If you are arriving into or departing from Houston’s Bush International Airport on Continental Airlines anytime in the next three months you will likely be a part of an experiment that could help redefine boarding procedures.
Continental along with the Transportation Security Administration is testing a new program that allows passengers to board flights using just a cellphone or personal-digital assistant (PDA) such as a BlackBerry instead of a traditional paper boarding pass. The system is activated when the airline sends a special bar code (basically a jumble of squares and rectangles) to a passenger’s cellphone or PDA. The unique code contains the passenger’s name and flight information. A passenger receives the code, then a TSA screener confirms its authenticity with a handheld scanner. In addition to showing the code, passengers will also need to provide photo identification at security checkpoints and at airport gates.
Continental officials say they’ve been working on the new feature for a number of years in an effort to eliminate paperwork and speed up the boarding process. TSA officials also favor the new digital boarding option because they say it allows screeners to better detect fraudulent boarding passes. And don’t worry if your cellphone loses power before you get to the gate, the airline says you can get a paper boarding pass from a kiosk or a Continental agent.
Sounds great, but keep in mind the new process is still in the experimental phase and flaws have already been detected. That’s in addition to the limitations designers were aware of coming into the testing phase. For instance, only passengers traveling alone can use the electronic pass. Though, Continental says it is trying to upgrade the technology so that it can accommodate multiple passengers traveling together.
Continental may be the first U.S. carrier to try cellphone boarding passes, but companies such as Air Canada have been offering paperless boarding since September. The new technology is also available in a couple of other countries.
Other domestic airlines in the United States such as Delta and US Airways recently announced they hope to offer paperless boarding passes soon.
What do you think about the new digital boarding passes? Would you make use of the technology if it were offered to you?
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