Heads up on UK Passport if entering USA

[kalos]

The USA have recently changed the rules on UK Passports.

 

Make sure you have the camera logo on the front cover of your passport,

 

or it could get very costly like this guys holiday :eek:

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36228034

[Presto2]

The USA have recently changed the rules on UK Passports.

 

Make sure you have the camera logo on the front cover of your passport,

 

or it could get very costly like this guys holiday :eek:

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36228034

 

This is ridiculous. Surely Thomson should take some responsibility for not flagging this up to the family. We are really careful to check details etc re flights and fill everything in we are told to do etc but I can see how this new rule has 'escaped' being noticed.

[terrierjohn]

I seem to remember reading that this restriction would be introduced sometime in 2016, a few years ago. I remember checking mine at the time and being happy I would be renewing it well before 2016; and since the new biometric passports were first introduced in 2006, with a 10 year life span it should only be affecting a small percentage of passport holders.

[majortom10]

It affected us we purchased ESTA's with no problems for our Transatlantic on QM2 in October last year. The ESTA's supposed to last 2yrs but because our passports were not the new style passport and due for renewal in November 2016 we had an e-mail from agency in USA stating that from April our passports were not correct for entry into USA so they cancelled our ESTA's for future use.

[john watson]

In the video sound clip the partner says a lot about what happened relating to the documents, however she seems to focus on the amount of remaining passport validity at the time of returning to the UK. She seems to have the understanding that this is the issue causing the problem. The only time the "Biometric" issue is raised is when the presenter mentions it. The partner does not confirm her understanding of that but continues about the unfortunate consequences her husband faced after being refused to fly. I wonder if she realises whether the problem was having a non biometric passport or one with less than six months validity upon return.

 

Regards John

[kalos]

article reads .."It is understood that British passports affected are those issued between April and October 2006 - before the introduction of the biometric passport.

Simon Calder, travel editor at the Independent newspaper, estimates about 1.3 million British passports are currently valid but not biometric."

 

If Simon's figures are right ,there is still a lot of holidays that could be spoilt if these people do check all their families passports.

 

Not suggesting that they are all going to the USA, so it could still be a small figure .

Edited May 7, 2016 by kalos

[newport dave]

It affected us we purchased ESTA's with no problems for our Transatlantic on QM2 in October last year. The ESTA's supposed to last 2yrs but because our passports were not the new style passport and due for renewal in November 2016 we had an e-mail from agency in USA stating that from April our passports were not correct for entry into USA so they cancelled our ESTA's for future use.

 

ESTA's are linked to one passport, if you change that passport you then need a new ESTA. You can't transfer ESTA's over to new passports.

[sunny seas]

I seem to remember reading that this restriction would be introduced sometime in 2016, a few years ago. I remember checking mine at the time and being happy I would be renewing it well before 2016; and since the new biometric passports were first introduced in 2006, with a 10 year life span it should only be affecting a small percentage of passport holders.

 

My sons passport had expired so he renewed it in March this year. It does not have achip , we only realised this when he joined the queue for the biometric passport at the airport on our return and was directed to the other desks as his didn't have a chip. He will contact the passport office just in case he wants to go to America. Can't understand how one so recent has no chip, mine is 8 years old and has one.

 

Sunny seas:confused:

[newport dave]

My sons passport had expired so he renewed it in March this year. It does not have achip , we only realised this when he joined the queue for the biometric passport at the airport on our return and was directed to the other desks as his didn't have a chip. He will contact the passport office just in case he wants to go to America. Can't understand how one so recent has no chip, mine is 8 years old and has one.

 

Sunny seas:confused:

Something not right there. They have been issuing only biometric passports since Oct 2006 so don't know how this happened. I use to work in the Newport passport office. Does his passport look like the picture below. If it does, then it's bio metric. If for some reason it's not, the the passport office should replace if free of charge.

 

 

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[Florry]

My sons passport had expired so he renewed it in March this year. It does not have achip , we only realised this when he joined the queue for the biometric passport at the airport on our return and was directed to the other desks as his didn't have a chip. He will contact the passport office just in case he wants to go to America. Can't understand how one so recent has no chip, mine is 8 years old and has one.

 

 

 

Sunny seas:confused:

 

 

That's a bit off, let's hope they don't try to charge for a replacement! Slightly off-topic but I mentor a young person who grew up in care and has no contact with his family. He was born here, lived here all his life and has been rejected for a passport because we don't have enough details of his parents and Social Services can't help - the mind boggles!

Edited May 7, 2016 by Florry

[tartanexile81]

It will only affect a small amount of people but certainly for those people it's huge. What I can't understand though is that anybody travelling to the US and applying for an ESTA is told they need to have at least 6 months remaining on their passport and this would mean everybody going to the USA from April onwards will have or be applying for the new style passport. Or did they just not bother? We've just applied for a new ESTA to visit in July and it was made very clear

[peteukmcr]

This is ridiculous. Surely Thomson should take some responsibility for not flagging this up to the family. We are really careful to check details etc re flights and fill everything in we are told to do etc but I can see how this new rule has 'escaped' being noticed.

Sorry, as a 'travel agent' I don't agree that Thomson should take any responsibility. They did flag it up to the family according to the article. "We also advise customers it's their responsibility to check the passport, visa and health requirements for their holiday destination,"

 

We as 'travel agents' can't do everything for a customer, it is not our responsibility. We can advise and remind them, but it is your responsibility to ensure you have all the necessary documentation and that it is in order.

 

For every flight ticket I book, if the destination is the US, then our systems insist that the passport details are in the booking before a ticket can be issued. If the passport details are not recorded in the booking, the ticket cannot be issued. The ticketing system will not issue the ticket and will reject the booking until it is resolved.

 

Therefore, because the passport details are in the booking, there is a section of the booking where the system makes me check the nationality of the traveller and the expiry date of the passport. I then must check whether a visa is required for that persons nationality for entering the USA. I must enter that a visa is required if necessary (ESTA is not valid for all nationalities). If only an ESTA is required a statement is entered into the booking so that it is highlighted and printed on all documentation we issue (travel confirmation and itinerary). Since we knew about this change months ago, we have also been putting a note for anyone travelling to the US from 1st April that an E Passport is required.

 

Now, the main problem is that people just do not read. I could tell you many stories of mistakes people have made when booking flights and these errors have not been discovered until it is too late, all because they don't read the confirmation and check every detail. We send a confirmation for that very purpose, for travellers to check the details they have given us. We only issue tickets when they have confirmed it's OK. If we get 'OK' we issue the ticket.

 

By having this on a confirmation we have advised the traveller and if they don't act upon it, then it's their responsibility not us.

 

Don't get me started on the number of people who don't even know what their name is in their passport!

 

Traveller - "my name is Dave Smith, can I book a flight?",

Me - "Is that the actual name as spelt in your passport?"

Traveller - "Er, no of course not, it's John David Smith, but everyone knows me as Dave"

Me - "Sorry but we must book your air ticket in the name of John Smith"

 

And for info, it is not mandatory for any middle names to be specified in a flight booking, but if they are, then they must spelt as in your passport. Also a title is not mandatory, but again if it is, then it must reflect the gender of the traveller correctly. e.g. Ms Jamie Jones is entered, when in fact it is Mr Jamie Jones. If Mr Jamie Jones turned up to check in, he would be refused travel as it would be obvious from his passport that he is male, but the ticket is for a female. The ticket would have to be changed if the airline allows name changes for a fee, many airlines don't allow a name change and a new ticket has to be purchased. If the ticket in the above example was booked just as 'Jamie Jones' it would be fine.

 

So my point here is, we booked as advised, mistakes can happen, but that's why we issue confirmations to be thoroughly checked.

[Haworth]

Wise words from Pete, but mistakes can happen, about 15 years ago I was booking a flight using airline miles, my frequent flyer details did not exactly match my passport and the tickets were issued in the frequent flyer and not passport name. I was lucky in that I noticed and a very friendly Gentleman in the Executive club made the changes and re issued the tickets.

 

My mistake but I do have some sympathy based on my own experience.

 

I had less sympathy for a couple refused boarding on one cruise we were joining because they did not have the required vaccination certificates.

Edited May 8, 2016 by Haworth

[Florry]

Wise words from Pete, but mistakes can happen, about 15 years ago I was booking a flight using airline miles, my frequent flyer details did not exactly match my passport and the tickets were issued in the frequent flyer and not passport name. I was lucky in that I noticed and a very friendly Gentleman in the Executive club made the changes and re issued the tickets.

 

My mistake but I do have some sympathy based on my own experience.

 

I had less sympathy for a couple refused boarding on one cruise we were joining because they did not have the required vaccination certificates.

 

 

Sometimes on the face of a situation the process we should follow seems so obvious, but things do go wrong and it's easy to judge a bit too quickly. My Father was struck with a long term illness and trying to meet all of his needs meant that quite often seemingly obvious and critical things got missed - despite the presence of several well educated and capable people [emoji15]

Edited May 8, 2016 by Florry

[sunny seas]

Something not right there. They have been issuing only biometric passports since Oct 2006 so don't know how this happened. I use to work in the Newport passport office. Does his passport look like the picture below. If it does, then it's bio metric. If for some reason it's not, the the passport office should replace if free of charge.

 

 

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No it doesn't have the biometric icon and he was sent to the manual passport check at the airport. He will ring the passpprt office tomorrow. Sunny seas

[newport dave]

No it doesn't have the biometric icon and he was sent to the manual passport check at the airport. He will ring the passpprt office tomorrow. Sunny seas

 

Something as seriously gone wrong here, so the passport office should replace his passport for free AND reimburse him any out of pocket expenses.

[Presto2]

Sorry, as a 'travel agent' I don't agree that Thomson should take any responsibility. They did flag it up to the family according to the article. "We also advise customers it's their responsibility to check the passport, visa and health requirements for their holiday destination,"

 

We as 'travel agents' can't do everything for a customer, it is not our responsibility. We can advise and remind them, but it is your responsibility to ensure you have all the necessary documentation and that it is in order.

 

For every flight ticket I book, if the destination is the US, then our systems insist that the passport details are in the booking before a ticket can be issued. If the passport details are not recorded in the booking, the ticket cannot be issued. The ticketing system will not issue the ticket and will reject the booking until it is resolved.

 

Therefore, because the passport details are in the booking, there is a section of the booking where the system makes me check the nationality of the traveller and the expiry date of the passport. I then must check whether a visa is required for that persons nationality for entering the USA. I must enter that a visa is required if necessary (ESTA is not valid for all nationalities). If only an ESTA is required a statement is entered into the booking so that it is highlighted and printed on all documentation we issue (travel confirmation and itinerary). Since we knew about this change months ago, we have also been putting a note for anyone travelling to the US from 1st April that an E Passport is required.

 

Now, the main problem is that people just do not read. I could tell you many stories of mistakes people have made when booking flights and these errors have not been discovered until it is too late, all because they don't read the confirmation and check every detail. We send a confirmation for that very purpose, for travellers to check the details they have given us. We only issue tickets when they have confirmed it's OK. If we get 'OK' we issue the ticket.

 

By having this on a confirmation we have advised the traveller and if they don't act upon it, then it's their responsibility not us.

 

Don't get me started on the number of people who don't even know what their name is in their passport!

 

Traveller - "my name is Dave Smith, can I book a flight?",

Me - "Is that the actual name as spelt in your passport?"

Traveller - "Er, no of course not, it's John David Smith, but everyone knows me as Dave"

Me - "Sorry but we must book your air ticket in the name of John Smith"

 

And for info, it is not mandatory for any middle names to be specified in a flight booking, but if they are, then they must spelt as in your passport. Also a title is not mandatory, but again if it is, then it must reflect the gender of the traveller correctly. e.g. Ms Jamie Jones is entered, when in fact it is Mr Jamie Jones. If Mr Jamie Jones turned up to check in, he would be refused travel as it would be obvious from his passport that he is male, but the ticket is for a female. The ticket would have to be changed if the airline allows name changes for a fee, many airlines don't allow a name change and a new ticket has to be purchased. If the ticket in the above example was booked just as 'Jamie Jones' it would be fine.

 

So my point here is, we booked as advised, mistakes can happen, but that's why we issue confirmations to be thoroughly checked.

 

I can see your point and I am sure that you have many people who don't read the info you send etc and then blame you. Having said that, from our past experience of having some bad advice from a TA that lost us a £1,600 holiday with no insurance cover, you may understand if we are not completely convinced that all TAs are 'spot on'. Sadly, we couldn't prove anything re the advice given as it was verbal and 14 months before the planned holiday,so could never followed it up. Yip, we should have read every part of the small print in the insurance policy, but sometimes people trust their TA. Our mistake and it won't be made again ........

 

Have to say though, that you can't judge what happened here by what you have experienced in the past. The man involved seems to have filled in the details as requested. I suppose the only people who really know what happened in this individual case are the TA reps. and the man involved.

[Dorset Cruiser]

In the video sound clip the partner says a lot about what happened relating to the documents, however she seems to focus on the amount of remaining passport validity at the time of returning to the UK. She seems to have the understanding that this is the issue causing the problem. The only time the "Biometric" issue is raised is when the presenter mentions it. The partner does not confirm her understanding of that but continues about the unfortunate consequences her husband faced after being refused to fly. I wonder if she realises whether the problem was having a non biometric passport or one with less than six months validity upon return.

 

Regards John

 

You no longer need to have 6 months validity on your passport for entry into the US.

 

 

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[chh]

There are some people whose passports were issued before October 2006 who will have a longer time left on their passport. Mine does. I applied for a new passport just before October 2006 after getting married and an extra 9 months was added to it as my previous passport had time remaining. Therefore there are people who have longer than 6 months remaining on their passport (in my case 13 months).

[john watson]

You no longer need to have 6 months validity on your passport for entry into the US.

 

 

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The point I was making about the woman in the Video Clip was that despite this being on BBC News and the presenter trying to get the disgruntled woman to understand that the problem which the husband had with his passport was to do with it being non-biometric. The disgruntled woman seems to be fixated on a six month validity problem which was not the case. You may well be correct in your statement, I am not disputing this; however the disgruntled passenger does not seem to know what the issue is.

 

The BBC has failed to clearly make known that the passport problem is to do with biometric/non-biometric passports. Which does not help the public.

 

Regards John

[newport dave]

The point I was making about the woman in the Video Clip was that despite this being on BBC News and the presenter trying to get the disgruntled woman to understand that the problem which the husband had with his passport was to do with it being non-biometric. The disgruntled woman seems to be fixated on a six month validity problem which was not the case. You may well be correct in your statement, I am not disputing this; however the disgruntled passenger does not seem to know what the issue is.

 

The BBC has failed to clearly make known that the passport problem is to do with biometric/non-biometric passports. Which does not help the public.

 

Regards John

There have been numerous articles about this in the papers and online stating it's to do with biometric passports. I doubt one BBC clip is going to confuse the public, unless of course you're a thick as......😜😜😜

 

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Edited May 9, 2016 by newport dave

[peteukmcr]

There have been numerous articles about this in the papers and online stating it's to do with biometric passports. I doubt one BBC clip is going to confuse the public, unless of course you're a thick as......😜😜😜

 

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Never underestimate the stupidity of travellers. I had a call 3 mins before finishing today advising me that the name on the ticket was incorrect. I had to review the email trail and could see that the traveller had signed his email in the name the booking was made in, his email address matched the name we used to book. There were 4 interactions with the traveller using the specified name before the flights were booked. He would have received the confirmation to check before the ticket was issued on 29th April! He authorised us to issue still using the name we booked in. So, he had an itinerary since 29th April and left it today, 24 hours before travel to advise it was wrong. He said we should have known that his name was XXXX not YYYYY which we booked it in:D

 

Trouble is, even though he was in the wrong, I had to sort it out due to his incompetence. Tomorrow, I'll have more of the same:D

[newport dave]

Never underestimate the stupidity of travellers. I had a call 3 mins before finishing today advising me that the name on the ticket was incorrect. I had to review the email trail and could see that the traveller had signed his email in the name the booking was made in, his email address matched the name we used to book. There were 4 interactions with the traveller using the specified name before the flights were booked. He would have received the confirmation to check before the ticket was issued on 29th April! He authorised us to issue still using the name we booked in. So, he had an itinerary since 29th April and left it today, 24 hours before travel to advise it was wrong. He said we should have known that his name was XXXX not YYYYY which we booked it in:D

 

Trouble is, even though he was in the wrong, I had to sort it out due to his incompetence. Tomorrow, I'll have more of the same:D

Hence my last 7 words.

 

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