sarahuk

Hi,
We have just checked in for LHR-MIA tomorrow and have the following message alert on the boarding passes page


Your passport and/or visa(s) must be checked at the airport

We are required by certain countries to check your travel documents before you fly. Please see a British Airways representative at the airport.

Passport and visa information

You can check the passport and visa requirements for your journey using the [IATA Travel Centre].

I was able to check in and have printed both boarding passes. Do we still have to go to a desk at the airport if we only have hand luggage?
I clicked on the IATA site suggested by BA but it wants all my passport details and it does not seem to show that the site is safe.
Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks
Sarah

MPH1980

Short answer - yes you do.

jphripjah

Shouldn't the OP be able to go through security and just her passport at the desk at the boarding gate?

KARFA

UKtravelbear

except even if you could in doing that there is a risk of there being something wrong (such as not having an ESTA) there is very little time to sort it out and you run the risk of not being borded due to not having the right documents.

I'd much rather have any issues like that flagged up sooner rather than later!


This is the second post to my knowledge in the last couple of days where BA has linked to the IATA site. Is this something new as not seen it before.

jphripjah

OK. Thanks. I haven't done it at LHR flying to the USA. This begs the question though, why would they even issue a boarding pass if that boarding pass can't be used to go through security? Usually when I'm in this situation and I try to check in online it says "Online check in unavailable see airport staff for documents check" or something like that.

corporate-wage-slave

This is nothing new, the message is new with FLY (so a couple of years old). All USA flights must have a passport scan before Ready to Fly works (at T5), and that's done at the visa check desk. However here, given this is T3, which uses Positive Boarding, it can be done airside at the BA desk in the lounge or at the gate if the OP has the boarding pass, I wouldn't leave it to the last moment.

corporate-wage-slave

It poses the question, begging the question is something else!

It makes a difference if transferring, and there is a particular aspect of T5 which uses Ready to Fly. Other airports (T3, LGW, LCY) then you're ok to do it at the gate, but in the case of USA and Canada flights they must do a passport scan as part of the North Atlantic procedures. For T5 you can't pass Ready to Fly without that scan. If you were going (e.g.) to Chile then you would see the message - and the passport will still need to be checked at the gate - but Ready to Fly would be OK, there wouldn't be a need for the Visa Check, though the signs in T5 suggest otherwise.

johnspenceruk

Is this not something to do with additional security screening at the gate? I had the same message on recent LHR-LAX. Was later approached at the gate to go downstairs for additional security check (they swiped for explosives). There easily must have been 30+ people randomly selected on that flight alone as we were late for takoff about 10 minutes (the captain apologised, one of the scanning machines broke and they had to do tests at another gate, resulted in late boarding of the final screening group).

If they really select ~30+ (?) folks on each flight then likelihood of this happening is very high.

Or is this not related? Would kind of defeat the purpose if people knew ahead of time. Also, they let partners (who were not selected) keep selected person's things (like rucksacks, etc) and take them onboard . That kind of defeats the purpose of the screening.

corporate-wage-slave

If you are referring to SSSS then the boarding pass would not print. See the "We can't I check in?" thread.

johnspenceruk

Thanks CSW. I never print BP from home so honestly can't remember. But I was able to check-in, just with a very similar (if not identical) message

Irrespective, if people know ahead of time there is secondary screening, then that kind of defeats the purpose.

corporate-wage-slave

It's primarily an explosives swab, so no, that's not the case. The scent isn't something you can easily get rid of.

johnspenceruk

My point is folks would just choose not to take that flight if they had explosives.

sarahuk

Thank you all for your replies. Both my husband and myself had the message and we do have a current ESTA. We will go to the desk before going through security just for my peace of mind.
Sarah

WorldLux

Why not? After visiting the desk you're good to go. The passengers using digital boarding passes will appreciate having the BP already downloaded to their phone in case they don't have any connection at the airport.

Which begs the question what passengers do that have been part of a police dog training mission. I've seen a police unit stash something in an actual passenger's belongings and have the dog run through the gate area to find it. One can only hope that it is only a similar substance that smells the same to the dog but doesn't trigger the machine during swipe tests.

But the "we can't check you in" message is a generic one so the passenger won't know why he can't check in. Could be visa issues, overbooking, etc... .