Paper airline tickets - horrible?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
81

I gradually got into using my phone as my primary source for my boarding pass. When the airline apps first came out, I made sure I knew how to get the boarding pass onto my phone, but always printed the boarding pass and used that. Then I got brave and started using my phone, but in the early days, sometimes the readers were balky, so I always had a printed copy for those cases.

I’m finally at the point where I expect to use my phone just about a hundred percent of the time. I remember waking up at the Fiumicino airport hotel, heading off for my morning flight with just my phone (forgot to print out a copy of the boarding pass) and breezing through all the checkpoints. That convinced me of the reliability.

And as far as printing the boarding pass when you check bags, who checks bags? I can do two weeks of international travel, mixed business and pleasure, with only carry on luggage (all of which meets the airlines requirements for carry on luggage)

The airline apps I use the most allow you to store a copy of your boarding pass on your phone, so you don’t need to worry about connectivity (but what reasonable sized airport doesn’t have wifi or cell service?). And the advantage of the in-phone boarding pass is that if you’ve requested an upgrade, it shows up on your boarding pass automatically, and if you need to make a quick flight change, you can do it while on the move, as opposed to standing in line and then sprinting to the gate because now the flight is taking off.

I know it’s “new fangled technology” with all the charging and connection and fi-wi and internodes, which our parents generation has a lot of trouble with, hence the reliance on paper. But you’re not turning into your parents, are you?

I have to confess I still print out a paper copy, if convenient (like the night before), and stuff it in my small carry-on. Mainly because a couple of times Delta has had system wide outages that not only made it impossible to read the QR codes at the gate, but disappeared the boarding pass in the app. So, with at least with Delta, its my habit now to have that backup.

82

Yeah. Has anyone worred about not having cell service actually used a boarding pass on their phone? You don’t need service. It doesn’t open up a webpage, it’s on the phone itself. If I wasn’t using my watch, I wouldn’t even have to unlock the phone to get to it, adding it to the Wallet means it shows on the lock screen by default and just touching it opens the boarding pass.

83

My husband uses his group’s admin a lot for travel. But if he is travelling, its usually because he is speaking at one of his company’s conferences (he works for Gartner as an analyst) or because he is accompanying sales people. A month long trip that hits three cities in Australia, Taiwan, Korea, Tokyo, and Hong Kong and involves coordinating flights for not only him, but a sales guy out of Sydney - that’s a good job for an admin.

But when I used to fly for business - it was usually just me visiting one of our sites, and yeah, I don’t need an admin between me and the choice to fly out late Sunday night or break of dawn Monday morning. Or book me in a hotel that I’ve stayed in five times before.

84

Also, if you save the boarding pass to your phone’s wallet, it is stored on your phone and you can access it without an internet connection.

My parents came to visit about a month ago. On the last day of their visit they wanted to use my printer to print their boarding passes. I pointed out that they could just use their phones. They said that they’ve seen other people doing that, but they didn’t know how. When I showed him how, it became apparent that he wasn’t aware the screen with the big QR code on it actually was his boarding pass. He apparently expected it to look 100% identical to the paper version.

85

There are plenty of kiosks for people who are not checking baggage, and I’ve never seen any kind of line at those.

86

I guess it depends on the size of the airport? At my local airport (Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta), there are rows and rows of open kiosks if you are flying Delta.

87

A few years ago I had my boarding pass on my phone, just about to go through security, when my finger slipped and I deleted it! (Yes, I’m an incredible klutz.) I had to go all the way back to the ticket counters to print a new one, and almost missed my flight. Since then I always print it.

88

Deleting an image (or closing a browser window) could be a problem, but it’s pretty easy to recover from. It usually takes me roughly a minute to navigate through the app to regenerate a boarding pass if I’m already checked in. Probably less time than it would take to go back to the ticket counter and get one printed. This assumes you have an internet connection, true. But you can also recover a deleted photo from your phone recycle bin pretty easily as well.

89

This is why I text the image to my wife, if it is deleted I can just open the text.

90

I think it depends on how the airline has chosen to set up their ticketing/check in areas at various airports. Delta usually puts a bunch of kiosks out in the middle of the lobby where you can check in and get a boarding pass, and then if you are checking bags you take them up to the counter. You pretty much only have to stand in line if you’re checking bags.

A few airlines have experimented with self-service baggage check in recent years. I experienced that with JetBlue at JFK a few years ago. The kiosk prints a luggage tag in addition to the boarding pass, and you attach it to your bag yourself, and then go drop it on the belt.

91

I’ve done that. Someone does check your ID and baggage tag but, yes, you put the luggage tag on yourself and drop the bag on the belt yourself.

I like to use the self-service scale to see whether what it thinks my bag weighs compares with the scale I used at home while packing.

92

Luggage? You olds are amazing.

93

Belts and suspenders. Any crossover with the socks-and-sandals crowd?

94

Before computer booking systems, or actually, before ‘everybody who sold tickets was connected to the computer booking system’, they sold a ticket, which was for a journey, and made a booking, which was for a specific time, but the airline didn’t actually know about the ticket or the booking until you turned up at the gate. (They released block bookings to agents, but didn’t know how much of the block had been taken up).

When you turned up at the gate, they counted you, and if there was enough space on the airplane, they gave you a boarding pass. The planes were always ‘over booked’ in the sense that the block bookings were larger than the airplane, but normally the block bookings weren’t completely filled, and there was space on the airplane that could be sold to random people who turned up at the gate, and the airplane flew with empty seats.

But sometimes more people turned up with tickets and bookings than there were seats, and only some of them got boarding passes.

Airlines still make the distinction between ticket / booking / boarding because it gives them more power and flexibility: they still sell unbooked tickets, and they still can cancel your booking if you don’t show up early.

95

My dad’s 92. He chose to check luggage when we visited my sister in May because it’s easier on him. I did it on the way back because I was afraid my 24" alligator plush* in my duffle bag wouldn’t fit in the overhead.

*really

96

Every single time someone posts this. :stuck_out_tongue:

97

… and that comment leads me to believe you are a man.

Back when I traveled for business the clothing requirements of a woman working on business would make such compact packing extremely difficult at best.

Now, for pleasure - yeah, I can do a remarkable amount of travel with minimal luggage. But then, I don’t wear make-up, only need one pair of comfortable shoes for that which I can keep on my feet, and so forth.

98

Sounds like you’ve never taken an extended trip anywhere. A carry-on can get me through a trip of a few days, but if I’m going to Japan for three weeks, I’m gonna need more stuff.

99

Also, if I’m visiting friends/family I’m likely taking gifts. Also I like to buy souvenirs. I came back from my visit to Ohio with 7 tee shirts and a couple of books. And…

100

I wouldn’t use an airline app. My phone has enough apps as it is. My boarding pass would sit in an email, and would be available even without internet service. For a similar reason I don’t use a movie theatre app. That’s just a waste of memory space and “home page” space.