Let's not dwell too long on what a convoluted mess the rollout of the United Kingdom's new Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) has been.

It's enough to note that nothing seems to go smoothly in this world anymore, and the new mandatory verification program for all incoming visitors to the U.K. is no exception.

The new ETA system, fully explained by Frommer's in our usual plainspoken style at this link, went into force on January 8, 2025.

Travelers, including not just citizens of the U.S. but also of Canada, Mexico, Australia, and lots of other nations, now must purchase an ETA in advance of their travels to the United Kingdom. This pesky piece of bureaucracy costs £10 (a little over US$12 at today's exchange rate) per applicant and is good for multiple visits over a 2-year period.

Until this week, the ETA was also enforced upon transit passengers -- that is, upon people merely changing planes in the U.K., not passing through border control and leaving the airport.

But holy hell was raised from many quarters, including from airline bosses, who warned that the imposition of the fee could cost them some 4 million passengers a year since travelers could simply avoid the fee by choosing airlines that fly to continental Europe instead.

So the U.K. Home Office, which established the ETA to begin with, has announced through a statement that connecting passengers will not be charged the fee after all. "Following feedback from the aviation industry," the statement reads, "the government has agreed [to] a temporary exemption for passengers who transit airside, and therefore do not pass through UK border control."

That "temporary" indicates not only the British government's reluctance to admit a miscalculation, but also an intention to tweak the program to regain the income lost by loosening the rules for transiting airline passengers.

We can deduce this because in the same statement, the Home Office signals that it wants to raise the ETA's price from £10 to £16 (about $19.50), pending approval by Parliament.

That "temporary" in the statement further suggests the Home Office could reinstate the ETA for connecting passengers if the government can't recoup the lost funds by raising the fee for everyone else.

This new exemption will mostly affect London Heathrow and Manchester airports since they're the only ones in the country where arriving passengers can change for other international flights.

To avoid paying the ETA when you change flights at Heathrow, it's imperative that you follow the purple signs for Flight Connections (pictured above) and that you do not exit through Border Control to reach other terminals, the way some hotdogging travel hackers like to do.

If you independently book two separate flight reservations that connect in Heathrow, you may not have a choice but to exit and reenter, requiring ETA payment. To legally dodge the fee, make sure your chosen airline will check your baggage through to your connecting flight.

The ETA isn't the only flex by the U.K.'s post-Brexit government that has run afoul of business leaders. The country also killed refunds of the value-added tax (VAT) for most tourists. British retail leaders lament that the loss of VAT refunds has cost them millions as international shoppers have been choosing to conduct their global spending sprees elsewhere.