Last year I flew from Edinburgh to Gatwick with Easyjet. On arrival at Gatwick, we were informed by the cabin crew that "BAA" wanted our photos.

As we left the plane, we entered a corridor where we were required to stop and look into a camera whilst the digital photo was taken, then we were handed a little card. As we entered the arrivals hall, there was a kiosk where we had to hand the card back.

The excuse for this: the corridor we were using allowed both arrivals and international departures and they wanted to be sure those arriving hadn't just been departing and turned round!

Note that we were not told before boarding that we would be required to do this. The little card we were given claimed the photos would be destroyed after 24 hours.

I emailed BAA asking about this, and they claimed they did it to comply with govt regulations after the 9/11 attacks...

James

RyanAir, EasyJet and similar 'backstreet' operators aren't interested in security, but they are interested in people who might want to buy more than one cut-price ticket and sell them on at a profit. Photo Identity checks effectively prevent this. Don't travel with these 'scum' oranisations!

I once kicked up a fuss at Gatwick about having to be photographed to board a flight to Newcastle. I quickly realised that if I didn't comply I wouldn't be allowed on the plane. However, it's a bit different when you've arrived at your destination. I certainly wouldn't have allowed a photo on arrival, as described in the previous post. I wonder what the bumptious sods in security would have done then?

As I understand it BMI don't require photo id on internal flights (unless they've just introduced it), but I bet BMI-baby do, for the reasons noted above. If BMI ask you for phot ID start by saying you haven't got any.

How is presenting e.g. Maltese pension book a *better* form of identity check than presenting the Credit Card actually used to purchase the ticket ?

Why should they care if someone occaisionally manages to sell one of their tickets at a small profit - surely in the vast majority of cases it will be cheaper to buy direct from them with no middle man ?

Quote: Why should they care if someone occaisionally manages to sell one of their tickets at a small profit - surely in the vast majority of cases it will be cheaper to buy direct from them with no middle man ?

The reason for this is that the price of the ticket from these 'low fare' operators varies dramatically according to demand. Depending on when you purchase a ticket the price can vary from literally a fiver up to the full price of perhaps £200 or more (I'm talking UK to Ireland in this example). You have to provide your name when you purchase a ticket. However, what's to stop you buying up a plane-load of tickets with bogus names when the unit price is very low - usually when they're trying hard to fill the flight - and flogging them on at a vast profit? Answer - Photo ID. The name on your ticket must match that on your photo ID. If it doesn't then you don't get to fly, and companies like RyanAir don't give a monkeys because you've already paid. RyanAir are particularly inflexible regarding the type of photo ID they'll accept. The sooner they go bankrupt the better, although it has to be said that you can get some excellent deals if you're prepared to put up with all the crap they throw at you.

Good point about BMI now requiring photo ID (i.e. a passport) to go to Ireland. It's a travesty. We're supposed to be able to travel freely to Ireland without a passport. We share a so-called common travel area with them. How in hell's name does photo ID make it safer to fly? Please e-mail me with answers, or post here. I don't expect many, if any, replies, because it doesn't.