Are ETAs final nail in the coffin for enjoying flying?

Gone are the days when the fun of the plane journey marked the beginning of a holiday. ‘Cattle class’ is becoming a truer description than ever

By Philippa Tracy

Why is air travel so much less enjoyable these days? When I was a child, I thought it was all very exciting. In fact, I used to love going to airports, just to watch the planes. That really was a thing in the 70s, and not just for me. Then I grew up and saw air travel more as an unavoidable necessity to get anywhere interesting. Then I had young children. That was a real low point in terms of travel experiences. Then Covid happened and any residual bit of joy that could be squeezed out of the journey was abolished. Permanently it seems. Even British Airways, which had, for a few years in my younger days, famously advertised itself as ‘The World’s Favourite Airline’ forced you to wear a mask (as did other airlines) and stopped serving free alcohol.

We seem further away than ever from those halcyon days of free movement, free seats of your choice (more on that later), free G&Ts and free hand and check-in luggage. British Airways does at least include free hand luggage still but, without fail, it seems to ask, in fact sometimes more like instruct, you to hand it in at the gate because the flight is full. Why give the illusion of free hand luggage at all? And why would I choose to travel without a suitcase if I have to wait half an hour at the other end for hand luggage to be retrieved from the hold? By the way, I was actually offered a free alcoholic drink on a one-hour BA flight to Dublin from London recently. I couldn’t believe it. What a result. So why on a four or five-hour flight, to or from Larnaca do you only get a tiny bottle of water and a packet of crisps?

Now ETAs are here too. Another level of security or bureaucracy in the travel process, depending on your perspective. While the EU has delayed the introduction of their travel authorisation programme for people who don’t need a visa, the ETIAS system, until 2026, the UK introduced the ETA travel authorisation system earlier this month. Who needs one? Well basically, anyone travelling to the UK who does not hold a UK or Irish passport, or does not have the right to remain, live or work in the UK and who does not ordinarily need a visa to enter the country. This means that anyone travelling to the UK on a Cyprus passport now needs an ETA, unless of course they also fit one of the exemption categories. You can check this on the UK government website.

I mention the ETA situation because it added a level of stress to my recent trip to London that I could have done without. I don’t need one myself, but my partner does. We did his ETA application early and got a response within a few minutes. The app said there was no need to do anything else, as the ETA was linked to the biometric passport in some way, implying it could be read by machines at the airport. I foolishly assumed this meant all airports. Maybe in London but definitely not Larnaca. He was not allowed to board before showing additional proof in the form of the email confirmation he had received, and predictably had to spend ages searching through his unread emails to find it. The poor guy trying to board in front of him wasn’t even aware that he needed such a travel authorisation and was turned back at the gate. When I heard this, it triggered some sort of traumatic response in me, back to when my son was refused boarding to Cyprus at the gate at Heathrow because he had the ‘wrong’ Covid paperwork.

The thing I will say on ETAs is, read the UK government website carefully, apply in advance, and only apply on the UK government website or app. Don’t apply anywhere else or you risk getting ripped off, maybe even scammed for identity fraud. The ETA now costs £16, which is less than €20, and allows you to enter the UK as a tourist for up to six months; it lasts for two years, unless you change your passport. I have seen people saying online that they have paid more than ten times that on sites that offer to do the application for you. This is mad. The application itself really doesn’t take that long and is not that difficult. Although it is still a pain, and just another little hurdle on the journey.

Back to all the other pitfalls of travel these days, such as staff who are over-zealous in applying the rules. On my recent travels, I came across a number of staff that really seem to love enforcing them; definitely a hangover from Covid. On my flight to London (not BA), I couldn’t help but notice the hostess aggressively taking down hand luggage from the overhead lockers and demanding passengers keep it with them because there was so little room. She was only allowing additional hand luggage that had been paid for into the lockers. She may have had a point or she may just have been having a bad day. But when I later gave her an empty small bottle of rosé that had been left in my seat pocket, she turned it over and looked at me in such as a way that I felt forced to plead not guilty. Apparently, drinking your own alcohol is now ‘strictly forbidden’.

The rules were made clear at the start. It wasn’t me, I protested! And “any attempt to smoke on board will be prosecuted.” Again, not guilty. But arrest me if you need to. And while you’re at it, what about the guy on his mobile phone next to me? Nobody ever seems to notice that particular rule being broken. But let’s get back to the issue of seat allocation. The rules here seem to be that unless you pay in advance, by the time you’re allowed to check in, all the good seats are gone and the algorithm allocates you the worst seat ever. That would be a middle seat somewhere in the middle of the plane. This means that as well as enduring five hours squashed between people who always need to get past you for the loo, just as you are falling asleep, you’re also the last off the plane. Whichever doors they open.

Seat allocation is a particular bug bear of mine. So, I always pay for a seat in advance now because I cannot stand being stuck in a middle seat, in the middle of the plane. But there is always that person that wants you to swap seats. I got one on the way to London and on the way back. Firstly, there was a guy who wanted to be next to his wife and kids and insisted he had paid to secure seats on a third-party website. Not sure I believed him but if he did the lesson here must be go straight to the airline website. But as he had finished two bottles of Maison Castel Rosé (his own alcohol) and left them in my seat pocket (which he was trying to claim), before I even sat down, I had my suspicions. I suffered for his sin. Karma probably for not swapping to his allocated middle seat. A woman on the return flight did the same! I don’t care about the etiquette here. I am not giving up my paid for aisle seat for anyone.

Airlines often treat you more like a hostage than a passenger and charge for all the basics. How did that happen? What happened to the customer is always right? And why are some people still wearing masks?