British Airways trialling biometric check-in for international flights

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• NigelthePensioner says:

  19 Nov19 November 06:29

  It should be a Breeze!!
  However, does anyone else have difficulty scanning the glossy photo page on their passport with the phone camera which many other (financial) institutions ask for too??

  • Alex Sm says:

    19 Nov19 November 08:43

    Nope

  • John says:

    19 Nov19 November 09:08

    Yes, but Blue Tack to hold down the back of the photo page removes the glare.

  • yorkieflyer says:

    20 Nov20 November 00:02

    yup, use driving licence for banks

• Marc says:

  19 Nov19 November 06:30

  Used this on Eurostar at St Pancras a few times and when it worked, it worked well, however half the time I went to use it the camera wasn’t working, or similar.

• lumma says:

  19 Nov19 November 06:31

  My problem with this is that it gives you way too much time to misplace your passport and turn up at your destination and have to be sent back.

  At least with the current situation, if you leave your passport at home or lose it somewhere in departures, the worst that can happen is you miss your flight.

• BJ says:

  19 Nov19 November 06:31

  Sounds like more, not less, hassle than the current system given you have to mess about with not only documents but phones too. And I still have not figured after all these years what the purpose of that extra stop for photos etc at LHR is all about. I cannot recall if it’s before or after security when in transit but unless I’m mistaken it is unique to LHR and perhaps other airports in UK. When I’m on the verge of a rant anyway, I’ll just mention my other dislike about UK airports – the obsession with use of barriers to control queues at check-in, security etc. I get the purpose, but in UK their use seems way over the top compared to other countries. Minor rant over, I guess I should just be grateful I never get anywhere near Manchester or Luton 🙂

  • Paul says:

    19 Nov19 November 08:35

    When T5 was designed it specifically rules out the use of barriers! The plan was that anyone could checkin at any desk and the flow from the door to security was a straight line.
    This failed for two reasons.
    Firstly Heathrow changed the design resulting in all passengers who arrive by bus or train doing so at the north end. Secondly BA decided to abandon it universal checkin desk and placed First at the souther most point with club. They they took the view that self loading freight could check in and print their own bag tags rather than have it done quicker and more efficiently by a member of staff.
    Almost every single development of the pre departure process has been slowed by self service but has allowed BA to reduce staff.
    As for biometric use, I d rather they sorted out baggage processing, tracking and post flight delivery to all bags to be delivered in less time than the flight took which they arrived on

    • BJ says:

      19 Nov19 November 10:09

      Thanks, this is interesting. I was always a bit baffled by T5,. For a modern airport the design and passenger flows always seemed more than a little odd to me, and what you have just described could explain that.

      • ABS says:

        19 Nov19 November 12:10

        You enter across one of the bridges, walk forwards to check in and then walk through the check in desk and turn left or right to security and then forwards through security.

    • ABS says:

      19 Nov19 November 12:09

      There were no barriers in T5 until around 2018. As self service replaced manned bag drop, the barriers have disappeared again. There are now only cafe style barriers which are there to ensure passports are checked before bag drop is used.

      This biometric facility will remove the need for the cafe style barriers as eventually all flights will be checked in in this way.

      • Track says:

        19 Nov19 November 17:34

        oh but there are barriers, cafe style or not — try to ignore them and be enforced upon.

        Covid and post-Covid, T5 is awkwardly split into sections and you have to find a section that matches your destination — they can’t check you in at another section!

        That is until you learn that will a status/Club you can check in at yet another section.

    • Track says:

      19 Nov19 November 17:30

      Hear, hear sort out the baggage processing through airport and get rid of the cap 100,000 passengers before further complicating the security and the passing through the airport.

      The primary purpose of the airpot is to allow passengers to board the planes.

      • BJ says:

        20 Nov20 November 02:44

        Agree with some of tve sentiments in comments here, arriving and departing bad enough but transit even worse. It’s all over the place, it just does not feel like a 21C terminal at all.

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:

    19 Nov19 November 11:02

    The extra photo stop is only for domestic (and I think CTA like Ireland and Jersey) flights. The reason for this is to allow passengers to mix in departures rather than having a lesser domestic departures area like T1 had before T5 opened. As passengers at Heathrow connecting international to international at Heathrow don’t have an immigration check they need to stop those not being checked buying a domestic ticket and being able to enter the UK without a passport check.

    So if you have a domestic boarding pass the machine takes your photo when you enter security from landside, it also takes your photo if you enter security after you have been through immigration if connecting to the UK.

    • BJ says:

      20 Nov20 November 02:49

      Thanks, now I get that but unless I’m missing something I cannot recall similar arrangements anywhere else.

      • ediflyer says:

        20 Nov20 November 09:33

        Isn’t that because other airports keep domestic and international pax segregated or have made them pass through immigration though?

  • Track says:

    19 Nov19 November 17:27

    I think yes, what they are doing with taking photos at security, and at the gate — a completely unnecessary step and slows things down.

    This is also a private infrastructure, eg not the government, who you can at least ask for your records. The private company can ignore your requests all they want — only meagre fines from ICO if it ever gets to that (requiring you to mount up a legal complaint).

  • yorkieflyer says:

    20 Nov20 November 00:05

    just try and leap over the tensa barriers at LPL and be shouted at for not zig zagging to the empty security point, priceless

    • BJ says:

      20 Nov20 November 02:54

      They have them most places butmost try to limit them to where they are beneficial. My problem is that we seem to have a British obsessions with them, they are everywhere, whether necessary or not, and more complex than they need to be.

• Chrisasaurus says:

  19 Nov19 November 06:31

  Don’t know how new this is but at JFK last night at the gate, they used biometrics (facial) exclusively instead of checking passport/boarding pass for everyone. Looked at the camera (similar to the passport gates at Heathrow arrivals) and when recognised it popped up your name and seat number.

  Interesting development (and, being US, was no opt-in needed)

  • Alex G says:

    19 Nov19 November 08:58

    Same at Boston last July. Worked well.

  • Nick says:

    19 Nov19 November 12:53

    If you fly to the US, the US security services probably hold more information on you than the UK does anyway!

• Chrisasaurus says:

  19 Nov19 November 06:33

  “The beauty of this technology is that it also frees our people up to look after more complex customer enquiries and deliver the best possible customer service.”

  Yes Dave of course that’$ the motivation, nothing behind the curtain at all…

  • AJA says:

    19 Nov19 November 07:49

    😀

    • Tim P says:

      19 Nov19 November 08:45

      “The beauty of this technology is more hassle for the customer and less staff for us to pay” is what I think BA meant.

      BA is following the lead of supermarkets with self checkouts with reduced staff availability and delays whenever the equipment doesn’t work.

  • Nick says:

    19 Nov19 November 12:57

    Yup, cue the usual, “I’ve done nothing wrong (and/or) have nothing to hide, so why do I care?”

  • Track says:

    19 Nov19 November 17:42

    About BA staff. I observed BA check-in counters being blocked by passengers who didn’t have Covid vaccinations/similar irresolvable problems, and conversations lasted for 20-40 minutes.

    I understand sympathy but not at the expense of 20 other people waiting. The people in question would not be able to fly on the day, however sympathetic conversation is… and BA staff knows their staffing levels are -7 or whichever and still do that.

• TimM says:

  19 Nov19 November 06:45

  One major weakness of the UK system is that there are no Border Force controls leaving. The only passport check required is at the gate by the airline to verify ID against the boarding pass (at least if you don’t have check-in bags) so the Government never knows who is in the country. Most countries have passport controls both ways and know exactly how long you have stayed for (and e.g. whether you have breached the EU-style ’90 days in 180 rule’). We used to have passport control on exit, before entering security but that was removed more years ago than I care to remember.

  No doubt there could be a link between the airline IT system and the UK Government but wouldn’t that fall foul of data protection and be rather unreliable?

  Most UK airports don’t have all those control points with cameras that Heathrow does.

  I hope to be corrected.

  • chris says:

    19 Nov19 November 07:24

    Passport and visa data is liberally shared and as you use it the data shared is multiplied and essentially unprotected in the name of defence of state. Just applying for a passport in the uk your data will be shared with all the 5 eyes countries; including your biometric information,

    When you start travelling data is shared by airlines to governments by an ICAO standard data format – Advanced Passenger Information. It is global and should be submitted for all flights; it shares considerable personal data (names, addresses (home and destination), travel plans, visa, travelling partners …) each time you fly with the countries you are visiting. There aren’t really any restrictions on what is done with that data.

    In the UK airlines send the API data to border force before departure. This data sharing is extremely robust and has to be submitted before departure. That data will end up with national and international police agencies, if you are travelling inside 5 eyes countries they will get your biometric data (including your entry fingerprints into the USA and New Zealand. I would assume other countries are sharing it too.

    The 5 Eyes countries data sharing is so robust they are planning on removing the need for the passport for travel for its its citizens/subjects between their countries and just using biometrics.

    So Exiting the uk is reported reliably by the airlines, ferries, train companies by api. You can probably cheat the system; but the move to biometrics only is going to make that a lot harder.

    The t5 cameras at the moment are mainly to make sure the person that gets to the gate is the person that went through security. We will likely end up with passport pods to get into security one day; aus has already implemented them.

    Personal boats/planes are a weak link. The /captain/ has to manually report to border force who/ what is onboard.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      19 Nov19 November 09:41

      If they share all this data as you say why is going through US on a new passport or esta such a bloody pain

      • John says:

        19 Nov19 November 11:29

        He is talking about what they would like to happen – it will probably work properly at some point in the future

      • RussellH says:

        19 Nov19 November 15:48

        Because they want to be able to demonstrate to you just how unimportant you are, and how important they are.

        While having no sense of humour is an essential requirement for US customs and immigration staff, there are bound to be other requirements too. Small hands, perhaps?

        • TGLoyalty says:

          19 Nov19 November 16:57

          It’s because they don’t!

    • ADS says:

      19 Nov19 November 12:00

      When you exit UK to travel to Ireland by ferry as a foot passenger, you hand over any form of ID and they type your name into the computer. Just your name, no other information.

      I don’t know if all car passengers are even required to be listed.

      Hard to see how this data could possibly be useful.

    • Kevin says:

      20 Nov20 November 05:30

      Surely there’s nothing to stop EU citizens flying to Dublin, then going to Belfast and taking a ferry to Cairnryan or Liverpool. No passport or ID check required.

      Just out of interest, what would happen if those of us with dual citizenship travelled to a country on passport A, but used passport B to leave, and re-enter the UK? The wife nearly did it inadvertently returning from USA recently as she used her Irish passport with Esta attached to travel to the USA but got out her British passport to present to Irish Passport control officials on returning back to Ireland. I realised and go her to switch.

  • Steve R says:

    19 Nov19 November 07:32

    All passengers departing by air have their details submitted electronically to the Border Force.

    The US uses a similar system.

  • ediflyer says:

    20 Nov20 November 09:35

    Given how slow UK Border is on arrival I think we should thank our lucky stars they don’t try to do it on departure! The USA seems to manage without it perfectly fine too – passport numbers should be in the booking so it should be easily checked.

• G says:

  19 Nov19 November 06:50

  There are a million ways the Government can verify if you’re in the country or not.
  Passports are far from the only method nowadays.

  • John says:

    19 Nov19 November 07:20

    I’m sure there are for people actively designated as security risks, but beyond this small group of people I think not.
    Otherwise why would the ‘hostile environment’ have needed to co-opt landlords, bank managers, and employers into checking immigration status? Or why would 3/4 of the requirements for a visa extension be centred around proving you’re residing in the country?
    That’s not to say it’s impossible (plenty of governments are very good at facial recognition etc), just that the UK govt hasn’t reached that level of competence for the general population.

    • RussellH says:

      19 Nov19 November 15:43

      So that people were aware just how unpleasant and hostile our government is.

    • Mike says:

      19 Nov19 November 16:27

      Because the government is scared of creating appropriate immigration legislation and the civil service is against implementing any laws that would impinge on their open borders ideology.

  • Tom says:

    19 Nov19 November 14:48

    Unless you have more than one passport of course.

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