The real reason airport shops want to see your boarding pass

[sn26567]

Never thought of that! You are not legally obliged to show your boarding pass at the checkout.

Airport retailers are using information on boarding cards to claim back millions in VAT - and are rarely passing the savings on to passengers.

The investigation of The Telegraph was done in the UK, but I'm sure that it is valid on the Continent as well, as long as you fly to a destination outside of the EU.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/trave ... -pass.html

[Inquirer]

Now that's one interesting piece of information!
Thanks for posting, André.

[airazurxtror]

Are airport retailers ripping off customers ?

Using security as a pretext to trick customers, shops are pocketing VAT returns intended for customers and are getting hold of personal data they should not have access to

Chances are this is not a British phenomenon alone.

At some point, airport shops around Europe got into the habit of asking for traveling boarding cards. The shops’ excuse was that this was a security measure. Of course this was a blatant lie. But, because this was a measure taken by all shop owners simultaneously around Europe, it was a lie that passengers were willing to believe.

If you are travelling outside the EU, the retailer makes a hefty additional profit by claiming a VAT refund on the products purchased at the airport. The profit varies with VAT rates across Europe. This money should benefit consumers but retailers habitually pocket it.

Some retail companies claim that they “factor in” this profit on overall pricing policies, but this hardly seems a transparent policy. And if marketing can play with airport security to rip-off customers, then real security concerns may emerge, not to mention individual data being essentially stolen from private companies who are able to use them in all sorts of ways with no benefit to the customer.

“Beat airport shop VAT rip-off, Don’t Show Your Boarding Pass!”

http://www.neurope.eu/article/are-airpo ... customers/

[Inquirer]

Using security as a pretext to trick customers

In my opinion, lot's of companies are making use of 'aviation security' as a very convenient pretext to make good money:
the security companies themselves of course, but it's their core business, so is it's 'normal' for them to lobby for ever higher security levels and inflate the risk, but also
the airports don't mind it either (e.g. the way they're dealing with liquids as if they were bombs, yet throwing them away as if they're waste the moment they were taken off... where's the logic, other than to push people to their vending machines, bars and restaurants? )
as well as several airlines which have even made a business case out of it (even wondered why so many low service airlines don't just simply send you your boarding pass automatically iso a reminder to check in manually yourself? They have all the information for it: you've provided it at the time of booking.)
and even in the shops you seem not to be safe for this phenomenon.
Maybe they urgently need to find a security concern for the carparks in order to levy some form of a tax there too? I am sure the bottom line will fare well with it and people seem to cope with it without much questioning since it's allegedly security related.

[sean1982]

I just had a conference about aviation security. It's not all as rosy as the general public perceives it to be. I would be very glad for all the measures that are in place