OLCI for USA flight - Collect BP at airport - should I be concerned?

[SYD]

We also uploaded the vax cert. so that could be why. There was a bit of zoo at boarding with lots of whY PAX obviously needed to be sighted…

 

[justinbrett]

Well, I've been asked to confirm if I'm on an ESTA but no, not needed to show it. and yes I know they are both electronic. Last trip the agent actually said something like "I see you've filled n the attestation already. Thank you for that" so... yeah cool.

Perhaps they were making conversation, there's nothing you can show to prove your ESTA (easily doctored printout), it has to come from their system, and they will stop you boarding if you don't have it. The US don't work on the honour system.

We also uploaded the vax cert. so that could be why. There was a bit of zoo at boarding with lots of whY PAX obviously needed to be sighted…

That's why then. The US leave it up to the airlines to enforce. Even when I travelled in Jan 2022 (back with the paper form) it was checked in SYD but nobody at LAX was interested in seeing it.

 

[RichardMEL]

We also uploaded the vax cert. so that could be why. There was a bit of zoo at boarding with lots of whY PAX obviously needed to be sighted…

Interesting. I never saw gate checking of docs. fun times!

 

[RichardMEL]

regarding uploading the vax cert. Interestingly with my trips since convid to the US there's been an option to upload in MNB and on the app, but when I've selected it thinking to save time etc it's come back and said something like this isn't applicable and doesn't allow me to proceed. Always seemed quite strange. No issue to show at check in, but does take time for an agent that if they could just see that was verified would be a bit quicker. So I tried to, but couldn't. good ol' QF. consistently inconsistent(tm)

 

[justinbrett]

Interesting. I never saw gate checking of docs. fun times!

It was a complete zoo in Jan 2020. Not at the gate itself, but there were staff checking pax as you walked through into the gate lounge. If I recall correctly it was the contractors that are employed specifically to question US pax (that put that little pink sticker in your passport) - they asked me why I was travelling to the US (the usual questions) and also checked my paperwork.

When I went in Sep from LHR, there were no checks at all.

 

[RichardMEL]

It was a complete zoo in Jan 2020. Not at the gate itself, but there were staff checking pax as you walked through into the gate lounge. If I recall correctly it was the contractors that are employed specifically to question US pax (that put that little pink sticker in your passport) - they asked me why I was travelling to the US (the usual questions) and also checked my paperwork.

When I went in Sep from LHR, there were no checks at all.

yes, but that's a US CBP/TSA (unsure which) requirement for flights to the US which is quite separate to any specific covid-y stuff requirements - and yes that's still going on.

Unusual if you didn't have it ex-LHR tbh as I think it's supposed to be for any flight to the US. I've had that in AKL as well as SYD and MEL.

 

[justinbrett]

yes, but that's a US CBP/TSA (unsure which) requirement for flights to the US which is quite separate to any specific covid-y stuff requirements - and yes that's still going on.

Unusual if you didn't have it ex-LHR tbh as I think it's supposed to be for any flight to the US. I've had that in AKL as well as SYD and MEL.

I know it's a separate requirement, I'm saying (if my memory serves me correctly), they were using the same contractors for both.

 

[wandering_fred]

I was under the impression that USA citizens and Green card holders were the ones exempt from the vaccine requirements.
Many USA citizens are actually resident in Australia......(not that the US Congress will admit there are millions resident outside the USA)

Dual citizens like wandering
Fred

 

[RealtimeY]

Is OLCI and auto bag drop back for flights to the US?

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

https://www.qantas.com/au/en/travel-info/check-in.html?int_cam=au%3Atravel-info%3Aarticle%3Acheck-in%3Aen%3Ann

According to this, yes, but you will still need to have Aust passport swiped, and show ESTA, no?

 

[SYD]

https://www.qantas.com/au/en/travel-info/check-in.html?int_cam=au%3Atravel-info%3Aarticle%3Acheck-in%3Aen%3Ann

According to this, yes, but you will still need to have Aust passport swiped, and show ESTA, no?

I might be wrong but the self serve kiosks will do that.

Now that the US has officially dropped the vax requirements I’d expect OLCI and bag drop to work as normal now.

 

[RichardMEL]

Since the covid vax requirement has been dropped it's probably going to work a whole lot easier in terms of OLCI. As for ESTA - I've never had to show it. Just verbally asked/confirmed that I had a valid one.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Flew out of SYD to NZ a while back, and all of a sudden, next 2 gates across, the guards started moving those screen across, this about 3 years ago or more, pre covid too, and I had the assuming, that they were doing "extra security checks" for passports and ESTA for those going to the US.
I think the flight was a United or Delta one, it was about int Gate 50 to 60 or so, the one to the very far right hand side.

 

[RichardMEL]

Flew out of SYD to NZ a while back, and all of a sudden, next 2 gates across, the guards started moving those screen across, this about 3 years ago or more, pre covid too, and I had the assuming, that they were doing "extra security checks" for passports and ESTA for those going to the US.
I think the flight was a United or Delta one, it was about int Gate 50 to 60 or so, the one to the very far right hand side.

You're partially right.

Yes, US bound flights have "extra security" for those granted the joy of SSSS (special security selection more or less). At least the times I've had it in Oz (only twice or so) it's nothing more than a explosives swab of the carry on and a personal wanding. nothing terribly invasive or difficult.

However all US bound flights also require the questioning which is a (silly) thing where everyone gets asked say 4 or 5 questions about the nature of the trip, where one is staying, that sort of thing. Again more annoying to have a 2 minute diversion from an agent who clearly doesn't care but is required to ask all the questions. A bit of security theatre

Anyway.. those have nothing to do with checking for ESTA's or anything like that.. The questions are for all pax, and SSSS is for allegedly random selectees. Not sure how many per flight there are, but based on my personal experiences of having it vs number of flights into the US (from all ports, not just Oz) it's probably under 10% - if that high.

At any rate, The airline and CBP know if you have an ESTA when you check in as they're matched against the passport number. Certainly before departure of flights those checks are made. Do they pull anyone off a flight without one? I have no idea. I do not believe it is a requirement for carriers to check if pax have valid entry documents as that's a pax responsibility (and after all, a pax may be a US citizen, resident, green card holder(etc). valid visa holder, travelling under VWP (ie with esta) or anything and that would be up to CBP to decide upon I guess).

 

[SYD]

My understanding is QF (and other airlines) will not let you check in without a current ESTA. Once upon a time, if someone had forgotten to get one, they could just go online it do the ESTA and checkin. It was usually instant approval. Now it can take an hour or more. The official advice is to apply at least 72 hrs before travel.

RE secondary screening, when I flew out of SYD a couple of weeks ago there was non of that routine bag checks (but there probably was SSSS screening somewhere).

However, if you do need the “sticker” in your passport to board. There’s usually someone at the QF F checkin and I assume near the bag drop. If you don’t have one you’ll be pulled aside for the Q&A during boarding or approaching the gate.

 

[serfty]

Earlier this month, I could not get a BP after OLCI for my flight to HNL. I had to go to the counter in MEL (MEL-xSYD-HNL). Not a problem and did not need to show any paperwork.

 

[SYD]

Earlier this month, I could not get a BP after OLCI for my flight to HNL. I had to go to the counter in MEL (MEL-xSYD-HNL). Not a problem and did not need to show any paperwork.

Was that before or after 11 May (when US dropped vax requirement - which even then was a self-declaration)?

 

[serfty]

Was that before or after 11 May (when US dropped vax requirement - which even then was a self-declaration)?

Before ...

 

[SYD]

Before ...

Hopefully it’s back to some sort of new normal now.

 

[SYD]

So I did OLCI yesterday for QF 41 (SYD-CGK). Again, no BP. Collect at airport. Arrived at QF F checkin and the agent went “Yay, we don’t have to do vax checks now”. What, I’m thinking. “As of midnight last night”!

Apparently MNL is the last to go.

As an aside, she then spent a very long time looking at her screen and then said “You’re in Indonesia for 6 wks, do you have a visa?” She couldn’t see the seperate CX tix to LHR and back… I guess I better have that tix ready to show on arrival in CGK!