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Usually you have to scan your boarding pass at least twice at the airport: First at the security checkpoint and then at the gate for boarding (plus once more if you check bags). If somebody does not check in bags, does the airline know that a passenger arrived at the airport and at least made it to (not necessarily through) security? If so, would that be a trigger to call somebody out before the flight closes (and also to not call out if that passenger hasn’t even scanned his boarding pass yet at security)?

(Moved here from aviation SE)

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    Neither. you usually have to scan you boarding pass at the security check. My question whether your airline receives this info as he “passenger X was at security at 12:04 pm”
    – silent
    Commented Oct 11, 2019 at 17:31
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    The answer could depend on the airport and/or the airline - AFAIK ‘final calls’ are not always made
    – Traveller
    Commented Oct 11, 2019 at 17:32
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    I don't have a source link, thus as a comment: I've seen a video about data security in the airline industry, and they specifically mentioned, that the boarding pass scanners at security would only check the encoded flight data on the boarding pass QR code for validity (i.e. flight number), but not against the booking systems of airlines.
    – dunni
    Commented Oct 11, 2019 at 17:49
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    @dunni I would not be surprised if even that situation varies from one country to another or one airport to another.
    – phoog
    Commented Oct 11, 2019 at 18:03
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    @MikaelDúiBolinder what do you mean?
    – silent
    Commented Oct 11, 2019 at 18:53

1 Answer 1

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Airlines can know you are in the airport if you checked your bags in. It is illegal for the plane to leave with your bags if you're not on the flight. At security, I assume they don't really care about your booking, only that you are on a flight and have the authorisation to be in that area of the airport.

On all international flights, and on domestic ones in most of the world, airlines adhere to a policy called Positive Passenger Bag Match (PPBM), which states that bags flying must be matched to a passenger on-board the flight.

Budget airlines won't always do final calls, sometimes they just shut the gate 20 or so minutes before the flight.

This can vary from one airport to another, some airports don't even do final calls anymore as seen here:

So they don't always know you are at the airport if you haven't checked in your bag.

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  • "At security, I assume they don't really care about your booking": it's nonetheless conceivable that security's boarding pass scanning equipment, if there is any, might communicate the boarding pass scan to the airline.
    – phoog
    Commented Oct 11, 2019 at 18:09
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    'It is illegal for the plane to leave with your bags if you're not on the flight.' Is it? Do you have a reference for that? What happens if your bags get lost or left behind and have to be transported to you?
    – user104139
    Commented Oct 11, 2019 at 18:17
  • @TheRoadLessTravelled see here: travel.stackexchange.com/questions/87521/…
    – Xnero
    Commented Oct 11, 2019 at 18:20
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    Thanks. Your points about bags are valid but it wasn’t exactly what I was asking ;) and „I assume they don’t really care...“ isn’t quite a sourced answer
    – silent
    Commented Oct 11, 2019 at 18:20
  • @Daniil in your referenced answer I see this: 'PPBM does NOT require that baggage must fly on the same aircraft as the passenger'. This looks more like best practice rather than a legal requirement.
    – user104139
    Commented Oct 11, 2019 at 18:27

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