[Deleted User]

Binman – I agree with you about the sheer lunancy of many things, but I have 2 choices, to travel or not to travel. I just grin, smile nicely and think that how fortunate that I am the one being asked for the data that the one asking for the data!

[speedbird85]

Disgusted – enforcement of the alcohol underage sales provisions of the Licensing Act 2003 is a shared responsibility between the Police and Trading Standards

However, the police have no authority to prosecute airside pubs or duty free stores:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/8061829/Departure-lounge-pubs-able-to-sell-alcohol-to-under-age-teenagers.html

I agree with the lack of common sense in asking someone over 50 for a passport for the sale of alcohol. That said, if I was asked in a Duty Free store of proof that my boarding card matched my ID, I wouldn’t have a problem handing over my passport. Cashiers in airside shops have to go through the same criminal records checks as airline checkin staff. Would you refuse to hand over your passport at checkin?

[robsmith100]

Disgusted,
What is the secret to looking youthful? 🙂 I am in my early 30’s and cant remember the last time I was ID’d for proof of age. You should look at it as a compliment; however I do agree that common sense should have prevailed in your case.

I too have been was asked in a Duty Free store of proof that my boarding card matched my ID. I do know for a fact that people who do have airside passes do go through very strong security checks before being employed and doubt the passport would have been taken out of your site. It sounds like that the shop needs to review its customer service policy/process so it doesn’t cause offence.

[Deleted User]

A boarding pass is needed in most of the airside shops. I really dont know what the issue here is – after all, it is a secure area! The only other solution to pacify people would be for an ID system where paper passes are handed out at security with a photo and hung around our necks to prove that we are meant to be where we are – but the cost would mean a further increase in airport security charges,

Personally, its easier to just live with it.

[esselle]

The presentation of boarding passes in airside shops has never, as far as I am aware, had anything to do with security measures (you would not be able to get airside without one). It is actually a marketing practice designed to capture data about pax to enable operators and concessionaires plan ranges etc; routes/airlines/schedules produce higher spends/differing demand pattenrs etc, and recording data from the boarding pass makes this a simple task.
The passport as proof of age issue is different and, in my view, a nonsense.
Merry Christmas one and all!

[watersz]

to move back on to passports
I ‘ve been to two places recently , Barcelona and Moscow were the Hotel insisted on taking my passport for registration purposes,

under these arrangements is it any wonder countries security agencies like mosad , and criminals ( is there a diffrence in some countries?? ) eventually use this info and as demonstrated make fake passports for thier own uses,

sure I would be weary of anyone with my passort as much as my credit card but I think the determined ones will find a way.

[continentalclub]

Common departure areas (CDAs) and their shopping facilities present a number of practical problems in their day-to-day operation.

One of these is that the application of VAT and certain excise duties depends on the destination of the passenger making the purchase.

If you are travelling outside the EU, then you will pay a different price on alcohol and tobacco products, and your boarding pass is used to verify your destination. It is not a marketing ‘check’.

If you are travelling within the EU, then part of the price the customer pays on goods (where applicable) will be UK VAT and this will be remitted to HMRC. If your destination is outside the EU then (with the exception of alcohol and tobacco) though the customer pays the same price as an EU passenger, then in many situations there is no VAT liability to the retailer. In this case, the boarding pass check allows the retailer to verify whether part of the price paid must be declared as VAT. It is not a marketing check.

More generally, there is a move across the UK to crack-down on the sale of alcohol and tobacco to underage customers. The sanctions for retailers found to be in breach are severe and include revocation of licence. This has led some retailers to issue a blanket edict that all customers must show proof of age to the cashier. It is simply too much of a business risk to allow an employee to jeapordise the retailer’s entire operation, simply because they are unsure/afraid to ask for ID.

This has led to some tabloid reports of OAPs being challenged, but the instances are few and far between. Many retailers now use a ‘Do You Look Under 25?’ protocol for ID request.

The fact is that, in the UK, a licenced retailer of alcohol is legally prevented from selling to underage customers; by default, the retailer is also legally able to request proof of age. They are free to specify what form that proof may take, though they have no mandate to note, store or cross-reference any part of that ID or the data contained therein. It’s a visual check, that’s all.

Back to the airport though, and there is clearly a possibility that boarding passes could be swapped between passengers to gain access to lower alcohol and tobacco prices. There is also the possibility that BPs could be swapped and a retailer’s VAT liability be increased. In the worst case scenario, BPs could be swapped to allow passengers to travel on different flights.

In the latter case, this is why there is usually a photo-check and also a passport reconciliation in CDA airports (the webcams at Heathrow, for example) and in the former case this is why a cashier would ask to see a passport when making most purchases.

With the Police and HMRC able to issue huge fines and potentially compromise business operation through revocations of permissions, it’s therefore, to me, really quite understandable why large businesses are seeking to minimise their exposure to risk.

[esselle]

Before CDA’s were introduced, boarding pass checks were made for precisely the reasons I stated, but I will accept graciously the point that they are now, in addition, used to differentiate between EU/non EU pax. The point that they are not, and never have been, part of a security process as far as shopping is concerned, remains.

[PatJordan]

Just a thought, but I wondered if a colour copy of the title page of a passport would have been aceptable when Disgusted was queried in LGW?

That clearly identifies the passenger without copromising the security of the actual passport. Surely this would meet the requirements of any cashier?

[Author]

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