±«Óãtv

Concerned X-Ray viewers got in touch after they'd been charged £5 per person per leg of the journey at check-in after bmibaby said they'd failed to provide the information prior to travel.

According to the ±«Óãtv Office, it's necessary to collect this information to ensure "greater security, effectiveness, and efficiency" of the UK's borders.

The information that's needed is all on the machine-readable page of your passport - things like your nationality, date of birth and passport number. The ±«Óãtv Office will also collect details of the service on which a passenger is travelling, for example the flight number.

This information is sometimes known as API. According to the ±«Óãtv Office, since 2005 the scheme has tracked 119 million passenger movements and resulted in over 4,200 arrests and counter terrorism interventions.

Passengers travelling out of Cardiff Airport with bmibaby have complained to X-Ray after they turned up at check-in to be told they must pay an additional fee because they hadn't submitted their API data before they arrived at the airport.

Catherine Evans from Cardiff was travelling with her husband Stephen and their children Owen and son Gareth to Faro in Portugal. Husband and wife Richard and Bev David from Llantrisant were heading in the same direction.

Catherine told X-Ray presenter Rachel Treadaway-Williams the first she'd heard of API was at check-in. She said "We discovered that because we hadn't put our passport details in online prior, we were going to be charged ten pound per person. It was £40 and you had to pay it there and then or you weren't going to get on the plane."

Catherine's adamant she hadn't been told about the charge beforehand, "I was extremely cross, because I know they hadn't told me about it. I'm a really organised person and if they asked me to fill it in I would have done so."

Bev and Richard travelled on a different day, but found themselves in a similar situation. Richard told Rachel, "There were obviously a lot of people getting a bit agitated and a bit upset in front of us because obviously they were finding out as we were due to find out that we had to pay an extra charge which nobody knew about. Everybody seemed to be in the same boat."

Bev added, "There was a lot of noise in the departure lounge when you got there and that was the topic of conversation and it was all about how much have they taken from you, and it was all about passports."

bmibaby want API for all international passengers, but according to Independent travel journalist Simon Calder, the scheme is being rolled out gradually, so they don't need the data for all destinations. He says Portugal's not yet in the scheme.

"bmibaby's attitude is strange," he told Rachel, "The most benevolent way to look at it is bureaucratic zeal, so when it is rolled out to all international destinations they don't have to change a thing. However the fact they charge to provide info you don't need is bizarre and I must say, an opportunity to make a fast buck at worst."

There does seem to be some conflicting information about which countries actually require passengers to submit API data. X-Ray contacted all the major airlines operating out of the UK and while British Airways have confirmed they don't need this information for passengers travelling to Portugal, other carriers have told us they do.

As the system is being rolled out, it's likely that if you are travelling abroad in the next year you will need to submit your details at some point.

The ±«Óãtv Office would like the information between 24 and 48 hours prior to departure, but obviously, in the case of last minute journeys it wouldn't be possible, so the data can be supplied at check-in.

bmibaby say "passengers are clearly advised of the requirement to submit API data online and ahead of travel... on the confirmation page, on a passenger's booking confirmation email [and] on a subsequent reminder email specifically about API."

Bev tried to find out more about API when she arrived home from holiday. She says, "I checked my emails and there was absolutely nothing there from them, I checked the junk box and what I did find was an email from "Tiny" not from bmibaby. If something was coming from bmibaby that was important I would expect it to come from bmibaby not from Tiny."

Rachel told Bev, "bmibaby have told us they think the charges you paid at check in were totally avoidable.". Bev replied, "They would be avoidable if they sent the email from an address that we were expecting to see."

Simon Calder agrees, "Any airline in an internet age is able to say we're going to tell you everything you need to know, we sent the email, you chose not to act on that, it's not our problem. I think a lot of us will find that the emails don't get through for whatever reason.

"They might end up on your junk folder. So just turning around and saying we sent you an email, and you didn't take any notice so you owe us £5 seems very extreme."

Catherine remains adamant that there was no chance of her having the notification about API from bmibaby before her trip.

"When I got home I put the computer on to discover that they'd sent an email a whole week after we'd actually gone on holiday, so in the middle of our holiday to say please fill in your passport details. So they had a very strong letter from me to say please give me my money back. They have finally refunded the money."

X-Ray has heard from passengers who thought they'd correctly submitted the information online, only to find they were charged at check-in because the data was supposedly incorrectly entered.

We asked bmibaby how many customers had complained about the problems related to API data, and how much money they'd made by charging people at check in but they wouldn't tell us.

There does seem to be a lot of confusion within the industry as to who's collecting this data and for which routes but bmibaby seems to be the only airline to charge for inputting your details at check-in.

• , including information on API
• The on API and e-Borders
• on countries requiring API