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Comment by djxfade | Hacker News Reader

The last few years I have been flying, my ID has been checked before entering the security check. This was a recent change introduced a few years ago. I presume this is done everywhere in Europe.

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same experience here and I'm also all over Europe. The time when you could just fly without hassle only lasted a few years. Now I have to look into the empty eyes of some dweeb wanting to check my passport like I'm entering Beirut in 1982. I feel obliged to thank them out of artificial politeness but really want to just ask them why they had to get a job that allows them to display power. Not that these checks ever prevented a "terrorist" attack. Airports only catch small drug mules that could have taken a bus anyway.

Freedom of movement was one of the major selling points for joining the EU to the unwashed middle classes. That has all gone to the dogs (at least for business travel). The only advantage of free movement that still exists is being able to live and work in other countries.

It's typical when they do something in the name of "sEcURitY" they will never roll it back. Classic "salami tactic" and a slow encroachment by the system[1]. Opinions on this obviously vary depending if a person uses a uniform for work in order to compartmentalize their conscience, has to defend family working for the security apparatus, or peddles crappy/racist "AI based" biometric software to the system. Perhaps wanting to become a "person of authority" is like a gender thing which people have no choice over. So I shouldn't make fun or look down at them: ACAB ("Assigned Cop At Birth").

Also the worst of all countries has doubtlessly been the UK. Even you arrived coming from Europe, they shepherded you through the slow-lane like a smelly goat with noises that sound like Dick Van Dyke doing a Bricktop impression.

[1] https://archive.org/details/JacquesEllulTheTechnologicalSoci...

Also in Europe, but with a completely different experience; it is (well, was, pre-covid) easy to move between EU states.

Within the Schengen Zone it's only the check at the gate to check your ID matches your boarding pass (so no check at "immigration"), and to/from the UK the electronic gates have really sped things up (compared to the old days).

YMMV but I find I'm rarely waiting more than a few minutes at the immigration checks (to/from UK) nowadays.

interesting. this seems to indicate that Schengen countries decided on a national level if they wanted to do checks on their borders. I have seen hard passport checks within Schengen in Croatia, Sweden, Germany, France and Portugal.

Good to hear the UK has improved. I should have mentioned I haven't been there since 2018. I was expecting that brexit made things worse and had no idea

Brexit didn't really kick in until January this year, and covid impact masks any brexit impact

Greece doesn't check ID at the airport either, beyond matching your boarding pass to your name.

Croatia is not part of Schengen so there shouldn't be any surprise about them doing the hard checks. They are hoping to enter this year.

This really doesn’t add up. Who was performing these hard passport checks? An airline employee? Where was your flight originating from/going to?

it was done by a customs official. long queue and everyone on the plane had to do it every time that I was there. I've never entered the UK without having to go through this.

Dublin -> Heathrow

Frankfurt -> Heathrow

Stockholm -> Heathrow

... and as I said I have seen similar things arriving in Frankfurt (in 2017 and 2018) and other places (Dublin -> Zagreb etc)

None of these routes were within Schengen, of course you’re going through border control when flying to the UK.

France does them. Can confirm on flights from Brussels and Frankfurt.

Allowed “Temporarily” under “extenuating” circumstances and “only as a last resort”, so they renew it every year and have provided zero proof of its effectiveness. It’s just theatre.

If they applied it to road traffic too, then, okay, fine at the airport too. But checking passports of people coming in from a neighbouring country by air only is beyond stupid.

https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/what-we-do/policies/border...

Extra do-nothing jobs at Toulouse airport that receives few non-Schengen flights.

Tell that to France. They still do passport checks on flights coming in from Schengen countries.

Especially stupid since I’ll be flying into southern France from neighbouring Brussels or Frankfurt. Like, if I’m up to no good, I could drive into France more quickly.

They’re allowed to do it “temporarily”, so they just renew their exemption year after year.

If you think some dweeb checking your ID is a serious impediment to freedom of movement, I invite you to do a few dozen border crossings outside the EU.

The ID requirement to fly is not great, but it is nothing like actual border controls.

that is only true if you compare EU to Overtheristan but not to how free movement was sold to EU voters. My comparison is based on what people voted for which was much closer to the concept of a US citizen taking a domestic flight.

US citizens taking domestic flights have to show ID.

I did not know that. Some websites claim US nationals do not need a passport to travel domestically https://www.skyscanner.com/tips-and-inspiration/editorial/pa...

and while in 2021 europa.eu website says EU nationals do not need a passport to travel within Schengen this has already been not true before covid. Arrive at FRA or MUC or CDG and you will end up having to show your passport either at a manned booth or a machine (but the concept is no different: there is a queue and your name/geolocation entering the system ... actually even worse with the machine when they capture your biometrics)

I think you are mixing id with passport. I doubt that you need a passport to fly internally in US. I know that as a EU citizen you absolutely do not need a passport to fly within the EU but you do need some form of id.

You do not need a passport although you can use one. A driver’s license or other government issued ID is sufficient. It may even be possible to fly without an ID, like if it was stolen or lost, but it would be a holy mess. The comedian Hannibal Burress has a funny bit about it.

In Kentucky (at least back in the day), several people who knew you a long time, vouching for your identity was all that was required to be that person. I wonder if anyone ever tried it to get on a flight?

You can travel without any ID just fine, evidence of EU (or EEA?) citizenship is sufficient.

Wouldn't evidence of EU citizenship be and id or can you get a document that says that the carrier of the document is an EU citizen without any identifying information about the carrier?

I will point out that having to show a passport to fly is not the same thing as doing a real border crossing.

A few reasons for it:

1. The 'dweeb' at the airport doesn't assume you are a criminal/drug smuggler/thief who is coming to steal his country's jobs.

2. Border guards can, and frequently do exercise their discretion at turning you away, or making your life very uncomfortable for the next 15 minutes -> 8 hours.

3. Being nervous when dealing with border guards is further evidence that you are hiding something from them.

4. Border guards care very deeply about who you are traveling with, and your relationship with them, where you are going, why you are going there, and who you are going to meet when you get there. The 'dweeb' at the airport only cares that you can show proof that you are who you say you are.

Which particular piece of ID you have to show before you board a plane is largely a technicality (And you can do some US -> Canada border crossings with only an enhanced driver's license). It's the everything else that makes border controls suck. I would far rather show my ID and be waved through, than not have to show my ID, and be subjected to all the other regular border controls.

You need an ID (like a national ID, I think health insurance or equivalent might work as well), not necessarily a passport. Really, every country pretty much requires this.

(Or you're arriving from a non-Schengen country)

Someone is checking your passport so they know it’s the person who is on the ticket. It’s not a conspiracy to collect ids because the government already has all the information on the ID and you had to identify yourself to buy the ticket.

The difference due to the Schengen Agreement is that on landing you can just pick up your luggage and go, there is no border patrol checking your belongings.

> Also the worst of all countries has doubtlessly been the UK

UK is pay to play, for a reasonable amount (600GBP at LGW and ~1k at LHR IIRC) of money you can be the first to exit your plane and be taken through the private jet terminal without any queues. You wait in a nice lounge where a Border Force person takes you through the formalities while you sit in a comfy armchair.

If you take an international railway journey in the EU it’s very civilised indeed, just rock up to the station, scan your ticket through to the platform and away you go.

I’ve experienced this taking the Thalys to Brussels from Amsterdam, to catch an onward connection to London.

I fly around europe on almost a weekly basis to and from a wide variety of airports. My ID has never been checked before security.

I think maybe you’re confusing the checkin where you might show your passport with an ID check? You can completely bypass this by checking in online, and the airline doesn’t actually inspect your ID anyway.

I frequent a airports in the eu where they do and where they don't: seems to depend on the country and maybe the airport. The number of places where it happens went up.

Haven’t flown since covid, but from 2019 flights, Not in U.K. (ID only checked at gate - intl flights only) and Not in 3 schengen airports (ID only checked after security when leaving schengen area)

Don’t recall other airports enough but I didn’t do domestic flights. Nairobi I feel had more ID checks but could be wrong.

It depends on the airline and airport. For example Lufthansa typically doesn't check IDs.

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