British Airways to require photo ID for domestic flights from 1st September

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• Gareth says:

  25 Aug25 August 17:37

  For older people why not accept photo national bus pass

  • freckles says:

    25 Aug25 August 20:06

    Yes, the pre flight email that comes a few days before will mention the need to carry photo ID. Whether people read it is another matter…….

    • Rob says:

      25 Aug25 August 20:10

      No-one reads those emails ….

      • freckles says:

        25 Aug25 August 20:37

        Ah, but it allows BA to say they told you…….
        Having said that, the way BA are implementing this change is poor – I can see a period of (hopefully) leniency while it becomes common knowledge.
        (By the way, my original reply was meant as reply to Steve below – hit wrong reply button!)

• SteveCroydon says:

  25 Aug25 August 18:43

  Surprised that no one has mentioned contract and T&Cs at the time of booking. If I had a pending domestic flight booked before this announcement and I was refused boarding, then BA have breached the terms under which the contract was entered into.
  Are booked travellers receiving notification emails about this? Not that lets BA off the hook regarding contract.
  Many older, irregular travellers might only have their photo Oyster card or regional equivalent. These have very small, poor photos.
  Yet another BA backroom management stuff-up in the making, just like the appalling IT systems.

  • JDB says:

    25 Aug25 August 18:55

    The Conditions of Carriage require you to have the necessary documents anyway and it is the responsibility of the passenger to check they have them in compliance with the latest rules for their destination. On your analysis BA would be responsible for changes made by any airline or government prior to travel. All BA is doing here is to bring its policies in line with other domestic airlines.

    • AJL says:

      26 Aug26 August 07:22

      “neccesarry documents” in this context will mean “documents required by law” not “stuff we want”. This isn’t the same as a government changing mandatory (under law) necessary documents, though where clearly BA wouldn’t be liable (and is covered under the conditions of carriage relations to valid travel docs).

      This is just BA deciding itself that it wants to impose a new requirement that wasn’t present at the time or contracting. “Highly recommended”
      does not in contractual terms equate to “required”. your relationship with BA is fixed at the time or contracting.

      So if someone is denied boarding because of this I do think Steve Croydon’s point is a good one.

• Ian says:

  25 Aug25 August 18:53

  Always wondered whether a press pass will suffice.

  This needs hoops to jump through and is good enough for Downing Street, yet never seems to be valid ID.

  Just wondering….. 😂

• Jack says:

  25 Aug25 August 20:06

  This brings BA in like with every other domestic airline aka easyjet which all requires ID to travel on any flight even domestically . Personally I don’t see it as being a big issue the vast majority of people will be carrying ID when travelling ie a driving license or passport

  • Rob says:

    25 Aug25 August 20:10

    I don’t think anyone under 60 actually carries their driving licence around these days. Few under 30 even have a wallet, since their credit cards are on their phone and they don’t use cash.

    • Yorkshire rich says:

      25 Aug25 August 20:14

      Rob, I asked my wife tonight at the tender age of 34 if I needed any cards for anything or my DVLA. Her reply to me was “you don’t look that young my darling”.

    • PIL says:

      25 Aug25 August 20:28

      I would not be surprised if we see a digital driving licence rolling out in the next few years. Other countries such as Greece have already done this successfully since last year and has been a game changer.

      You can use a digital ID or driving licence to fly domestic without any issues.

      • Rob says:

        25 Aug25 August 21:00

        Go to Dubai and look at how it works there. Everything to do with the Government runs off one app which seems to work (Estonia seems to be as good but I’ve never personally seen that in action.) Obviously with Govt-owned utilities in Dubai its easier to centralise everything but it’s a world away from how things are here.

        • PIL says:

          25 Aug25 August 21:36

          Similar set up in Greece. The minister in charge has been educated in the UK previously and used the gov platform to roll out the one app for ID purposes.

          It works well and can transact without carrying around anything additional. I am sure Dubai does it equally well if not better

        • AL says:

          26 Aug26 August 01:56

          The subject of digital government was something I devoted a number of years, and hundreds of pages, to whilst studying, and did a lot of work on how Estonia works. It’s an exemplar for good digital service delivery but not the only one – the UK is good, and is often a beacon for others to look at. Canada, Japan are other nations interested.

      • numpty says:

        25 Aug25 August 21:05

        Some states in USA have the option for driving licence in Apple Wallet.

      • AL says:

        26 Aug26 August 01:54

        I must fit in to quite a few “few” categories by now, based on Rob’s views of people approximately my age!

        We already have a digital driving licence – I’ve long had it in my Apple Wallet. It’s useless, though, until the law starts to recognise it.

    • Ryan says:

      25 Aug25 August 23:28

      28 here, carry a wallet with… a COIN pocket
      Coins are little pieces of metal that I use to pay for things with
      Only use Apple Pay if I forget everything, it contains my debit, credit cards, ID and even a store card….

      • Rob says:

        26 Aug26 August 07:30

        They ruin the line of your jacket and should be ditched 🙂 Your tailor would have a heart attack.

        • Gordon says:

          26 Aug26 August 08:13

          @Rob. What is a jacket!

        • Numpty says:

          26 Aug26 August 09:11

          Yes. You need to leave the pockets stitched up so you can’t use them.

        • RussellH says:

          26 Aug26 August 10:47

          Surely you do not suggest that I should put my wallet in my hardly ever worn jacket?
          It is in my left had trouser pocket, and has been since I left school in the mid 1960s.

      • RussellH says:

        26 Aug26 August 10:55

        I seldom use cash for anything – I am surprised anyone here does, as we get no points for paying by cash.
        BUT – I never do not have cash on me – just in case.

        Last year I noticed a huge change in the way that people pay in Germany + Switzerland post covid. Back when I lived in Switzerland, and for many years after, everyone paid for everything in cash. This meant that only the desperate would go to a post office during the last few days of the month as the queues were horrendous with people paying all their monthly bills in cash over the counter. (They had just been to the bank to get the cash out of their savings a/c.)

    • Can2 says:

      26 Aug26 August 07:05

      Don’t you need to give your name and address if you get involved in an accident? And you can lie, so people show their driving licence? What am I missing?

      • Rob says:

        26 Aug26 August 07:25

        We don’t ‘do’ ID carrying in the UK. It’s ingrained in our culture. Leave your licence at home and stop looking weird to your friends when they see it in your wallet.

        (Carrying your NI card around is even weirder.)

        • Can2 says:

          26 Aug26 August 07:34

          I don’t even have a wallet 🙂

          Many years ago someone ”reared” my car. He was nice and showed me his licence for “insurance purposes”. I don’t know what I’d do if he didn’t. Would I believe him what he says his name/address was? Nope.

        • Mark says:

          26 Aug26 August 08:12

          50 here .. My photo driving licence is permanently in my wallet, which I almost always carry with me. Having photo ID I could carry was a plus point for me when I was forced off my old paper licence and I saw it as some compensation for the hassle of having to renew it every ten years.

          It is, occasionally, useful too. I’ve never had anyone comment on it being strange that I have it.

          That said, I rarely use cash and don’t carry coins around. They go in a pot in the car for parking, which I never use these days as it is all pay by app!

        • Andrew. says:

          26 Aug26 August 08:38

          My NI card is in the same drawer in my parent’s house where I put it to keep it safe in 1989. It’s never left the house.

        • Bagoly says:

          26 Aug26 August 10:27

          You are absolutely right about culture, as seen in the 2010 election and subsequent abandonment of the national ID card scheme.
          Shared with Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
          Wikipedia lists 150 territories with compulsory ID cards, 35 with voluntary ones, and just 16 without (although the description for Japan suggests it should be 36 and 15)
          Even the USA has “passport cards” to facilitate carrying around.
          I did find it a nuisance having to carry a passport in Hungary in the 1990s – something credit-card sized is much easier.

          What seems odd when viewed from outside the UK, is that the opposition came largely from the same political grouping which is keen on “Lawn Order”, and would be expected to be in favour of making things difficult for illegal immigrants, making benefit fraud more difficult, making life easier for small businesses with obligations to check identity etc.

        • RussellH says:

          26 Aug26 August 11:06

          Bagoly – it is obvious why the Lawn Order mob are against ID cards – they would never, ever misbehave, so they would never, ever be required to prove their identity, so why should they have to have one?
          OK, they might drive home from the pub a little over the limit, but “everyone does that”, so it is not wrong. Or they might rough up “the wife”, but again, they believe, everyone does that at some time or other. Just “normal” behaviour.
          Personally, I was in favour of a requirement to *have* an ID card (could have simplified many things), but like the driving licence, no compulsion to carry it at all times.

    • Flyoff says:

      26 Aug26 August 08:13

      As I spend time visiting customers I always take my driving license as photo ID, is often required and reception. Sometimes a work photo ID are ok, but often a driving license makes life easier. Corporates are a lot more wary of who they are letting in to their organisations.

      • Bagoly says:

        26 Aug26 August 10:12

        Even years ago Singapore office buildings didn’t just require to see, but actually took, your passport/national ID card, and gave it back when you presented the “cloakroom” token they had given you, on leaving.

    • martin says:

      26 Aug26 August 08:21

      I usually carry both my own and my wife’s driving licence in my wallet, as the most common use for both is proving ID collecting online orders from shops.

      • Mikeact says:

        26 Aug26 August 08:57

        +1 Also West Sussex CC require photo id ,to prove residency, to use our local ‘tip’.

        • Gordon says:

          26 Aug26 August 09:10

          You are lucky you can just turn up and use the recycling centre, In north Essex we have to make an appointment ahead of time now to prevent too much traffic building up at any one time.

        • Rob says:

          26 Aug26 August 09:18

          So does ours, but I don’t go there often enough to justify carrying ID around 24/7 🙂

          Amusingly I was refused entry to the Alcazar in Seville two months ago because I wasn’t carrying photo ID. Apparently there are big issues with touts buying tickets (you need to give a name when you buy) and reselling them via dodgy websites. I got around it by showing a YouTube clip of me on TV 🙂

    • Jenny Reed says:

      26 Aug26 August 09:15

      I do.

    • Danny says:

      26 Aug26 August 09:21

      So what ID does Rhys carry with him when he goes to a bar or club?

      • Rob says:

        26 Aug26 August 09:23

        As he’s rapidly approaching 30, I assume nowt 🙂

        • lumma says:

          26 Aug26 August 10:18

          There’s plenty of bars and clubs in London that have a no ID, no entry policy, so you’ll need to carry for there.

          I still think Apple/Google pay is one of the most pointless inventions ever, basically a credit card that has a battery, so will be useless when your phone dies. Instead of carrying wallets, do you have to carrybw powerbank instead?

        • Andy says:

          26 Aug26 August 10:22

          Ten or so years ago I was refused entry to a bar in San Francisco because I didn’t have ID… think I was 45 at the time!

      • Gordon says:

        26 Aug26 August 09:33

        Whatever ID it is, he forgot it when in Miami it believe, and he was refused entry to a Gay bar. So there’s an example of what happens when you don’t have any ID.

        • Rob says:

          26 Aug26 August 09:36

          If you were going to a bar in the US you’d take some. But people who carry around driving licences 24/7 (and especially their NI cards) are a bit odd in my view 🙂

          As I said, my daughter considers anyone who actually carries real money or physical plastic credit cards to be a bit odd so it’s all relative 🙂

        • Gordon says:

          26 Aug26 August 09:54

          @Rob, calling people who carry a driving licence or NI card “A bit odd” is unfair. I am sure the majority would be the older generation, as there were no smart phones back in the day to have your cards and ID on. (People don’t like change) I am sure in decades to come people who carry smart phones around will look as you say “A bit odd” as people will have a revolutionary new device they use for this purpose. Technology moves on!

        • Rob says:

          26 Aug26 August 10:01

          As I said, my daughter considers me odd for carrying real money and real plastic credit cards …

        • Bagoly says:

          26 Aug26 August 10:40

          If you carry no wallet, how do you tip in hotels? (and Americans in bars and everywhere!)
          I get that such people take so few clothes that they travel HBO, but baggage isn’t the only relevant service.
          It is true that nowadays I rarely break large notes to pay for anything, so I have to occasionally specifically source small value notes from a physical bank.

        • Bagoly says:

          26 Aug26 August 10:45

          @Rob – I believe your daughter is following the example of the late Queen!

          Carrying around driving licence in wallet v being stuck when required for car-rental/domestic flight/collecting from Royal Mail or some other situation I have not considered is a no-brainer to me – I don’t want to have to think about what is and what is not in my wallet before I leave the house depending on what I am doing.

        • RussellH says:

          26 Aug26 August 11:12

          Rob, tell your daughter that I regard anyone who carries a massively heavy, clunky modern “phone” around to be weird.
          They certainly ruin the hang of a garment.
          (Yes, I know she probably carries it in a little bag. Which can get nicked easily.)

  • Harry T says:

    25 Aug25 August 21:28

    I literally use Apple Pay for everything. I don’t carry cards. I certainly don’t carry ID when travelling domestically, or ever really, unless travelling abroad. I am 32.

    • lumma says:

      26 Aug26 August 05:58

      So what do you do when your battery dies? Also at 32, not having ID means you’re risking being turned away from buying alcohol.

      • RussellH says:

        26 Aug26 August 11:19

        Maybe Harry looks older than he is 🙂
        I can actually only recall one incident in my life in the UK when someone in a group I was with was questioned as to his age – in a pub in a small village in the Yorkshire Dales in the late 1960s. Ironically, John was the only one in a group about ten who was over 21. The rest of us were 19 or 20.
        Also the time when I lived in New England (1970s). My 17 year old brother +sister visited and were age checked. They used YHA membership cards with their date of birth printed as 2-10-1957, which the waitress of course read as 10 Feb, making them over 18, which was the legal age at the time.

      • Harry T says:

        26 Aug26 August 14:48

        Can’t remember the last time I was IDed, I’m a pretty big chap with a beard! I don’t even really care if I can’t buy alcohol either.

    • Toppcat says:

      26 Aug26 August 12:44

      Late 30s here. Google pay for everything, don’t carry cash / ID / anything except my phone and house key. Phone rarely dies, and if I am running low then charging it somewhere is usually pretty straightforward. It really is quite freeing.

      • Harry T says:

        26 Aug26 August 14:48

        Agreed!

• LittleNick says:

  25 Aug25 August 20:21

  I can’t help but think there’s more to this than we’re supposed to know, given BA is the odd one out here and the speed this is being done, I suspect actually this is possibly more of a security related issue than anything else and being to track certain individuals.

  • Blair Waldorf Salad says:

    25 Aug25 August 21:59

    Indeed. Sometimes best not to dig too deep if there’s likely to be a national security element at play.

• James Harper says:

  25 Aug25 August 21:07

  Presumably for people who have neither a passport nor a driving licence, BA will be offering a full refund on their tickets for travel booked in the coming weeks?

  This is a typical BA mess. If they wanted to implement this then it should have been applied to new bookings and brought in gradually. Unless of course domestic flights are hugely oversold beginning on 1st September and they are looking to offload without compensation.

  I don’t travel on domestic flights so it is no problem to me but what a mess.

• LD27 says:

  25 Aug25 August 21:19

  Some of us still have an old green paper driving licence, which is stuck together with sellotape. Never been refused for car hire in UK or abroad. But have bought an International licence for my trip to South Africa next week as it seems to be one of the few countries that requires a photo licence.

  • ADS says:

    26 Aug26 August 00:07

    i loved my green paper driving licence … very jealous that you’ve still got yours!

    • RussellH says:

      26 Aug26 August 11:22

      Yes, they were good. It used to be simple to get two of them with different addresses. Some found this quite useful…

      • Gordon says:

        26 Aug26 August 14:02

        Some also said they lost theirs and obtained a second from DVLA one as if they had points added on the new one they would use the one allegedly lost one as a clean one for say hiring a car!

• Littlefish says:

  25 Aug25 August 22:12

  Thanks for the heads up on this Rob. Was travelling back GLA-LON next weekend, but two of my party have no Driving licence. Thankfully an avios trip, so was able to cancel. Train back it must be (swerving the Saturday strike).
  Unless we take Passports in future for a UK family holiday, then this pretty rules out domestic flights until maybe I need them again for tier points some year.

  • NFH says:

    25 Aug25 August 22:22

    Why should you cancel? The intended breach of contract was by BA, not by you. BA attempted to change the contractual terms after the conclusion of the contract.

    • JDB says:

      25 Aug25 August 22:40

      Read the Conditions of Carriage (ie the contract) – this has been provided for within the terms for years.

      • RussellH says:

        26 Aug26 August 11:27

        Your opinion, JDB, has been challenged up thread, though I have no idea whether the challenger is qualified to do so.
        But I would agree that if Littlefish’s family members tried to argue about breach of contract at check in or the gate, the hassle is 100% not worth it.
        Just take the train – far more comfortable + better scenery.

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