Geordie405

Slightly weird scenario when travelling from LHR to NCL last week. Would appreciate if anyone can shed some light on what may have happened. Overall booking was LAS - LAX - LHR - NCL with only the final sector being operated by BA. Everything else was operated by AA and the flight was also booked via AA.

No issues at all with check-in: passports scanned via the AA app and all BPs issued, including the BA one for the LHR - NCL sector. We had the usual mandatory passport check at Las Vegas, and my g/f had her passport scanned again at LAX. Arrived in the UK, cleared the border, passed through Flight Connections with no issue.

When attempting to board our flight to NCL we both got the red X and "Seek Assistance" at the e-gates. The gate agent insisted on seeing both our passports, which seemed totally unnecessary as we were flying on a domestic flight. She stated that the passport data in the booking was incorrect, and that our passport information had been transposed. However, she then said that it was only my passport that needed to be re-scanned and not my girlfriend's.

Obviously this was a domestic flight so I don't understand why the passport data is even relevant at this stage. We had already completed our international sector, and had both cleared the UK border. Given that my girlfriend's passport didn't need to be rescanned it seems as if only my data was incorrect (and hence the comment about the data being "transposed" seems wrong too, as that would imply my booking had her passport data and she had mine, but obviously not). I was also surprised that the issue wasn't identified at Flight Connections but the gate agent said that was a misconception, and that there was absolutely no interface between the two systems and that the issue couldn't have been picked up there. It also wasn't detected in the lounge.

Now we have had the situation where upon arrival in the US in the past CBP have said that the passport data was linked to the wrong individuals (i.e. where it truly was transposed) but I am curious if anyone else has had a similar issue when trying to fly within the UK after arriving on an international flight. It also begs the question what would have happened if we'd had more than a couple of hours in terms of our layover, and had actually gone home first, left passport there, and returned to LHR the following day / week to take the domestic flight. Would we have been denied boarding at that stage?

Tobias-UK

ashington80

Because you'll never know when your flight may land somewhere else. Dusseldorf? Newcastle? Edinburgh?

MSPeconomist

KARFA

Often1

I suspect that it is as Tobias-UK suggests. The staff has no real visibility into the system, only that whatever was supplied did not match. Had there been no passport at all in the record, then it would not have been sought. But, if your name is Geordie405 and passport information for JohnSmith appears, that is a bit problematic.

Alternatively, it's a pre-Brexit precaution just in case the hard border falls south of NCL.

Geordie405

I am 99% certain it wasn't the biometrics as we both had to stand on the yellow feet adjacent to the agent's desk and the facial recognition seemingly worked as usual. That, however, hadn't occurred to me as a possibility so thanks for suggesting it. It also wasn't just an ID check but rather my passport being scanned, although my girlfriend's wasn't (and yet she also got the same red X). It's definitely a new one on me!

Deltus

Really? Is there no check anywhere that you're using your real name on the ticket? (I've only flown one domestic trip in the last 15 years, so can't remember...)

What's to stop me letting all my mates travel using my name and BAEC number, so they can all have lounge access and I can pick up some avios?

KARFA

LPQ

I've been refused at MAN security for a domestic MAN-LHR flight HBO for not having a passport. I had to request the check in staff to try and overcome the refusal. It took a while but eventually a special dispensation was granted. I've used LBA-LHR ever since.

BA6501

Since when does MAN security (or any security in the UK I can think of, to be honest) ask for a passport, regardless of destination?

corporate-wage-slave

What this sounds like to me was that the API data from GDS was somehow incorrectly populated in Ready to Fly. If LAS had the same system then it would have first come up there, but they use FLY alone there, and that is why it worked fine in LAS and in Flight Connections. So that would explain the comment about being 2 systems (which is true but RtF is a module using FLY data).

I am not sure it was the biometrics since usually the agents would need to be peering at the screen and trying to reconcile the images. Before the e-gates in domestic this was more obvious since there would be a two stage scan, one for the biometric, another for boarding. But the e-gates combine this in on operation. However usually the agent would need to escalate anything with immigration sensitivities, whereas this just looks like the passport numbers got switched over.

So my hunch is that actually the API was incorrect for LAS-LHR but it was only corrected (unnecessarily from an HMG perspective) at LHR. There isn't API for LHR-NCL obviously, and there is no need for passport data to be present in domestic bookings, but RtF was still mangled until the agent cleared it, and the easiest way to do that is to re-scan the passport. Just conjecture on my part, I've not heard of this before on domestic services but I have seen it on USA->mainland Europe services.

I have frequently flown MAN-LHR as a HBO passenger without a passport.

SKRan

BHD police wants to check my passport + immigration status every single time. They pick people based on race.

TPJ

OP flew LAS-LHR on AA metal. So most likely glitch between SABRE and FLY. Just not sure why agent even bothered to correct it for a domestic flight.

ThatT1Feeling

I always fly to / from MAN without a passport. I'm not taking a risk am I?