American Airlines Proof of ETA Required?

In April the BA agent at Paris CDG asked if I had it for my flight connecting flight to London, which isn't required. I just said yes. She didn't ask to see it.

I did save my confirming email just in case. Maybe save this page from UK.gov that states

Your ETA will be linked to your passport digitally, and you will not need to show anything else when you enter the UK.

Two trips to LHR in the past 4 months with United. Not mentioned either trip. One of the trips was with a companion - again, no mention for the companion.

Didn't you receive an email from GOV.UK that confirmed your ETA application approval? It indicates validity period and the passport number (last four digits) to which the ETA approval is linked.

Email clearly states, "You do not need to print or show this confirmation email." As others have, I did print the email, but have not needed to show it to airline or other personal.

In April, Iceland Air asked to see "our proof" prior to boarding, which was the email from the gov.uk site which said I was approved to travel. My DW couldn't find her email and they eventually let her through.

We were close to being refused boarding in Spain this past February because we didn’t have written confirmation of our ETA. The gate agent said they had no way of seeing the ETA on our pp and they would get fined if we arrived in London without the ETA. Since we had come to Malaga from London and I could state dates, she decided to believe me and let us on. It was very stressful for those minutes thinking we would be refused boarding. I now make sure I have the ETA confirmation on my phone and on paper so as not to be in that situation again.
While you don’t need to show additional written proof once you arrive in the UK since you go through immigration with your pp and the digital ETA is apparent, that is generally not the situation with a gate agent as you leave from another country.

"that is generally not the situation with a gate agent as you leave from another country."

In the four trips I've taken to the UK since January, I have never been asked for proof of ETA. This is coming from Singapore and Australia wirh Singapore Airlines. But I agree it's a good idea to have the confirmation printed just in case - you never know!

I have flown to the UK since the start of the ETA requirement on American Airlines (twice), Icelandair and Finnair. I was never asked about the ETA.

Well, that was me who was quoted above.

This was exactly two weeks ago, on Monday July 7, at SEA. We were traveling on a business class ticket, SEA-DFW-LHR, on American Airlines. We checked in at the counter, and immediately we got the impression the agent was having a bad day and seemed intent on making sure customers did, too. We don't fly American Airlines very often, but in this case the ticket worked out best for us. I had been reading online how many people experienced surly, gruff service from AA employees. The agent we encountered certainly fit those descriptions. Not a smile, not a greeting, no empathy whatsoever, she just seemed angry and unhappy. The contrast to a typical customer service person we encounter was dramatic and shocking. My wife shot me a look, I smiled and shook my head. Hey, I was about to fly to the UK in business class, and start a 12-day trip to Shetland, I was happy and wasn't going to have my day ruined by a surly employee. Agent asked if we had ETAs. I said yes, of course, we got them online a few days ago. She asked for proof. Me: Proof - really? Yes. I chuckled a little, smiled and said no worries...as I started fumbling with my phone, I said "I'm sure I have the email confirmation here somewhere, just a moment..." then I mentioned that I would have printed that out, but the UK ETA website clearly and explicitly said we did not need to provide any proof or do anything else, because the ETA was electronically attached to our passports..." Agent just said "I need to see proof or you can not board." I smiled and said there's no problem, scrolled through a bunch of emails, found it and showed her the screen. She took the phone from my hand (without asking if she could) squinted at the screen and fussed with the display. She turned to her screen, typed in something, handed me back my phone without saying anything else to me. Then she turned to my wife and said "and yours?" and took her offered phone too. Grumbled something, typed something, handed my wife's phone back to her. She then printed boarding passes and bag tags, tagged our bags, handed us boarding passes and said "Gate (something)...", turned and walked away. My wife was looking at me slackjawed, and was starting to laugh. I held my finger to my lips to shush her, smiled and said "lets go". We headed for security. Once out of earshot, she said "wow, what was THAT?" We both laughed and shook our heads.

Maybe we just got lucky. Maybe she was having an especially bad day. Maybe we were the only ones getting hassled for proof of ETAs. Don't know, don't care, not our problem - we were headed for a comfy flight and I was looking forward to it.

Just sharing my experience 2 weeks ago. Hope the OP has an easy experience.

David in Seattle's experience reminds me of the old saying "Non illigitimi carborundum". I'll leave the translation to yourselves.

You asked about other airlines as well.

I just flew Delta from Spokane to Atlanta, Atlanta to Edinburgh. I was not asked for ETA proof either at Spokane or when boarding in Atlanta. I DID have my email saved and ready in case I was asked for it because when I flew in 2021 from Spokane I had a "discussion" with the check in agent regarding whether I needed a negative Covid test to enter France (I did not need one) so I knew that sometimes that desk is not fully with the current scheme and wanted to be ready.

If you are worried I'd just have the UK approval email so it's accessible.

Thanks for all of your feedback and experiences. Looks like a hardcopy and digital copy of the UK ETA email is the best backup in case a gate agent chooses to demand proof.