£72 for a freakin' passport renewal!!

What utter bollox, there was a time i.e. pre 9/11 but not anymore and that was only in the UK not internationally, hence the reason the RAF paid for my passport after I joined up in 89, I still had to have it with me even if I went straight thru customs, immigration control etc without showing any documentation and that was normally if it was a military flight and not civilian, if I went on leave and had a holiday to say Kenya I still had to have a passport, fact.

Redman

individual

So where's the breakdown? Why is the passport I've got now worth 3 times as much to me (in real terms) as the passport I renewed in 1996? I want exactly the same service I had 12 years ago, I was perfectly happy with that. My requirements haven't changed. Why have the costs gone up so much?

why do people use check and send.

Can't they fill in a form for themselves?

tim

Apparently a lot of people used it to beat the increases in cost of passports, or beat the introduction of biometric passports. Can't think ordinarily why anyone would use it.

It's to help pay for the increasing costs of making Britain a safer place b y, um, introducing new passports, erm, where am I going with this...

Included in the instructions with your new passport will be a warning not t o place it in a microwave oven, which was a great help to me as I often confu se my passport with a Tesco's chicken curry.

My passport has been used 6 times since I got it in December thank you very much. The most expensive flight cost me £70 one way (£30 for the return leg) but that was paid for by the company I was working for at the time. No other flight has cost me more than £20. If I had the choice of £70 odd for the passport and those flight prices, or paying £15 and paying a LOT more for the flights (in real terms, as was the case in the 1970`s) give me an expensive passport anyday!

Driving liscense will do the trick here, as long as it`s a photo one.

Only on some airlines. British Airways don't, for example.

David

And? good for you, those cheap Ryanair and Easy Jet flights are amazing aren't they?

Redman

I wonder if that means the new passport contains an electronic component which would be zapped by microwaves... Can anyone verify?

JD

Yes - my virtually new passport has a chip on the back of the photo page. It's actually behind a transparent cover (connected to long wires), so presumably they could tell if it had been zapped.

Jeremy

But can you get through security without photo ID?

The plastic cover would melt as well.

So I give an example that shows that not everyone is limited to 2 holidays abroad in 5 years, and you agree with me?

perfectly

I wanted a breakdown of the inflation, ie why what cost 18 in 1996 now costs 72.

I was being sarcastic, mind you, you must have a decent wage to be able to fly so often

Redman

In the UK usually yes.

The only people that look at your ID are the check in staff and the gate staff.

tim

Why would you want to know this?

I would suggest that if your passport does not work with these technological checking systems, then you will be subjected to even more inconvenience and end up eventually with having to fork out another £72!