The key to all this bollocks is the word, "passenger". Once you declare to the movers that you are a passenger, you lose any control of your destiny. You become an object destined to be f***ed over from dawn to dusk. This is despite the fact that you might even be the sqn cdr of the captain of the aircraft. However....
If you pitch up at the terminal and tell the movers (or phone ahead) that you are "crew" of "Ascot xxxx", you are treated (well, you're not treated, to be honest, because they are not in charge of you) differently. Don't ask them for MT, though. You are crew.
Example: earlier this decade 2 Nimrod crews and a section of NLS groundcrew and a few other NFU guys arrived at BZN from the Middle East on AT. Kinloss was sending 2 Nimrods (yes, we had some then) to pick up the Nimrod people and take us home, via a bit of crew training en route north. I was on one of the crews off the AT. I knew 2 of the NFU guys and I suggested to my captain that he inform the BZN movers that our crew, the NLS people and the 2 NFU guys were "crew on Nimrod callsign "***** on an intermediate landing during a training mission". The movers, not surprisingly, were not interested in us and gave the captain a tel no for BZN ops. The other Nimrod crew used the words, "passengers on Nimrod callsign xxxx " coming from/going to Kinloss." From that moment on that crew and the crew of their Nimrod taxi, lost any control of what they were doing. Their Nimrod was directed by ATC to the front of the terminal and the movers insisted that all engines were shut down "to enable the safe embarkation of the pax, in the absence of any Movement SOPs". This led to a T/R servicing. Fortunately there were NLS guys able to do it. That Nimrod was on the ground for 2 hrs. Our Nimrod went to an operational dispersal, kept 2 engines running while we arrived there on MT organised by BZN Ops and we took off after minimum brake cooling time (45 mins).
The bottom line for all you aircrew/aircraft groundcrew out there: do not declare yourself as a passenger if you can help it. Contact the Opcon of the aircraft you're flying on and try to get yourself on the auth sheet as "crew". Life becomes so much easier. I know that AT orders place limits on max crew, but the Nimrod never had a max crew limit (well, 26, but that was max POB).
Merry Christmas
Ed