FlyingFinn

This is a bit OT, but I figured that this is the forum with the highest density of Swedes .

I was flying ARN-URE on OV yesterday. At the SK transit counter in ARN T5 my conversation with the agent went like this:

(Hand over paper ticket & my EB card - beginning of conversation was in Swedish.)
FF: Can you check in me please?
Agent: Ok, let's see.
(typing)
A: Kures-saare (funny emphasis)?
FF: Yes.
(more typing)
(printer spits out a boarding pass)
A: Can I see you passport?
FF: There you go.
(hand over my Finnish national ID)
A: <Confused>This will not do, I need a passport.
FF: No, Kuressaare is in Estonia which is nowadays in Schengen so this is enough. (Maybe she didn't know where Kuressaare was).
A: See, the computer says "Check passport & visa (!)"
(turns computer screen to face me - there's a red text saying the above)
(at this point my basic, rusty Swedish starts to be insufficient so we switch to English)
A: Have you travelled to Estonia with this card previously?
FF: Yes, dozens of times - last time was just 2 weeks ago. Both before they joined Schengen and after.
A: I cannot let you travel with this. I need a passport.
FF: That's all I have with me - it's gonna have to do.
A: (thinks for a while in silence) - I'll check with my boss.
(Agent disappears into the back room, I start thinking about my options and decide on having the agent or supervisor calling OV so that they can confirm that they will indeed accept me onboard.)
(Agent comes back).
A: You can travel with this because it is a Finnish ID card. If it were a Swedish one you couldn't, as it doesn't list your nationality (points to the "nationality" on my ID card).
FF: Oh, I see. I never knew that. Thanks.
A: Here's your boarding pass and your cards back. Have a nice flight! Sorry it took a while.
FF: No problem, glad we got it sorted out. Thanks a lot!

Now this was something completely new to me. I am well aware of the EU and Schengen travel document requirements - but I never knew that a Swedish national ID card would not be good. Can the Swedes here confirm this? Do you really have to carry you passport everywhere outside the Nordics?

I'm flying ARN-EPU in a couple of weeks, maybe I will bring my passport too just in case - but I like to make a point about the proper travel documentation etc. as I feel that the general public usually is very confused about these and tends not to understand at all who is authorized to look at your passport and why.

larsll

Hmm... the allmighty wikipedia disagrees... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish..._identity_card.

Vunder31

Older, but still valid, Swedish identity cards don't have any nationality info.

Vunder31

Funny fact about the Nordic "no passport" agreement in place in the Nordic countries before the Schengen agreement:
The only way for a Swede to prove that you were Swedish (and hence shouldn't need to show you passport), was to show your passport since it was the only identity document that showed your nationality...

esv

Yes, proper EU-compatible national identity cards is a pretty new thing in Sweden (introduced in 2005 I think), which means that few people are using them and not everyone is aware of them.

I used to do a fair bit of travelling inside Schengen with just a driving license when I couldn't bring my passport for some reason (it was necessary to know the routines of the airline and airport for this to work though).

nomad1974

BTW, since both Sweden and Estonia are now full parties of the Schengen Agreement (and also Finland, but this is slightly irrelevant here), then you shouldn't have to prove your citizenship anyway! Once you're INSIDE the Schengen Area, your nationality does not matter - you can move freely throughout the 22 countries as if they were one.

http://europa.eu/abc/travel/doc/index_en.htm

Of course it's always a good idea to carry an ID or passport with you, but that's a different issue.

FlyingFinn

Yes, this is true and also my pet peeve. Air travel is pretty much the only place where they check travel documents intra-Schengen (but not systematically) - and for three reasons:

- To protect airline revenue (i.e. you really are who it says on the ticket - not that person's uncle/cousin/neighbor/mate)
- Some countries have a regulation where you need to prove your identity *IF* you check in luggage (all in the name of "your security against terrorists")
- To prove that you can actually enter the destination country and will not be turned back - in which case the airline is hit with a serious penalty fee and will have to fly you back as well.

For the first two purposes pretty much any photo ID should do - a driver's license works fine.

The last part is tricky - I guess the airlines are too rooted in the ways of the old, more closed world and are still checking documents out of habit. As you mentioned if you are already in the Schengen area then there is no need to check these credentials at all. I guess it all is based on the regulation that you still need to be able to prove your identity using an official EU (or Schengen as Schengen != EU) -approved ID if asked for *by officials* (which airline handling agents certainly are not).


And let's not go into travel documents required when flying in America nowadays - that is freaky.

FlyingFinn

Ok, I think this clarifies my confusion regarding the matter. Thanks everybody!

I still think that the weirdest looks I've ever gotten in immigration were in pre-EU Poland with my quite new passport that went through the washing machine the previous week.. It was OK and readable, but looked a bit weird - and some of the stamps there had washed out . No words were spoken, but the look was worth more than a thousand words.

gene134

Something similar happened to me some time ago during boarding for a (intra Schengen) CPH-BRU flight. There was an ID check at the gate and I showed the gate agent my Netherlands national ID card, which you can use for travel within the EU and to some other countries as well (e.g. Norway, Switzerland, Turkey etc). Also from the SK website:

Anyway, the gate agent said "Not good enough, it MUST be a passport." Every argument I used, same answer "it MUST be a passport." I did have my passsport with me as well (somewhere tucked away in my handluggage), so instead of holding up the boarding process by insisting that my ID card should be good enough (and thereby perhaps needlessly escalating the matter), I made him happy by showing him my passport.

SK later wrote me that he was wrong, but I wonder what would have happened if I (or anybody else for that matter) wouldn't have had my passport with me at that moment.

Fredrik74

It seems not only Swedes do not use national ID cards if the same thing happened in Denmark. Basically (in Sweden at least) these cards are not well known. However, I would expect people who work in the industry to know them and it's a bit sad to see that it's not necessarily so.

I always use my passport because even if I know that I will not have a problem at ARN I'm not so sure about TXL or HAM. I doubt they will accept my DL. I will have to get a national ID now with my passport being away for visa applications. The cost...

SK989

Same thing happened to me about a month ago when I flew ARN-TLL with SK. I was asked to show a passport and showed my Swedish national ID-card (the new one which the Police Authority issues, with nationality written on the card). The SK agent said:

"No. An Estonian ID-card would have been OK, but not a Swedish one."
"Why?", I asked
"Uhm... I don't know. That's our instructions."
"Well, your instructions are wrong then", I replied.

The gate agent then talked to another gate agent and after that she said:

"I was wrong. It's OK."

I wrote to SAS about it afterwards and got a reply that both SAS internal info and external info on the web was out of date and that they have updated the info now. I checked on sas.se and the info has been updated:

http://www.sas.se/sv/allt-om-resan/a...-visum/Europa/

oliver2002

Many try to use the swedish driving license as ID inside Europe. A DL is not a proof of identity on par with a passport or EU style national ID card. In Germany and Austria all foreigners are required to bring their ID (passport or ID card) with them when they enter the country (shengen doesn't cover local regulations). LH has a ID requirement on all flights ex-ARN for some reason and its amazing to see how many try to show their DL.

The ID issued by the swedish post office is still common and there quite a few in circulation. That one is not a vaild ID. As mentioned above the 'new' EU standard ID card issued by the Police is a valid ID.

esv

Why is that amazing? At ARN/OSL/CPH/HEL I always show Swedish DL as ID and never had anyone complain about it. I don't think this check is due to LH, it's ARN that has a rule to check ID of all pax at the gate.

jobi

I was at CPH leaving for OSL once and when they asked for an ID I showed my German Railcard - no problem at all

fcl

I would like to have the option of having my nationality printed on my driver's licence. I assume the reason for this is the possibility of discrimination when having to show the ID to enter a club or similar. I doubt however that this type of discrimination is based on nationality, I think that it rather based on percieved ethnicity, language etc.

In this case I would definitately prefer the convience to only have to carry one ID when travelling intra-Schengen.