LHR Transfer T2 to T5 (both domestic flights)
 

I was making a transfer from a Flybe domestic flight (T2 arrival) to a BA one (T5 departure).

The bus from the Flybe aircraft deposited us in a domestic area of T2. I had hand baggage only, so I followed the 'Flight Connections' signs the short distance to a waiting area for a bus to T5. I caught the bus, which then picked up more passengers from two stops nearby (T2 international?) before making the journey over to T5. On arrival, I followed the 'Flight Connections' signs for domestic flights and found myself at a UK Border point with passport checks. I had my passport with me (I'd used it as I/D on Flybe), so I just used it to pass through the gates as directed by the attendant, without really giving it much thought.

A couple of questions occurred to me later:

1) Had I gone wrong somewhere? It doesn't seem quite right that I had become an 'international' passenger?
2) What would have happened if I'd not had my passport with me?

Did you not have to show proof of ID prior to your original departure on Flybe? It may be that the system assumes that that's the case, i.e. that arriving domestic pax will normally be carrying a passport anyway.

Yes, those are my thoughts as well.

I've had a look at what BA say (I don't believe they themselves require any ID for domestic flights), and they advise carrying photographic ID, as 'this may be requested at certain points in your journey'.

I guess I found one of those points :)

My understanding of this is that the security system links your facial image at the camera to your boarding pass.
In theory, if you are flying domestically you could check in on line, give your boarding pass to someone else, they go straight to the security barrier and pass through etc... no checks to make sure that the person whose name is on the pass is actually the traveller (pax/SLF) flying on the plane.

Ultimately, does this matter? One paid-for ticket, one travelling passenger

It might well matter to the airline...

For example if there are no identity checks then an individual could make a business out of booking a ticket (or tickets) well ahead of the flight date at possibly a cheap rate for popular domestic flights. Nearer the flight date, when "offical" prices have probably gone up, that person could then sell the tickets on at a profit to other individuals..

The airline want that profit...

........ not to mention the security aspect.

Rail companies don't care who the passenger is (unless there are railcard discounts etc) so why should domestic air travel be any different? In future, I wonder if airlines would embrace a resale market on the basis that they could transfer sales risk to a third party, albeit accepting lower yields?

If neither the purchaser of the ticket, nor the actual traveller, has any sinister motive, there is no security issue.

Now if there were to be a serious "incident" then of course the correct family./relatives should be contacted, and with a difference of names that would be "interesting"..... but not a security issue

I think the airlines went down that road years ago with things called travel agents? As I recall the airlines decided to embrace a higher yield by cutting them out of the equation.

Well the first paragraph is stating the blindingly obvious, but the second one is leaving me decidedly confused....sounds to me like you are only interested in establishing identities after a potentially serious event. In the general run of operations how would you reconcile legal documents such as APIS, General Declarations, manifests, Passenger lists (delete as applicable) if the name of the boarding card which was checked at the gate doesn't match the name of the traveller?

If we accept that BA themselves don't do ID checks on domestic flights, how do they 'reconcile legal documents....'?

I'm pretty certain that the last time I checked-in 'manually' for a domestic flight at Heathrow the agent just brushed my photo ID aside, commenting "we don't need that."

I accept that T5's security system ties a 'face' to a boarding pass, and the reservation system will have a name for the boarding pass, but the 'name' does not have to be the 'face', unless I'm missing something.

Returning to my original post, I think my bemusement was mainly at finding myself on the external side of the UK border, despite never having left the country. If I'd not had my passport with me, but had say travelled on Flybe using a driving licence (as I need photo ID on their flights to satisfy their Ts & Cs) then I presume I would have had to have approached someone at a border desk and explained my situation. I guess they would have been able to check Flybe's passenger list and let me through, though I can't help feel that there may be some potential breach of a right here as I should be able to travel within the UK without let or hindrance, and I'd include in that explaining what I'm doing. I'd quickly add that it is not something I'm actually taking issue with, more theorising.

As a general point, I wonder if Heathrow should put a notice in the domestic transfer area of T2 warning passengers that if they are transferring airside to a domestic flight at T5 they will encounter the UK border? Passengers could then, if they wished, choose to transfer landside, with no such issue.

Isn't the basic problem that there isn't a distinction between being "international airside" and "domestic airside" ?

As soon as you are in a position where you are potentially mixing with international passengers (depending on the design of the airport), then it would be wise to expect that you might be asked to show some ID, as you would have been when you boarded your domestic leg.

I think the situation encountered by the O/P is down to airports growing in ways the original design could not anticipate. Heathrow has gone from One terminal to Five. T1 has been demolished for a complete rebuild, T2 has already been through that. T3 bears little resemblance to the 'Oceanic Terminal' I remember from my first flight in December 1965. At LHR we now have (I think) domestic and international flights from each terminal and it would be impossible to keep all pax separate in Air and Landside and Int and Domestic as that makes ten groups of people.

Further, the interconnects that Pax make nowdays is utterly different to even 30 years ago. Pax use low-cost to legacy, within an alliance but the carriers may be at different terminals, the connection might be secure tunnel, bus or people mover. Smaller airports do not have the problem and new airports are designed to limit paths crossing. In the USA, early terminal designs allowed Meeters & Greeters to walk TO THE GATE to meet folks off the jetway! These have all had to be remodlled due to the changing demands of modern life. In practice, 'without let and hindrance' will sometimes involve checking your ID.

Indeed - and isn't the "problem" only because of terrorists/terrorism? In a simple life, airside should be airside and you should just be able to transfer from one flight to another irrespective of the start of your journey since you would have been security checked before being allowed onto your first flight of your overall journey. I suggest that it's only because of paranoia that some countries wish to security check every passenger boarding in their country since they do not trust prior checks in other countries.

Which is why I will never travel by air without my passport LOL

Heathrow has arriving flights from over 180 airports in more than 80 countries. To recognise that not every one of those has equally rigorous security standards doesn't sound remotely "paranoid" to me.