Supposedly if you get the receipt from the website then it doesn’t matter if it got lost in the system after that. The police will meet you at your airport of arrival, prepared to give you a bollocking, and you show them the receipt.
Yes, but if you are aware of it before departure you have to fix it 
As for lost FPs, I bet you had few of those before taxi to departure?
Peter wrote:
Supposedly if you get the receipt from the website then it doesn’t matter if it got lost in the system after that
I would love to say that for my lastminute.com booking that weekend: email confirmation but no hotel room !
We managed to find a place to sleep other than cold ground but I am still trying to recover the money
Peter wrote:
But maybe he is using Outlook or some such.
That can be seen in the headers of the email (unless the mail user agent lies…).
if you are aware of it before departure you have to fix it
I don’t agree; it’s not your problem. You have complied with The System.
As for lost FPs, I bet you had few of those before taxi to departure?
Many, but this is critical because you cannot depart at all, and if the FP is lost part-way the flight itself will be problematic (but not impossible especially if IFR; I have had FPs lost halfway).
You have no comeback.
I would love to say that for my lastminute.com booking that weekend: email confirmation but no hotel room !
We managed to find a place to sleep other than cold ground but I am still trying to recover the money
Sure, but that is like a lost FP. It’s a real problem. I have booked hotels via various 3rd party agencies only to find the booking didn’t exist because the hotel was full but the agency said nothing. Same with AirB&B; the host can cancel the booking at any time.
You also have no comeback (in practice) especially if the credit card was not charged.
The GAR has always been a case of “have proof of sending = you have done your duty”. The law merely says you have to advise a “constable” or some such, and a system like this is just a replacement for “advising a constable”.
I am sure a receipt from OnlineGAR is just as good too, because they file it via some VPN or secure facility to the Home Office.
Less so with say the Autorouter, which just sends it by email to the “hmrc” address (or it did when I was involved with it; I had partial admin access). Emails can get lost. I don’t use the Autorouter for GAR filing because the data on a GAR (e.g. who you fly with, in great detail) is too sensitive for my liking.
That can be seen in the headers of the email (unless the mail user agent lies…).
Check your email I can’t tell.
And again:
You still believe their apologies are sincere?
Sorry for the thread drift…
Wow, two URLs from the Guardian posted in one thread
I get the feeling that the Guardian – a left-wing anti-establishment organ – is largely responsible for the poor regard with which the UK is seen on mainland Europe Or it could be that all the more “centre” organs are mostly behind paywalls.
But yes I guess this confirms the general rule that stupid people are best advised to gravitate to big organisations, and few are as big as the government.
Peter wrote:
poor regard with which the UK is seen on mainland Europe
I think you are largely wrong (unless you speak of far right communities in Europe). The Guardian actually comes as fairly reasonable, in the ~same standing as the Times etc (it’s the equivalent of Le Monde / El Pais which are very largely read newspapers e.g. in France and Spain).
There are indeed newspapers that might tarnish the impression people have from the UK, but these are the tabloids with big sensationalist headlines and very optiniated articles (and perhaps not coicidentally, usually nationalistic and against the EU): Daily Mail / Daily Express / The Sun (e.g. do you think a whole “national campaign” by a newspaper to “bring back our blue passport” is not going to be scoffed at?) / other similar rags.
The UK Home Office is simultaneously malicious and incompetent. I have far too much first hand experience of this.
Peter wrote:
the general rule that stupid people are best advised to gravitate to big organisations, and few are as big as the government.
Yes, I had the impression those clinging to the empire are stupid and out of fashion
Further evidence of the incompetence of the Home Office: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/apr/16/bureaucratic-glitch-uk-suspends-visa-enrollment-for-american-citizens
It’s going to be a complete shambles when Brexit begins to bite.
