No More Paper Tickets On United

from the try-again dept

I never really understood why airlines still used paper tickets any more. Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't really see the benefit. Every once in a while, I'm forced to take a paper ticket instead of an e-ticket, though it's never been clearly explained to me why. In the future, it appears that certainly won't happen on United Airlines, who will now be charging $20 extra for paper tickets, and will completely phase them out by 2004. Apparently, this follows plans from American Airlines to do the same. Considering those are the two airlines I tend to fly most often, I guess I may never see another paper ticket.
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  • identicon
    Bob Bechtel, 30 Jul 2002 @ 5:25am

    Paper tickets

    Most of the airlines are eliminating paper tickets -- charging extra to issue them has been common practice over the past few years. E-tickets are great, but there's at least one problem that I do not see being addressed: on American Airlines, at least, you have to be prepared, when you show up to travel, to present the credit card that was used to purchase the e-ticket. No problem? Well, I buy tickets for my mom to come visit -- and I'm sure not going to FedEx her my credit card so she can board the plane. In circumstances like this, a paper ticket is the only viable choice. Of course, it's an airline policy problem, not a technology one, but that's true of most things (think DRM, etc.).

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