approx length of time to get through security. It may not be 100% but it's a decent indication for the airline.

GUWonder

It still doesn't do what was indicated: tell the airline when a specific passenger has cleared security.

The variance from even lane to lane or passenger group to passenger group at T5 is very extreme. That means it's not a decent indication for the airline.

Even now the times from the conformance check are just an indication of when a passenger has been allowed to proceed to security for a given flight. It doesn't tell the airline if/when a passenger has cleared the security screening checkpoint. Also, some T5 passengers clear security without the conformance check time even being associated with the PNR of the actual flight flown by some such passengers; not that this changes the fact that the conformance check doesn't tell the airline if/when a specific passenger has cleared the passenger security screening checkpoint. The conformance check tells some airlines when the conformance check was performed, not if/when a passenger has cleared the passenger screening checkpoint.

The airline and airport could have created and utilized a system for knowing when every passenger who had cleared T5 conformance check has also cleared T5 security, but they don't know that.

televisor

Which just shows that the pre-security data is more than good enough for most airlines - which is also all that OP was asking for. There's a ton of uncertainty at any point, but having an indication that a passenger is somewhere at the airport is clearly useful enough for the airlines.

GUWonder

Even after passengers pass conformance checks at LHR, there are ways for some. such passengers to exit the airport without clearing the passenger security screening checkpoints and to do so even without the airline necessarily knowing whether or not the passenger is still at the airport.

b8b

Often1

1. No, carriers do not have that visibility. Even in the new pilot program where carriers load their manifests into a local TSA database so that BP's need not be scanned at the checkpoint (IAD & IND are examples).

2. GA's do not make the decision to hold an aircraft. That decision is made by Operations (or its equivalent for a given carrier). GA's can see how many passengers are connecting and whether those passengers are in range, have landed, or their aircraft is offloading. But, that is rarely a factor in holding a flight.

Bottom line is that TSA clearance data may be a useful metric in measuring approximate delays, but individual passenger clearance is not something that carriers particularly want or need. It is the passenger's obligation to present himself at the gate by the published time.

GUWonder

catandmouse

However, the conformance check isn't carried out by the security staff (LHR equivalent of TSA), but some other contractor.