Thursday evening, I flew with easyJet to the UK. I registered for the flight with my Swiss passport. At the automated bag drop, the machine directed me to go to a manned desk. The lady asked me for my passport and I gave her both.
She looked at my Swiss passport. “You have no ETA”, she said.
“I’m British”, I replied. She asked for proof. “The other passport in your hand is my British passport”, I said.
So she updated my API with the British passport details, telling me just to show that at the gate. All should be fine.
Just before boarding, an announcement asked me to come to the gate. “You’ve got no ETA”.
“I’m British”
“Can you prove it”…
Having done so, they invited me to sit in the waiting area where they corral you after they’ve checked your boarding card and passport. That was an advantage, I suppose, I got into the waiting area before the Speedy Boarders!
Coming back was fine. But unless the airlines update their systems to cope with dual citizens I can anticipate this will happen in both directions once ETIAS is operational.
May I ask why you did that? Using your UK passport to register for the flight would most likely not have provoked any issues. Or maybe I’m missing something.
“Good afternoon, sir,” said the customs officer, peering at the passport with a faintly arched brow. “One cannot help but notice that this photograph appears to regard me with rather more optimism than the gentleman presently before me.”
“I assure you,” replied the traveller, smoothing his lapel with quiet resolve, “that both the optimism and the gentleman remain entirely intact, though perhaps a trifle wearied by the journey. Do let me know if further proof of my continued existence is required; I should be most happy to provide it.”
Yes, this seems to be a dilemma these days. It used to be that you could keep your second passport just for arrival. Nowadays you have to think carefully about which passport to book the ticket with. On long haul flights with a stop somewhere this can get quite tricky. Putting more and more onus on the airlines to check immigration status seems a recipe for chaos.
I’ve two passports I can choose from. Why would I not choose my Swiss one. That’s what I’ve normally done for the past few years.
Now, with the changes, I know to register with my British one. However, that’ll only work until ETIAS is in place, when I’ll simply get the same problem coming home.
It would be better if easyJet updated their systems to allow the registration of two passports.
I have the same issue every time I go down under. I only book with my Aussie passport to avoid the grief with flight-check in, not to mention passport control.
Knowing that the new rules had come into force registering for the flight to the UK with the UK passport seems like a no brainer to me.
AFAIK there is no obligation to travel into Switzerland using the Swiss passport at the moment so being registered for the flight on the Uk one but having this Swiss one with you to show at immigration would be perfectly fine.
It seems like they made things unnecessarily complicated for themselves.
You can always count on the person behind the desk NOT READING whatever you wrote when you bought the ticket, and instead focusing on whatever colorful carton you put in front of them.
Logical like with all other countries, you cannot use whatever passport you like, even if you have 5 of them, you use passport with which you are eligible to enter the destination country.
I know some Swiss citizens have got some admonishing using just a foreign passport to enter/leave Switzerland. So I just always take both if going to Australia.
I am wondering how this would work with the automatic gates…not keen to try it myself.
The problem isn’t necessarily about immigration, it also is about the airlines agreeing to accept you. Coming back on a flight I presented the same passport as I had used on the inbound flight. The check-in agent asked I had another ticket to leave Switzerland within 90 days or a residence permit. Of course as a Swiss I didn’t have either. They were very happy to accept my Swiss Passport.
So while it is not a requirement having Swiss documents does smooth the waters
