I am an EU citizen and don’t have a passport right now. Was booked on BA905/BA834 (FRA-LHR / LHR-DUB) today, and triple checked that I am allowed to do air transit with my id card as travel document. Gov.uk says no eta needed, not entering the UK, staying inside T5. I called the GGL hotline before my card expired, and they confirmed this is fine. The gate agent was not to be convinced, however, and as a former GGL now Silver I am only provided with a phone number that works Mo-Fr 9-18. Awesome experience all around. I am now stuck in Frankfurt. Has anyone else experienced that?

My understanding is that EU cards aren’t valid for UK entry unless you have Settled Status. So in this case the gate agent was spot on.

If true (in other words, if you are allowed to transit LHR with an ID card only) then you can claim IDB and buy a direct ticket from FRA to DUB.

However, I don't think it is allowed. Can you link to the gov.uk page which says not only that no ETA is needed but also that no passport is needed (EU ID card only)?

What I was told beforehand by everyone is that I am not entering the UK when in air transit. I would have otherwise simply rebooked that flight to a later date when I have a passport again.

There is no page that says that � what the GGL hotline told me is that when transiting, the gate agents need to check I have a valid travel document for my destination. Which I do. But alas.

as adrianlondon asked, what evidence do you have that it is allowed? you mentioned you triple checked, where did you triple check? for an IDB claim you have to show that you were correct and the denial was erroneous.

EDIT: there seem to be two issues
- can you transit the UK on a trip to Ireland if remaining airside in T5 without an ETA
- were you able to cross UK immigration (you would do so since you are entering the common travel areas during your connection at LHR) with an EU identity card and without a passport if connecting on to Ireland

on the second point you mentioned you are not entering the UK. however i think you may not appreciate the UK and Ireland are in a common travel area and when connecting in the UK for onward travel to Ireland, even if staying airside, you must pass through UK immigration.

Don't you enter the UK for a CTA connection to DUB? It's the same route as connections to domestic UK, as far as I'm aware, so even though you might have stayed within connections you will be technically entering the UK when you go through passport control at LHR, no?

This says that unless you have settled status or are an Irish citizen, you do need a passport to transit UK...

https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizen...k/index_en.htm

If that�s the case, why would the GGL hotline tell me I�ll be fine? It was a fully flexible ticket, I could have easily rebooked it. Oh ffs, now I am getting seriously pissed off.

But anyway, thanks for clarifying. Now I know what I need to do, much appreciated.

your problem is you were entering the Common Travel Area.

normally it would be. The ggl agent probably hadn't done a check of the rules for your specific destination.

yes, there is no way to avoid UK immigration when doing an INT-LHR-DUB transit even when staying airside. you enter the UK. this is the same for all similar types of connections where you land in the UK and are connecting on to Ireland - albeit in most other UK airports you must follow a route going through immigration and landside.

Call centre agents, even the best GGL ones, are usually not well placed to answer detailed travel doc questions as that's not their area of expertise - and it's generally the passenger's responsibility to get it right. I'm actually surprised they gave you a specific answer here, for that very reason.

Of course you may want to request a recording of the call if you intend to pursue it.

i don't wish to be harsh, but you did originally say "Gov.uk says no eta needed" and that you triple checked. are you now saying the only check you did beforehand was on a call to a BA phone agent?

tbh i am somewhat surprised they even gave an answer, they really shouldn't and like most airlines the position is usually "we don't give advice on immigration requirements". they simply do not have the tools available to give any such advice like this. again, i know this sounds harsh, but if you were a ggl you are presumably a reasonably frequent traveler and should really know you need to check these things yourself.

to repeat the earlier question - what evidence do you have, other than this call, that you did not need an ETA and could do that trip on an EU ID card without a passport? you will need something if you have any chance of an IDB claim.

This isn't the issue. What a person shall do at Immigration is specified - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga.../2/paragraph/4

This applies to

I suppose that, assuming the OP isn't Irish, as a matter of policy, their ID card is not considered as "satisfactorily establishing his identity and nationality". If this isn't made clear on gov.uk it is pretty unfortunate

You can’t expect a staff member in a call centre to advise on entry / passport requirements. That is for the passenger to ascertain themselves.