Here in the US, paperless boarding cases are not (yet) as widespread as they’ve become overseas, but their use is growing.
This week, Continental, who has been the paperless leader in the US, expanded their rollout to San Juan, Puerto Rico. (The TSA needs to update their list of paperless-enabled airports…)
Continental also started accepting paperless passes for US-bound flights departing Frankfurt, Germany earlier this month.
In lieu of a printed boarding pass, paperless passes are sent to your mobile phone. (Standard text message rates apply…) The pass contains both a barcode and text, identifying the passenger and flight. The square barcode gets scanned twice, once at security, and once at the gate.
I haven’t had a chance to put paperless boarding to the test yet. The confluence of airlines and airports accepting the technology just hasn’t been aligned for my travels yet. But what about you?
Have you gone paperless? If so, what did you think? Have you had any problems, or are you a big fan? If you’ve had the opportunity, but haven’t done it, what’s holding you back?
Take the poll, and hit the comments!
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December 9th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
I have used the paperless boarding pass on Lufthansa from Frankfurt – Tbilisi. I have a Blackberry Storm and it worked fine, a great idea! Gotta love the Germans, they had this technology long before Americans are beginning to catch on to it!
December 9th, 2009 at 9:49 pm
Not yet using it. But I wish to try this one, I think this could be easy to carry than papers and easy to use no more hassle because it just be swiped by the machine if you are valid or unlike paper need to inspection all details before you will be approved.
December 9th, 2009 at 10:00 pm
Comments from Twitter:
MickeyBoggs says:
@upgradetravel No and probably won’t. Currently don’t have phone/PDA that will support it but I worry about battery running down&being stuck
@upgradetravel Yep have used @continental’s paperless boarding many times. Love it.
December 9th, 2009 at 10:15 pm
Don’t you still have to show identification? Whatif you lose your phone?
December 9th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
Twitter Comment
I prefer them
December 10th, 2009 at 12:09 am
Have used it a few times but stopped after the TSA scanner was dead @ MCO and they made me go back to check in and I missed my flight.
December 10th, 2009 at 1:05 am
@ AS: Yes you still show your ID like everyone else. If you lose your phone, just reprint your pass at a kiosk as if you had lost a paper boarding pass.
I just did it yesterday again at DTW. It works great, and one less paper to have to handle. When you approach the TSA they scan the barcode and the scanner spits back your name and flight info.
One thing that doesn’t make sense to me is why the TSA doesn’t use the scanners to verify print at home boarding passes. Most of those have the same barcode. It would prevent the possibility of photoshopping a boarding pass to replace names or dates. At least until someone cracked the barcode code.
December 10th, 2009 at 1:45 am
Would it work if I say, had the PDF of the boarding pass on my ipod touch loaded up? Is there an issue with the size of the barcode displayed?
December 10th, 2009 at 3:38 am
Yeah I’ve used it with Lufthansa in Stuttgart on my iPhone.
Works great. Here in Stuttgart the security check just looks at it, like they do for paper boarding passes. Why would TSA need to scan them if they don’t normally scan paper boarding passes? I don’t get it. Like Gravy said, a forger would only keep it on their phone and not print it out? Makes no sense.
December 10th, 2009 at 3:55 am
Twitter Comment
Paperless boarding passes! [link to post] @airasiadotcom @jetstar_asia @tigerairways – anyone listening? go green, go paperless!
December 10th, 2009 at 4:02 am
Used it several times with Air France and Continental, I don’t find it particularly practical. You can’t whip it out easily as a paper ticket: gotta stop whatever you were doing with your phone, launch the mail program, locate the email, open the URL, etc. Also, the iPhone sometimes refreshes web pages that you kept open, which means you also need to restart your network connection, not practical when roaming. Finally, the iPhone scales images (was a problem with Continental particularly) so the QR code is actually illegible. And I don’t enjoy handing my phone over to people. Really, what’s wrong with paper tickets? Now that they’re dematerialized, they’re pretty nice.
December 10th, 2009 at 4:02 am
Twitter Comment
Just read about paperless boarding passes! – [link to post] – A great way to save the earth, and for mobile convenience!
– Posted using Chat Catcher
December 10th, 2009 at 8:27 am
I have used it often on Air Canada. I have an iPhone, and I tend to just take a screen shot of the bar-code, and use that.
-Brian
December 10th, 2009 at 9:47 am
Yup, used it with NWA/Delta at MSP, DTW and BOS. Works great except when the battery on the scanner at the TSA desk was being recharged…that’s happened to me twice now and I’ve had no choice but to get out of line and print a boarding pass. In neither case was the line very long…but still a little notice at the start of the line would have been nice…
December 10th, 2009 at 11:01 am
I had a hard time getting the cryptic crayon squiggles of my iPhone’s screen that the TSA puts on your boarding pass to “prove” that your ID was verified.
December 10th, 2009 at 11:13 am
Tried it a few times at ATL flying on Delta with a Blackberry Curve and it is more of a hassle than paper. Since most people don’t use the TSA scanners are never on. So you wait while they go find one and turn it on and then it usually takes 4 or 5 times to actually scan properly. It usually takes a few tries at the gate also. Would love to use it in the future, but its just not worth it right now.
December 11th, 2009 at 11:32 pm
I have used them with AC and it worked fine, even on my “not so smart” phone.
One thing that makes me uncomfortable though is the lack of a paper proof of travel. This is still required for travel insurance claims or FFP retro claims in some cases.
Case in point, my AC flight did not post to my LH mileage account. And what does LH say? “Send in the original boarding pass”. *sigh*
December 13th, 2009 at 7:00 pm
Tried it flying on Continental out of IAH and it worked fine both at security and the gate. Very convenient if you’re not checking bags.
December 17th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
I’ve seen this being done with many other modes of transportation as well, although I can’t say I’ve tried it myself. I’d be very curious to see how the system works behind the scenes and how the transactions take place.
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