akinldn

I must say I had a rather unpleasant experience with BA recently.

Had a day flight out to a European country and back in the evening. Have a foreign passport which is eligible for visa on arrival for most countries including the European country and UK and residency in the UK.

Forgot to bring my residence permit when I went to check-in at London Heathrow and was told they cannot allow me on the flight out of the UK because I was resident in the UK and was unable to show my UK visa!!! They did not accept my explanation that A) I do not think I need my UK visa to leave the country and B) I would be able to return to the UK anyway as I could get a visa on arrival, as I also had a future outbound flight out of the UK in the following day. And even if my return to the UK was in question, then the issue should be on my return flight rather than being denied boarding an outbound flight from the UK.

It is quite annoying that my UK residency status was being used against me all the time by BA and the check in agent was not interested in helping to find any solution other than to tell me to take responsibility for my carelessness in not bringing around an official UK government document.

Was also prevented to escalating the issue to her manager when I asked to speak to the manager. Not sure what my recourse are at that time other than to file a complaint to the BA website which would have been too late to address my problem (which was to be able to fly to attend a meeting).

KeaneJohn

You’ve not been specific in saying what passport you have and what country you were going to but BA follow the rules of Timatic and won’t budge from what that says despite you pleading well it will be Ok because. Sometimes they make a mistake but if they haven’t you’ve not got a leg to stand on.

United airlines have a passenger link to Timatic on their website. You need to enter each leg separately.

Saladman

I guess the answer is don’t forget your residence permit. (I’m guessing a BRP or is it a vignette in an older passport?)

Hopefully by the end of 2024 some progress will be made on digitising it so this problem shouldn’t arise, however until then…..

DYKWIA

Surely Timatic only shows the rules for the destination, not the departure country?

What if the OP was travelling somewhere to pick up the residency permit?

bisonrav

This is wrong. At the time of checking in for the return flight there should be a check, not the outbound. The return portion is separate unless a BP is issued (which is possibly part of the problem, as the doc check would have asked for a check of residence status for all checked in legs). In that case the check in should be cancelled and a BP issued for the outbound only.

At checking in for the return you may need to have proof that you can't outstay your visa on arrival, which often involves having a return ticket. This happened once to my wife and we bought a fully flex ticket out of the UK which we cancelled when we'd sorted out the missing residency docs on return.

I'd say you have a good case for IDB compensation here.

DernierVirage

This incident links in with a thread that I started here not long ago (it was moved to the UK forum), where my concern was that my wife's BRP (Biometric Residence Permit) expires on 31/12/2024, as part of the phasing in of the new eVisas, although she has indefinite leave to remain in the UK.

craigthemif

The OP said it was a day trip. Therefore the outbound and inbound BPs would be issued at the same time at LHR.

In theory, I suppose the OP could insist on only being issued the BP for outbound, but then would almost certainly have been denied boarding for the return that evening. (without proper documentation) Personally, I'd rather have the IDB at home rather than somewhere else, especially on a day trip when you haven't brought much with you...

Antarius

If it is a BRP, i believe that it must be presented at departure and on re-entry by law. Whether or not one can enter with a different means is not relevant. Canada is similar with a residence permit/Canadian passport.

cauchy

No need to show a BRP upon exit from the UK.

There are still a few of us here that aren't happy with a "papers please" society...

Ldnn1

Even if it were in theory required to be in possession of a BRP on exiting the UK, that's irrelevant, as BA is certainly not conducting any check on your ability to leave the UK when boarding a flight out of the UK.

The only plausible reason for denying here is either (a) the missing paperwork somehow affected OP's ability to enter the destination country or (b) BA effectively conducted a check for both outbound and inbound flight at the same time, and decided the 'no' for inbound meant deny outbound.

Howard Long

It’s not uncommon for the destination country to require evidence of a valid return ticket in many situations.

That return ticket segment would be invalid if the OP could not provide the correct paperwork for re-entry back to the UK.

RichieMc

Then whatever you, don’t fly to the UK from a foreign country! You’ll have to show your passport. Every. Single. Time! They don’t actually say “Papers please” like in the movies with an evil German accent either. Those of us that travel frequently and are used to the process know you have to get your passport out at the desk or electronic control gates. Madness I know. And depending on what passport you have, you might have to show a further document proving you are allowed to enter the country.

The issue here is the OP was checking in for 2 flights; one of these was a trip TO the UK from a foreign country. He was unable to show his admissibility. Seems like he should have been able to just get the outbound though. Unclear of that was requested.

3AonBA

I'm not surprised. Make sure you have all your documents in order.

jerry a. laska

Maybe the OP can tell us which country’s passport he holds and what country he was traveling to.

akinldn

I do not think the passport and destination is relevant. The facts were clear that I could clear immigration at the destination country with no issue - BA agent had said the block was on the return but still kept me out of the outbound. And that I would have an issue coming back to the UK on the return if they checked my passport at the other end - but no practical issue crossing UK immigration though since I would be using e-gate.

So I had thought the reasonable thing to do for BA was to have let me checked in on the outbound and unloaded me from the return and face whatever issues on the other side - which would have been the case if I had bought a one-way ticket. I was prepared to take the risk as I had saw three potential options of solving the problem (A. Not getting checked on the return - which was very likely. B. Getting an onward flight from the UK to a destination where I am exempt from visa requirements so the UK is "not my final destination" - then cancelling it after getting checked at the airport.)

And to be clear, I am not trying to argue that because I think BA should not stop people from leaving the country without a valid UK visa to return. It is obviously not a very sensible thing to have done (I blame waking up in the middle of a night for the flight....) but given that it had already happen and had a more pressing need to travel and was prepared to take the consequences of being denied the return flight, that BA should have been more helpful than offloading me from the outbound and refusing to do anything about it.

I get that in theory, I may not be given entry into the destination country because I then do not have a "valid return ticket within 90 days of entry". But it was not true in my circumstances as I had a series of flights booked which would have been sufficient proof for immigration at all of the countries but the BA agent simply said that she didn't care what UK immigration says and simply pointed that "the computer says no".

And while it is true that the BRP is required to be brought when leaving the country (which I only found out later), this has never been checked at any UK airport on departure and I have never previously been asked to present this or a UK visa on any previous flight out of the country.

Speaking of eVisa, how does this work then? Do I need a printout of this? I tried showing a scan of the BRP which I had stored on my phone but the same BA agent said that they do not accept pictures because I may have forged it!!!!!