A mini-revolution is taking place at airports across the country after retailers were forced to admit that customers are not actually required to show their boarding passes at the till and that those who do are merely helping companies claim back VAT.

Thousands of air passengers who had up until now been under the impression that producing their boarding pass was a legal requirement have been outraged to find out that this is not the case.

Airport retailers such as WHSmiths and Boots have admitted that fliers are entitled to say no when asked to show their pass and have said that they use the information to claim back VAT on purchases made by customers flying to non-EU destinations.

Telegraph Travel revealed the extent to which fliers feel they have been misled over the request yesterday when 90 per cent of more than 29,000 Telegraph readers voted to say that they did not realise why shops ask to see boarding passes.

Now they and countless other fliers are saying that they will refuse to show their boarding passes in future.

Another poll conducted yesterday suggested that 85 per cent (more than 16,000 readers) will no longer show their passes in airport shops, while two-thirds called for airport shops to operate dual pricing for EU and non-EU customers, so that the savings retailers make can be passed onto the customer.

Many fliers are also angry that they have been misled by shop assistants in the past, who have told them that scanning their boarding pass is necessary in order to complete a sale.

Well & truly annoyed (previous RT). Also, never realised one is not legally obliged to show boarding pass. Always assumed it was security. — Nina Reizi (@ninarei) August 11, 2015

I didn't know this treacherous act by airports authorities! Now I will start to question them! https://t.co/J9WX3lezAs — Lena Gabo Kalake (@GaboKa2009) August 11, 2015

Ana Silva O’Reilly, a travel blogger at Mrs O Around the World, will now refuse to show her pass after becoming increasingly annoyed with the stance taken by firms like Boots and WHSmith.

“I personally felt I was providing too much information for no reason whatsoever,” she said. “I find it very uncomfortable to be queuing for 10 minutes holding 5 kgs of magazines and books and then when finally served (service has become quite awful at WHSmiths), having to find my boarding pass somewhere.

@MetadataJunkie @urban_achiever They've told me "it's the law". Now I will just refuse. — Karen Lopez (@datachick) August 11, 2015

@SoftData @Telegraph @urban_achiever well, well, well who knew. Just another airport rip off along with overpriced parking, food, and drink. — PonteJack (@somersetlevel) August 11, 2015

“Nowadays, with mobile boarding passes, I feel even more annoyed to have to hand over my phone. On a recent trip, I had finally had enough and asked the gentlemen manning the till why did he have to know where I was travelling when he was selling me a copy of Vanity Fair and Tatler. He said he needed it to be able to process the item as a sale and I simply refused to go ahead with the purchase.”

Tim Jepson, a Telegraph Travel writer, travelled through Gatwick via a WHSmith self-service checkout this morning. He found that he had to click on a box labelled "no boarding pass" and then couldn't pay until an assistant came over, asked him where he was travelling to and then waved the transaction through.

Christopher Howse, the Telegraph columnist, has been told before that his boarding pass is needed to make a purchase. “I always ask if it is obligatory,” he said. “I've been doing that for two or three years. Usually I'm told I don't need to, or the person on the till says: "It's up to you."

“But, once, I was told that I did need to or the purchase 'Won't go through the till'. I assumed the shop wanted information on passenger consumption according to destination. I didn't realise it could be about VAT.”

Information on a boarding pass covers a passenger’s entire itinerary, making fears over data protection another legitimate reason to refuse to show it.

For the time being, stores such as WHSmith say they don’t hold onto data such as flight bookings when scanning passes.

A spokesman told Telegraph Travel that the destination data from a boarding pass allows WHSmith to analyse the purchasing trends by time of day and by product category for customers travelling to different locations.

“This information is limited to the IATA three digit destination airport codes, which form the basis of IATA’s worldwide airport database and does not give access to any personal data of WHSmith customers,” the spokesman said.

“While much of what we sell, eg. newspapers, magazines and books, does not attract VAT, any VAT relief associated with the identification of customers travelling outside of the EU is reported in accordance with UK legislation, and any relief obtained is reflected in our single price and extensive promotional offers provided to all of our customers.”

Boots said that, despite reaction from the public, it would not be changing its policy to ask passengers to show passes, even though many now say that they will refuse to do so.

This is because it is following rules on VAT set by HM Revenue and Customs.

A spokesman said that it is “claiming back VAT on a proportion of purchases made by customers flying to non EU destinations in accordance with current VAT rules set by the HMRC.

“However, showing a boarding card is not compulsory and any of our customers that do not wish to share this information can shop with us without the boarding card being scanned."