[canucklad]

I’m going to join the grumpy old men brigade on this issue for the followig reasons.

1) I ve been out of retail for a while, so.VAT might hav e changed but I’m sure newspapers, magazines and. Books are exempt

2) The why at LGW and not EDI argument is relevant. EDI ‘s lounge is also shared traffic. So no consistency. My pett hate

3). The lack of transparency as to why there is a needless level of bueracracy being hoisted upon us, alredy harassed travelling public .

[NameRemoved-18/12/14]

Are you not a GYM?

[DavidGordon10]

You don’t have to be a grumpy old man, canucklad, you just have to want a bit of consistent (I’m with you there) and user-friendly behaviour by the people who are trying to rip money out of us. As I posted before, this nonsense has made me vow never to buy anything at an airport where this instrusive impertinence goes on. So, if it is market research, it has failed. This bit of the market has walked away.

[MartynSinclair]

I would never go as far as to vow never to buy anything at an airport shop because of this – just have a bit of fun along the way…..

[r ryan]

they ask for boarding passes in Sydney International, and as ALL the passengers airside are leaving the country I cannot think of any reasonable reason for it.

The shops there have prices to make your eyes water (despite claiming otherwise) and the international magazines I regularly purchase are considerably more expensive than my local newsagent, so I feel quite uncooperative after waiting in a long queue to be asked for the boarding pass.

Usually I say “it’s with my stuff in the lounge” and when they ask “what flight” I make it up. I tried a simple “no” once, and the assistant just shrugged, put in a code, and took my money!

If ever someone said they were collecting data ‘to better serve customers’ my response would be that they could start by having the privately owned airport (a monopoly) lower the huge rents for the airport shops so maybe they didn’t need to so extensively rip of the pax.

[fastphil]

I think this thread has gone on long enough but in an effort to remove confusion, annoyance and concern ……

In the UK Bakeries sell goods that are VAT exempt (cooked items cooling down) and goods subject to VAT (items heated up for the customer to enjoy).

Like wise Garden centers sell flower seeds (subject to VAT) and vegetable seeds (VAT exempt).

In both cases the vendor is trained to know which button to press on the till (or the bar code tells the till).

So now move to the UK departure lounge and a subtly different situation arises as the customers are a mix of domestic (VAT and duty payable on purchases) and international (tax free). The vendor needs to know what status the passenger is and his flight number supplies the answer!

Market research is incidental if it occurs and I very much doubt if it applies as I cannot see how purchases by flight number as opposed to customer type/nationality etc would be useful.

If travelling domestically, I always get a VAT receipt when I ask for one and I did on one occasion buy duty free goods (labelled not valid for flights within EU) but had to pay full UK duty.

So don’t get aggressive with the airport retailer’s staff – they are merely trying to ensure HMRC get what they deserve which is best achieved by a standardised process.

[esselle]

Fastphil

Sorry, but you are wrong on the VAT point. No domestic travel from MAN T1, for example, but you are still asked for your flight details.

[fastphil]

I am not just talking about VAT but excise duty as well.
Even in a case like MAN T1 with no current domestic flts you still have shoppers traveling to EU and non EU destinations and vendor must pay excise duty where due on goods (eg alcohol, tobacco) bought by the former.
It’s a fair point to then ask why would, say, WHS need to ask the question in T1 but I suspect they have one process for all airport staff.

[esselle]

Completely agree fastphil on the liquor and tobacco point, where intra EU purchases have to be priced differently; for the rest, different rules apply.

[canucklad]

fastphil….going back to my point then….

Why at some airports and not others?

I think its a data cokllecting exercise, so that the company ( WH Smith) can then collate the data, and then sell it on…probably a moneymaking scheme…

[FormerlyDoS]

Isn’t selling on personal data, without permission, illegal?

So it you are correct, they can only sell aggregated data?

[canucklad]

Wouldn’t be surprised that by them asking, for your pass, and you complying by handing over the document, the legal eagles deem this as you giving permission…..

[Papillion53]

Perhaps BusinessTraveller could ask the BAA Press Office or whoever is responsible for the management of airport shopping this question. Then we would have the definitive answer?

[Bunnahabhain]

And fastphil + others who insist it is for VAT, security, customs or whatever regulations, why do some retailers at a given terminal ask for it but not others?

Good luck BT in getting a logical explanation from BAA or any other airport operator. We never discuss security after all.

[DontTurnRight]

I received a very prompt reply from the CEO of one of UK’s major airports today, advising that the purpose of showing boarding passes in places such as WH Smith, is to tailor ranges sold in the store to suit passenger preferences, as well as giving information on in store promotions. No personal data is maintained by the store.

He also advises that if for any reason, a customer does not wish to provide a boarding pass, then their wishes will be respected .

From my own recollection, however, there is no way around avoiding using boarding pass if you are using one of the new self service scanning machines, though there may be some form of override function.

I still remain personally unconvinced about the value of this info for research, but at least now we have an explanation.

[Author]

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