golfer20

Was on BA 827 DUB - LHR yesterday. Arrived at LHR, parked at the gate in T5A, and then sat there for an enternity. The jetbridge never connected to the plane - I was in seat 3A and could see the jetbridge still dark (no lights on).

About 10min into waiting, the pilot came on and said "This gate doesn't accept flights from Ireland, due to a special agreement the UK has with Ireland... Please stay seated, we are working on it." Another 30min later, we disembark from the rear aircraft door via staircase and then walk into the terminal normally. Best part, BA wasn't able to take our bags off the plane that evening and "kindly requested that passengers submit a baggage claim form and return to the airport tomorrow to retrieve their luggage."

1. Anyone know what happened?
2. Odds on compensation / avios?

The _Banking_Scot

Hi

I think only one gate at t5a can handle dub arriving flights ( a23 unless parked off stand)as you go through a special corridor by passing the walk to flight connections and the uk border. There would be staff at the door to direct you if you had a international flight connection. If you arrive at the next gate a22 then the internal corridor door is not set up to allow this.

You could ask for compensation for the luggage delay but probably unlikely to be given


Regards
tbs

AirbusA350

So essentially, with Ireland being within the Common Travel Area, one does not need to pass through UK immigration upon landing in the UK, but still do need to pass through UK customs. I suspect the gate you arrived at did not have the appropriate routes/access to lead you past immigration (but not before customs). Slightly digressing but I've always found it curious as to why at DUB, UK arrivals are subject to Irish passport control but not in reverse! If anyone else here knows the reason, I'd be curious to know

Avios is no longer being given as compensation from multiple reports here.

kdhurst380

I would hazard a guess it's due to the UK being better setup to handle domestic arrivals. I could be wrong!

You also technically don't need a passport to pass through Irish immigration. It's only the fact that most airlines mandate that a passport is carried as an acceptable form of ID that means the majority of passengers present one.

I arrived into Dublin by sea last year and there were no checks whatsoever.

AirbusA350

Yes, aware there isn't a strict need for a passport, have successfully travelled with a UK driving licence back-and-forth with BA to/from DUB

Makes sense if it's a technicality thing and lack of separate corridor etc at DUB to bypass immigration. Certainly seems that way especially if there were no checks when you travelled by sea.

:D!

Probably for the same reasons that for the purposes of inbound COVID rules, the Republic of Ireland treated Great Britain as just another foreign country, while the UK treated all of Ireland as domestic.

Technically only British and Irish citizens born in the CTA don't need a passport to travel between the UK and Ireland.

When I have travelled between the UK and Ireland by non-air routes, the only checks have been by local police on the GB side, and I was likely only stopped because of racial profiling.

CCayley

Once, possessed of the same curiosity, I asked a friendly passport control officer at Dublin and he said: 1. I didn't need a passport to enter Ireland, but 2. the most practical way to show I didn't need a passport was to show my passport! I don't think that makes any sense, but it was what I was told...

EvilDoctorK

Yes bizarre and all as it is this is the situation I believe ... the theory of the Common Travel Area (CTA) is that it only applies to UK & Irish citizens and the easiest way to prove you're a UK/Irish citizen is by showing your passport ! .. On arrival at most ( all? ) UK Airports though there are no checks for anyone .. arrivals are subject to Customs, but not immigration ( same as Channel Islands arrivals ) .. but on arrival at DUB and other Irish airports there's no segregation so you pass immigration control .. but you can just use your driver's licence or similar to pass as long as the immigration staff think you're a UK/Irish citizen

To the original question .. there's only two gates at T5A that bypass immigration, but still use the International Baggage reclaim .. A22&23 I think ( the last two on the South side of the building ) .. All Dublin ( and Jersey I guess too ) arrivals need to use these gates .. if they don't they have to get bussed to the base of the airbridge on one of those gates

groenroos

Faffing around with gates will sometimes happen, but this bit made me raise my eyebrow a bit. It's a 90-110 minute drive to Heathrow from mine, not sure I'd be best pleased to be "kindly requested" to spend half the next day fetching a bag they botched to begin with (not to mention paying parking charges at the airport)... is there really no compensation for this, even for expenses incurred?

fripperies

I agree it does sound like the old "If I were you I wouldn't start from here" joke but there's an unspoken step in the syllogism. The complete chain would be something like

1.You don't need a passport to enter Ireland
2. But you do need to satisfy me that you are who you claim to be and, in common with the rest of the world, we tend to consider a passport more acceptable proof of identity than a library card
3. So the most practical way is to show your passport

corporate-wage-slave

Normally you would ask BA to courier it to you at their expense. What they sometimes do is offer the next day option for self collection and then any bag not picked up is put into the courier system.

scottishpoet

bags should be courriered to what ever address you have given. no need for you to occur any expense collecting the bags

KARFA

the only thing I have to add to this is that yes JER arrivals definitely use the same DUB arrival corridor, and that I think (?) A22 is no longer used anymore - previously A22 could be swapped between a DUB arrival or international arrival gate.

ThatT1Feeling

I've had the reverse a couple of times when arriving on a domestic flight - "we have been allocated the Ireland and Jersey gate" - so this, also, ended up being disembarkation from the back of the plane as I think the route from that gate would have taken us through customs. To be fair I wouldn't have minded but rules is rules, so each time we had to wait about 30 minutes for the first bus and then about another 20 for enough buses to finally get to the CE pax. Longer to disembark than the length of the flight.

Confus

The swing door is still in place and can be used, but subject to having enough suitable staff around (HAL not BA for this, I think from memory it needs 2 people) as it needs to be supervised and monitored. Sadly this doesn’t always happen, so it’s closed as often as not now.