Boarding cards please !

ScouseMouse

I was coming back this morning through Liverpool airport and something caught my attention.

In Boots, a guy was buying a bottle of water. A plain old bottle of water and when the girl asked for his boarding card he replied "I would rather not"

So she scanned a piece of paper and asked his flight number. Reply? "I would rather not".

This got me thinking. Whats going on here? Why do shops ask? I understand if it was duty free, you need to prove you are entitled, but Boots?

Is it surveillance? Marketing data? or something else? I never realised the answer was optional.

It kinda reminds me of my auntie a few years back who told me at a wedding, I was not to put her on facebook. CIA, FBI etc etc. I laughed !

We know now they are watching.....

Anybody any ideas on this?

Cheers.

tricky D

Could be a discount thing that he wasn't bothered with. In Heathrow recently when I was buying water, the assistant scanned the Telegraph for a discount on the water but didn't make me take the paper/rag.

2 stroke

I cant expain whats up with the water, but I do know that customs in Dublin port used receive a list of duty free purchassed on board, before passengers were unloaded. I presume its something similar in the air.

Nonoperational

superscouse wrote: »

I was coming back this morning through Liverpool airport and something caught my attention.

In Boots, a guy was buying a bottle of water. A plain old bottle of water and when the girl asked for his boarding card he replied "I would rather not"

So she scanned a piece of paper and asked his flight number. Reply? "I would rather not".

This got me thinking. Whats going on here? Why do shops ask? I understand if it was duty free, you need to prove you are entitled, but Boots?

Is it surveillance? Marketing data? or something else? I never realised the answer was optional.

It kinda reminds me of my auntie a few years back who told me at a wedding, I was not to put her on facebook. CIA, FBI etc etc. I laughed !

We know now they are watching.....

Anybody any ideas on this?

Cheers.

Doubt the CIA are watching your Auntie to be honest.

ScouseMouse

Nonoperational wrote: »

Doubt the CIA are watching your Auntie to be honest.

They seem to be watching everyone else! Edward Snowden anyone?

But seriously, I was asked in another store for my boarding card and I was buying a meal deal. Sandwich-crisps-coke.

Must be something to it.

tigershould

Marketing data. I saw some data a few years ago where an airport was able to show which airline's passengers spent the most money in the terminal.

homerjay2005

pretty sure its got something to do with VAT. if you take the item out of EU, then no VAT needs to be paid on it by the retailer.

or something like that.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

fr336

If you refuse, you are followed for at least a month

lord lucan

It's to do with VAT, there's 2 VAT(A&B) rates depending on whether you're flying inside or outside the EU and the only way of knowing where the pax are flying to is by scanning the boarding card.

With the daa there's no data retained for marketing purposes, only if you use their shop and collect service which takes a name and flight number.

I'll leave this thread here for now as I'm not sure where it fits in anywhere else.

ScouseMouse

lord lucan wrote: »

It's to do with VAT, there's 2 VAT(A&B) rates depending on whether you're flying inside or outside the EU and the only way of knowing where the pax are flying to is by scanning the boarding card.

With the daa there's no data retained for marketing purposes, only if you use their shop and collect service which takes a name and flight number.

I'll leave this thread here for now as I'm not sure where it fits in anywhere else.

Thanks lord lucan. I did think of posting in legal, but thats not right either.

It could be VAT, but I am thinking more now along the lines of market research. Ryanair passangers buy this, transatlantic buy that, etc etc

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

LoonyLovegood

In the airport earlier in the month I wasn't asked in Boots or Starbucks...I may have to try shopping in other places to see if they ask.

No Pants

Fred Swanson wrote: »

There is no difference in prices in boots/BK/WH Smith regardless of where you are flying, so the VAT argument doesn't fly. Tested that myself last week when flying outside the EU.

The boarding pass is obviously needed if buying dutiable goods (alcohol and tobacco) so the correct price is charged.

I would tend to go with market research/surveillance.

Could they be charging the VAT regardless and then pocketing it if you're flying to certain destinations?

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

L1011

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Electronics, perfume and clothes also - same reason more or less (VAT rather than duty, though perfume may still have some duty - I'm not sure).

lord lucan

superscouse wrote: »

Thanks lord lucan. I did think of posting in legal, but thats not right either.

It could be VAT, but I am thinking more now along the lines of market research. Ryanair passangers buy this, transatlantic buy that, etc etc

They(daa) do use the flight numbers for stats alright so they can get a breakdown of who buys what and what airline they're flying.

As for the other vendors in the airport that don't ask for boarding cards,i'm not sure how they work out the VAT tbh.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

The Bishop Basher

It's for marketing purposes. They seem to have slackened off on it Dublin but UK airports always ask for it. I only know because I asked. They have a target of 80% of all purchases. You don't have to provide it if you don't want to.