Paper Airline Tickets Vanishing June 1
Mon Sep 24, 2007 12:31AM EDT
See Comments (50)
Frankly, I don't remember the last time I had paper airline tickets, but every time I fly, I see one guy with a thick sheaf of dead trees, handing an envelope over to a gate agent who looks alternately annoyed and confused over having to deal with the thing.
Those days are finally coming to a close: On June 1, 2008, the association that handles airline ticketing will dump paper tickets (only about 3 percent of tickets processed today are paper) for good in favor of electronic ones. The airlines have been anxious to get rid of the things for cost reasons: Paper tickets cost an airline up to $17 a pop, while e-tickets are a buck or less, not to mention you need to maintain an infrastructure to issue them, train agents on dealing with the myriad forms they come in, and so on.
Paper tickets will still be issued by a handful of regional and foreign airlines who haven't discovered the magic of computers yet.
Is the loss of the paper ticket, at least as an option, a good thing or a bad thing? Paper tickets have always come with baggage that makes them infinitely harder to change when your plans are altered, not to mention that interminable waiting for them to arrive in the mail. The extra amenities offered by e-tickets in allowing for online scheduling and, more importantly, online check-in for your flight, more than make up for the enhanced paper trail (and the sense of security that came with it) which printed tickets provided.
Who was president the last time you flew with paper?
Top 5 Posts
More About Services
Comments on Paper Airline Tickets Vanishing June 1
Post a Comment
Join in the discussion. Here you'll see the comments in the order they were posted.
-
2 Posted by cnull on Mon Sep 24, 2007 11:18AM EDT Report Abuse
rogueist - That's a boarding pass, not a ticket. You get a ticket when you buy your fare, not at the airport... that's what they're talking about here.
-
3 Posted by mcmillen66 on Mon Sep 24, 2007 11:57AM EDT Report Abuse
I have to second what rogueist says. Paper tickets are still alive and well. I just flew to Texas last week and every single person who boarded the plane handed the agent their ticket to be scanned. They all also had to show this paper slip to the TSA agent when they were cavity searched. Now these "electronic" tickets are much thinner than the old traditional card-type tickets, but they are still very much paper. The electronic part means only that you don't get your ticket until you arrive at the airport. Why you need it there is a mystery to me. Why not, as rogueist suggests, have an electronic card issued that can be scanned? They already DO this when you check in at an auto-kiosk. They scan your credit card and whamo! A ticket spits out. Why? As for airlines "wanting" to get rid of paper tickets, give me a break. Customers were clamoring for this over a decade ago, but airlines were glacial in adopting them. People lose paper tickets. Dog's eat them, rain gets them. I used to work for the paper industry and even I looked at these things as dinosaurs. Get with it, guys. We don't need paper to board a flight. What the airport of the future should do is incorporate the sign-in/checking procedure with the security check, so you only have to stand in line once. They could check your card, your ID and your bags, then off you go.
-
4 Posted by mcmillen66 on Mon Sep 24, 2007 12:05PM EDT Report Abuse
I just read Chris's follow up. You're right, this thin slip of paper is a boarding pass. My bad. But it still seems like a useless thing to have. Still something to be printed, something to lose and the only purpose it serves is to hold your seat assignment. Chris, if you are up for it, it would be good to have a report on the passenger's bill of rights legislation now percolating through congress. That's an important story about the airline industry.
-
5 Posted by carlylovesreds on Tue Sep 25, 2007 12:56AM EDT Report Abuse
I frequently fly internationally and still encounter paper tickets. That is, the ticket that shows your fare paid (like the picture in this blog), not the paper boarding pass that you get after check-in. As a matter of fact, last week I flew to Istanbul, Turkey from the USA, via Frankfurt, Germany. I was given a paper ticket for the round trip from Frankfurt to Istanbul. When visiting developing countries (i.e. Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa, parts of Asia), it is not uncommon to receive a paper ticket from your travel agent, even when flying a major carrier.
Post a Comment
Sponsored Links
Videos
Tech Close-Ups
The Whereifone is a teeny, tiny cell phone that has GPS tracking functions built into it. This produ ...
Gadgets You Might Like
Also on Yahoo! Tech
| Computers | Home Office | Wi-Fi & Networking | Phones & PDAs | Cameras & Camcorders | TV & Home Theater | Portable Audio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 Posted by rogueist on Mon Sep 24, 2007 10:33AM EDT Report Abuse
Mmm, I dont remember NOT ever having a paper ticket - even with the eTickets, when you check in at the airport, they give you a set of paper tickets at the counter. So I dont know the difference. Maybe what they are saying is they finally got their act together and put everything on centrally processed computers, rather than regional computers, which now makes it possible to have fully tracked tickets. When they give you a plastic boarding card similar to a credit card, then they will have gotten rid of paper tickets. But paper tickets are still around all over the place.