[BAfanatic]

railwayman1, I really sympathize with you. Thanks for posting – good stories and interesting. I also admire you for writing to Boots, and for standing on your principles – I tend to fume to myself instead.

If you get that T-shirt, please order one for me without ‘Stansted’ or a flight number on it.

I am tired of getting shoved around at airports. Security I understand, but I am sick of the rest of it. You said you now “refuse to purchase anything at the airport” – great idea.

[RealityCheck1]

The only thing recorded from the boarding pass is the flight number, the barcode does not contain any personal information.

Do you pay by card anywhere? That contains more information than your boarding pass does. So when you pompously refuse to show your boarding pass then proceed to pay by card your giving the company far more information than you ever would by letting the cashier who is just doing what they are asked to do by their employers, and scanning your boarding pass. So lets all refuse to ever pay by card they are “collecting information”!

The boarding pass is needed to ensure the company pays enough tax and so they can claim back the VAT.

Also is it really that difficult to get your boarding pass out? I feel as though if all of you keyboard warriors put your time into getting the frustrated about real world issues maybe the world would be a better place. But please continue to annoy the cashier who’s been there since 2AM, being pressured to have a 95% scan rate and have every other customer aggressively questioning/refusing the boarding pass all while keeping a smile on their face. The joy of customer service eh? Its procedure stop being an idiot and just get your boarding pass out, is it really difficult? I would say difficult is walking 4 miles for water not rifling through your bag/pocket for a piece of paper. Lets please have some perspective.

[lloydah]

Dear RealityCheck1
I’ve not posted on this topic so far but am just as annoyed as railwayman1 is at the constant and annoying way I am hassled when all I buy is a newspaper – which doesn’t have VAT.
I am surprise that you are able to claim railwayman1 is pompous, your letter seemed far more so to me.
But the question still remains – if it’s simply for tax/vat returns why do they ask for it when selling non vat items? Why did the Boots PR manager say “under no circumstances should the staff demand that I present my boarding pass and that it was just a request?”

Walking 4 miles for water is hardly a relevant point in this discussion.

[MrMichael]

I too do not like showing my boarding pass, it is nothing to do with Smiths or anyone else where I am going, unless I am buying tax free goods. They have absolutely no requirement to ask for that info. If as you say RealityCheck they are worried about number of scannings, speed it up by not asking for pointless information. The information recorded when paying by card is the information required to get payment and to prove if necessary later that you did/did not agree to pay. The two are not comparable, anyway, if I choose not to give that info then I can pay with cash. Very often I use electronic boarding passes, and they can be scanned, so I know not what info they can get from it.

[KarlMarx]

RealityCheck1 – 16/11/2014 14:15 GMT

The only thing recorded from the boarding pass is the flight number, the barcode does not contain any personal information.

+++++

Really?

[LuganoPirate]

I too have stopped buying at the airport, it’s not any cheaper and you have the hassle of having to carry it. On the very rare occasion I do buy something I tend to use cash.

As for the collection of information on me? Well if i want to avoid that i should go live in a cave! Every time we user the Internet, send or read email, some info is being collected, as it is when we shop, pay by card and so on. I’m now immune to the “targeted” junk i receive and just delete or bin it!

[canucklad]

Dear RealityCheck1
I start with the premise that you posted your comment with a tongue and cheek intention. So in that vain, I’ll respond accordingly…..
In a previous life I was a manager for a leading retailer, so I’m going to base my comments on that gained knowledge. Firstly your point about payment cards, as you’re likely aware the suppliers of cards are heavily regulated in regards to security of personal data held on those cards. Secondly the collection of VAT, I’m pretty sure it’s the traveller’s responsibility to prove residency before claiming back taxation, not the retailers to avoid paying taxation. Thirdly, why would any retailer willing piss off its customer base, increase queue times etc., without there being a financial gain to that organization?
So I wonder why they do it ?

[MartynSinclair]

For me, its more about the controlling nature of an airport. High charges to park, long q’s and intrusive body searches, being pushed for time, passports, can go here, must not go there……. the boarding card in the shops is just one more “controlling and unnecessary feature” of the London Airports experience. The problem is not when I am showing my bp, but when Ive left it in the lounge…. or its in my back pack…

[fastphil]

A further effort to inject clarity and allow this long thread to close ….

In duty free at UK airports 2 price bands apply:
1.Available to travellers within the EU for which for which UK taxes must be paid.
2.Available to travellers going outside the EU for which no UK taxes are due.
To qualify for 2 you show your boarding pass.
In other retail outlets a similar situation arises whereby UK VAT is payable by travellers within the EU and the easiest way to administer that is to swipe the boarding pass and get a flight number to prove eligibility or exemption from VAT.
In these outlets there is never 2 tier pricing in my experience and so the customer always pays the VAT and the retailer claims it back only if you are travelling outside the EU and they are told your flight number.

[canucklad]

Just a quick question fastphil, why would WH smiths claim back money I’m entitled too. By doing so they are breaching any number of rules governed by trading standards etc. Primarily over charging me at point of purchase.

[esselle]

Where did the VAT argument appear from? It has nothing to do with VAT!!

[MrMichael]

So going by previous posts, provided I keep my boarding card to a non EU country I can use it on another occasion to purchase duty free when going to an EU destination.

Or, I could borrow the boarding pass of another PAX that is flying to a non EU country to get duty free, or get them to purchase it for me.

The whole thing is bonkers, when I buy a paper at Waterloo they don’t ask to see my ticket, why do so at LHR.

[CXDiamond]

I refuse to show a boarding pass in places like Smiths or Boots and explain to the staff member that it’s not a requirement and requesting it only adds to the hassle of LHR which no one needs. I have found with one exception that they tend to agree with me. The one exception was a young man in Smiths in T1 who was so rude I asked for and waited fifteen minutes to speak with the overall manager of Smiths at LHR. He was most apologetic and said it was at the customer’s discretion whether they showed the pass or not.

[MrMichael]

CXDiamond, did the manager say anything about why they wanted it?

[BugAdvisor]

I wrote an article yesterday on my http://www.bugadvisor.comblog about Luton airport and mentioned that I couldn’t understand why I was asked to show my boarding pass at Boots (the chemist that also sells drinks, sandwiches etc.) when buying a sandwich. I wrote to Boots and they responded really quickly and advised that:
I would like to assure you that this is not a compulsory requirement. If a customer does not wish to share this information, then we would still expect the transaction to go ahead, but without the boarding card being scanned.

[Author]

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