Originally Posted by
fomc
The person looks at my boarding pass and EXPIRED EU ID for less than 1 second and let’s me through. What a total Joke!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Essentially this tells me that BA relies 100% on the immigration guys.
I'm surprised you're surprised. We all know that the priority is to get you on board and complete the turnaround process as quickly as possible. The airlines take a certain amount of risk on this by only having cursory checks, and they mitigate that by using API (which you provided when you left London, and also BUD), immigration control to ensure documents are in date and not stolen/forged when scanned, and performing a name check at the gate. If they'd read your passport instead, do you think they'd have got as far as looking at the expiry date? I'm sure half the time I present mine my finger partly obscures it, and I've never had anyone ask for a closer look.
However, as soon as the issue was pointed out to them they'd have been utterly mad not to take the time to investigate it. The risk factor went right off the scale at that point. The next time you tried to fly you weren't flagged and so underwent the usual lower level scrutiny.
Also, what I never understood is how come there’s no immigration control when exiting UK into EU but there is one at the exit of all EU countries into the UK?!?! I get that Britain is not in Schengen but why is exit from the UK into EU treated differently than entry into the UK from EU?
This is incredibly simplistic, and no doubt there are other criteria, but the UK has electronic border control when exiting (i.e. they know from your departure record from the airline/train company/ferry company that you've left). Other countries/airports may not. OTP is an example where no matter whether your destination is inside or outside the EU - and Romania is not a Schengen country - you go through a passport check. At AMS if you arrived from non-Schengen and remained outside it you wouldn't be checked. Both are European countries, but their exit procedures are markedly different.