Freaking out! Your passport and/or visa(s) must be checked at the airport
Aug 6, 2019, 4:34 am
#16
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: London
Programs: BA GGL (for now) and Lifetime Gold, Marriott fan thanks to Bonvoy Moments
Posts: 5,115
Had this yesterday at DUB before flight to US today. I’d updated hotel address on ESTA site, BA.com showed all information provided but they still needed to input hotel address again (or into another system) after scanning passport. Just put it down to the vagaries of airline IT, nothing scary... Though the agent was initially confused (and I got mildly nervous) as the system said I needed a visa!
I avoided an entry on the DYKWIA thread by not going ultra-Diva as I had to wait to the side while nearly everybody else boarded until a second agent came who could discern what the problem was.
(I didn’t need to have passport for DUB-LHR flight but brought with me as thought they may need it. Would have been “interesting” if I’d just made do with passport card that is sufficient for Ireland-UK travel...)
I avoided an entry on the DYKWIA thread by not going ultra-Diva as I had to wait to the side while nearly everybody else boarded until a second agent came who could discern what the problem was.
(I didn’t need to have passport for DUB-LHR flight but brought with me as thought they may need it. Would have been “interesting” if I’d just made do with passport card that is sufficient for Ireland-UK travel...)
Aug 6, 2019, 4:35 am
#17
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: ENGM/ENOV
Programs: BAEC Silver. EB Gold
Posts: 9
Long time lurker ont he BAEC-forum here.
No you should not worry. The exact same thing happened to me flying back from LAX via LHR to BGO (before LHR-BGO ceased operations), and I am Norwegian. FWIW two friends of mine encountered the very same thing coming back from LAX via LHR to OSL some months ago, even though they are flying to the US quite regularly. Have a safe flight and welcome to Norway 
Aug 6, 2019, 5:26 am
#18
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Brighton. UK
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A passport can be facially valid but you can still be denied entry into a country for example.
My passport if facially valid until August 2021 for some countries but will fail to valid next February to 27 neighbouring countries because of of various rules that could apply from 1st November.
Aug 6, 2019, 5:31 am
#19
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: London
Programs: BA GGL (for now) and Lifetime Gold, Marriott fan thanks to Bonvoy Moments
Posts: 5,115
Nonsense. You can't make such a bald statement especially as you have no idea what the validity or expiry dates of the OPs passport is!
A passport can be facially valid but you can still be denied entry into a country for example.
My passport if facially valid until August 2021 for some countries but will fail to valid next February to 27 neighbouring countries because of of various rules that could apply from 1st November.
A passport can be facially valid but you can still be denied entry into a country for example.
My passport if facially valid until August 2021 for some countries but will fail to valid next February to 27 neighbouring countries because of of various rules that could apply from 1st November.
Aug 6, 2019, 5:47 am
#20
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: Vale of Glamorgan
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Posts: 2,991
Aug 6, 2019, 7:35 am
#21
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Los Angeles
Programs: BA Executive Club (lowly Blue but with MUCCI, apparently)
Posts: 1,186
Aug 6, 2019, 8:26 am
#23
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Los Angeles
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Posts: 1,186
Aug 6, 2019, 10:02 am
#24
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: LAX
Programs: AA Lifetime Gold but PlatPro thanks to LPs
Posts: 4,439
The Immigration agent,waved me through. I asked him "Why the X?" and he told me the fingerprints did not match. Ah ha. Just before I went through GE, I had visited the restroom and washed my hands. Apparently the water swelled the skin on my fingers enough to cause a mis-match in fingerprint scanning. I've seen the same thing on my iPhone Touch ID when my fingers have been in water recently.
Aug 6, 2019, 10:14 am
#25
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: LAX and LHR. UA lifetime Gold 1.9MM 1K , DL Gold Medallion, HHonors Gold, Marriott Gold, Avis President's Club
Posts: 3,592
This sort of thing happens all the time, and if you traveled more you would probably have met it before.
The issue is the generic wording of "Your passport and/or visa(s) must be checked at the airport". What this actually means is completely non-threatening: "We need to physically see your travel documens", not "You need a visa for this trip". They don't know if you need a visa or not, and they don't know (even though they ought to) how much validity is left on your passport. They just want to see that you are able to travel, and won't give you your boarding passes until they have done. End of story.
The issue is the generic wording of "Your passport and/or visa(s) must be checked at the airport". What this actually means is completely non-threatening: "We need to physically see your travel documens", not "You need a visa for this trip". They don't know if you need a visa or not, and they don't know (even though they ought to) how much validity is left on your passport. They just want to see that you are able to travel, and won't give you your boarding passes until they have done. End of story.
Aug 6, 2019, 5:13 pm
#26
Join Date: Nov 2004
Programs: Aeroplan, Shebamiles, WorldPerks
Posts: 468
Flying into US from Canada, not all airlines allow us to have our boarding passes issued until we get to airport and either scan our passport on their machines or someone checks them - never been able to fully checkin online on AS. Others like AC, UA and WS allow it.
Aug 6, 2019, 11:46 pm
#27
Join Date: Aug 2019
Posts: 2
Nonsense. You can't make such a bald statement especially as you have no idea what the validity or expiry dates of the OPs passport is!
A passport can be facially valid but you can still be denied entry into a country for example.
My passport if facially valid until August 2021 for some countries but will fail to valid next February to 27 neighbouring countries because of of various rules that could apply from 1st November.
A passport can be facially valid but you can still be denied entry into a country for example.
My passport if facially valid until August 2021 for some countries but will fail to valid next February to 27 neighbouring countries because of of various rules that could apply from 1st November.
Aug 7, 2019, 10:44 am
#28
Join Date: Nov 2006
Programs: Seniors Bus Pass
Posts: 5,529
Aug 7, 2019, 8:17 pm
#29
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2017
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To be fair, Canada has a team in MLB - Toronto Blue Jays, and has won 2 World Series championships in the early 90s.
Aug 7, 2019, 8:50 pm
#30
Moderator: British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Jan 2009
Programs: Battleaxe Alliance
Posts: 22,127
Just checked in for the first leg of our trip - LAX-LHR, but could not get boarding passes. Reason was "Your passport and/or visa(s) must be checked at the airport".
We are both US citizens traveling to the UK and then on to Norway after a few days stoppover. The reason for the visit is "tourism" and the duration is only two weeks. My understanding is that visas are not required for either country.
We both have more than 2 years validity left on our passports.
Any idea why we got this? It's never happened before.
We are both US citizens traveling to the UK and then on to Norway after a few days stoppover. The reason for the visit is "tourism" and the duration is only two weeks. My understanding is that visas are not required for either country.
We both have more than 2 years validity left on our passports.
Any idea why we got this? It's never happened before.
I'm a non-visa national for UK (registered traveller in any case, although it is now quite irrelevant) and Schengen (in fact I am strictly speaking not subject to stay limit in the EU, although I do not exercise that rights because I'm too lazy so I enter/leave under the normal 90 days out of 180 in Schengen area), I have tickets to get out of there, and never exceeded my stay limits anywhere.
I turn up at check-in, generally no questions are asked - all they do is to scan my passport at check-in, and Timatic seems to bring up a message that is somewhat confusing and largely irrelevant initially (which seems to come up with some weird requirements until you scroll down and see the relevant paragraph, which might actually be the cause of this 'bug'), that's acknowledged (or overridden, not sure which) by the check-in or gate agent, and it's all sorted. Sometimes, I'm asked if I have a visa, to which I reply I don't need one, so I don't have one, they read the Timatic further and see that I am not required to have a visa, and that's that.
In other words, unless you have known issues such as having visa issues or restriction on entry to your destination, don't worry about it!