What are the "destination forms" that United Airlines wants for Canada?

October 27, 2023 12:01 PM

I'm traveling from CA to BC in a couple of weeks on United Airlines. United's online system wants me to upload a scan of my passport. If possible, I'd like to avoid that because I'm sure their system will suffer a data breach at some point. But when I try to get past the prompts to upload my passport, it tells me "You can't get fully Travel Ready before you scan your passport". So … do I have a choice?

Here is a screenshot of the first dialog, and then the second dialog I get if I click on "continue without scanning". I have't tried going further. I'm tempted to go old-school and just show up at the airport and show my passport to a human or a kiosk, except that one of the grayed-out items in the left-hand column of these screenshots is titled "complete destination entry forms", and I can't figure out what that might be and whether it needs to be completed before showing up at the airport.

I'm not trying to do something nefarious. I don't so much mind that TSA gets my passport data and more (that boat has sailed, I'm sure), but I do mind the idea of a data breach at United resulting in this data getting in the hands of criminals. My wife and I already spent enough time dealing another data breach at my wife's place of work recently and I don't have time for more.

posted by StrawberryPie to Travel & Transportation around Vancouver, BC (7 answers total)

Best answer: I recently flew with United in the other direction and they scanned my passport at the airport when I checked in, even though I had already entered the data in the App. I don't think you are going to be able to avoid United holding your passport info in their systems. All you will be doing is delaying it for a short time.
posted by jacquilynne at 12:15 PM on October 27, 2023 [6 favorites]

Having traveled internationally this year, if you don't scan online, you will almost certainly end up having to scan and submit the same information at a United kiosk or ticket desk at the airport. Apart from the (negligible) difference between sending the information via your computer and personal ISP to United now versus waiting and using the United kiosks or having the ticket desk doing the same, there is pretty much no benefit to waiting.
posted by eschatfische at 12:21 PM on October 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

I travel internationally a fair bit and I never do that pre-clearance stuff for any country that doesn't require a visa or electronic authorization or whatever. I just don't see the point - you still need your passport (and nothing else) on you when you fly, you hand it to them, they let you on the plane. Filling this out doesn't change that, it's just one extra step.

That's usually what those 'destination entry forms' are - anything from visa stuff to customs pre-clearance, etc. If you're a US citizen traveling to Canada on a US passport, for less than the maximum tourist visa time, it's almost certainly optional. Worst case is that you have to wait in a line you otherwise wouldn't have to (for check in, or at customs). It used to be more important back when there were tons of covid rules and forms, but that's all gone.

This does put the burden on you to know the requirements of the place you're going, given the passport that you have. If you haven't flown recently, I agree with the above advice that you're probably better off just submitting it now - United will certainly hold your passport information electronically regardless of when you give it to them. Alternatively, you could just do the arriveCAN stuff within 72 hours of your trip. (I assume, I only looked at it briefly and I don't travel to Canada).
posted by true at 1:07 PM on October 27, 2023

It's likely the replacement for the Canadian Declaration Card. Your airline is probably trying to be helpful with the Advance Declaration process, but you're going to have to scan your passport when you land in Canada anyway.

I can never tell with airlines when something is optional or is likely to cause you to be “disinvited to board your flight”. The airline needs your passport details for APIS before you depart, but whether they truly need the scan is only some thing United can answer.
posted by scruss at 1:11 PM on October 27, 2023

Best answer: Yes, you have a choice. They will scan your passport at the departure airport instead (and after you land in Vancouver). I've noticed other airlines doing this sort of "flight ready" thing and I just ignore it because I don't really believe it will save me any time.

(ArriveCAN is no longer required for most (all?) people. You can just use the kiosk at your port of entry again.)
posted by praemunire at 1:21 PM on October 27, 2023

If it’s like when I flew the other way on United, if you don’t upload it you can’t generate your boarding pass and confirm seats and pay for luggage until you get to the airport. I figured it gets scanned at the kiosk/counter anyway.
posted by warriorqueen at 2:24 PM on October 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Having traveled internationally this year, if you don't scan online, you will almost certainly end up having to scan and submit the same information at a United kiosk or ticket desk at the airport.

You will definitely have to scan it at some point. Even if you somehow make it to the gate without ever having your passport scanned (and there is no passport on file), they will make announcements for a document check at the gate. If you somehow miss even those calls for document checks and are straight up boarding, you will get diverted out of the line for a document check and scan.

This is because United (or any other airline) is fined if it transports passengers to a foreign country who are unable to enter that country due to lack of travel documents. So they will at some point make sure they get your passport info prior to your getting on the plane and also ensure that that passport is actually valid (and, e.g. not expired.)

(If you're wondering how you can make it to the gate without your passport scanned, this can happen if you are able to get a boarding pass, you don't need a visa for the destination country, and you only have carry-on bags, so you never interact with an airline agent or a kiosk. If you're somehow able to print the boarding pass then the rest is very plausible, as there are thousands of US citizens who fly to Canada with only carry-ons every day).
posted by andrewesque at 2:31 PM on October 27, 2023 [1 favorite]