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Who did you contact exactly? Visas and immigration call centres are outsourced to private foreign companies and some call centre agents may never have been to the UK. They can only say what their scripts tell them to say. The UK Passport Office has nothing to do with that, and is all in the UK...

Only 10 years later than the UK, and around the same time as mainland European countries on average. and this is still a problem. I use the HSBC debit card as a surcharge buster but keep cash in BOQ/ME bank as the highest easy access savings - HSBC can send $50k to BOQ instantly, but to get...

In (most of) the rest of the world there isn't any need to tell staff in advance. In the UK some restaurants even automatically print the bill with the amount per person. Obviously it may be different for a large table where everyone wants to pay for the exact things they've ordered - that...

Nobody has the original of their own UK birth certificate. For births since 1837, the "original" is part of the birth register held by the council where the birth took place. Anything you hold is a certified copy (including the certified copy that you purchased at the time you registered your...

Well, there's no entitlement to an ETA. I don't think they would go to these lengths, but if they really wanted to stop unknowing citizens from using ETAs, they could theoretically deny an ETA on the suspicion that you may be a citizen, and ask you to apply for a full visa where your citizenship...

CX allows you to enter different API for each flight, I recently did SYD-HKG-LHR so put Aus pp into SYD-HKG and British pp into HKG-LHR. Aus pp worked at the SYD departure e-gates. I don't believe that my passports are "linked" in the ABF system unless the ABF guy did it when I was exiting PER...

Probably, however British citizenship has only existed since 1981. You would have been a British subject at birth. If you are legitimately descended from a father born in the UK, this would likely have converted to Citizen of the UK and Colonies in 1949, and likely converted to British...

Before 25 February there is no verification of ETAs by the UK government, only manually by airline staff. Some people born in Aus to UK-born parents are automatically British citizens, while others aren't, depending on their precise circumstances. As an example, if you're born before 1 July...

Do you always get included checked bags on domestic JQ redemptions?

The last 3 times I've entered Aus there were customs people wandering around baggage claim, I had ticked yes to a few things, so they asked me some questions then took a photo of my passport, stamped the card and sent me to the nothing to declare lane. I don't understand why the smart gates...

Is there even anywhere to stay airside when arriving in AKL? I've sat in the international terminal landside from midnight to 4am several times and it wasn't that bad, just noisy as hundreds or even thousands of people seemed to have the same idea.

Yes, or if later entering Oman by land within the time limits. Since the previous posts it has still been possible to fly into Oman (or at least MCT airport) without doing anything in advance.

Yes

They probably pay 3% international fees on their cards because they haven't bothered to investigate alternatives

Well as frequent flyers we go to the airport quite often... Sadly I've never managed to fly Rex and don't know whether their surcharge would be worth paying for the points my cards would earn - but I certainly would try to buy a ticket at the airport using cash if the stars lined up

Currently, enforcement of the UK ETA is up to airlines. It is done manually by airline staff asking passengers if they have one. The ETA is not enforced electronically. If you are required to have an ETA, but manage to travel to the UK without getting one, most likely you will have no trouble...

The UK government isn't enforcing ETAs until 25 Feb 2026

Interesting - will have to try this next time I use such a terminal It's so weird how some Aussies defend surcharging. The same arguments could be used in the UK and Europe to advocate for surcharges to be introduced, but nobody wants that. Business / corporate cards can have surcharges as...

Anything that can leak or break should go in zip lock bags or sealed plastic boxes!

I got the new card back in May (and I remember the glue, now that you mention it). You had to use the new app to request the new card, but once you got the new card you could use the old app for everything. They said the old app was going offline last week but it is still working for me...