Originally Posted by Tredders

Several years ago, when I was flying a couple of times a week, my passport never worked at the LHR machines. One night I moaned to the chap manually checking my passport and he said “I probably shouldn’t say this, but your name is quite similar to someone of, erm, interest to us. I didn’t tell you this but write to the passport office and explain your issue”.

I did write to them, and they denied all knowledge of there being a problem, but ever since that day, my passport has worked fine in the automatic gates. Could be a coincidence….