Paperless Boarding Passes

Having to carry around a paper-boarding pass is starting to become a thing of the past. Now, more and more airports are adapting the paper-less boarding passes offered by Continental Airlines. Currently these new paper-less boarding passes are being used at Huston’s Intercontinental, Reagan Washington National, Boston’s Logan Airport and Newark Liberty International.

According to the TSA, These new boarding passes will be in the form of two-dimensional bar codes, which will be e-mailed to the passenger’s cell phone. Travelers will still have to show proof of identification when passing through security, but will no longer have to carry a paper-boarding pass. Security personal will be able to quickly scan the passenger’s cell phone with little hassle. Unlike flat bar codes (the ones consumers see daily) two –dimensional bar codes can carry more information and is harder to tamper with.

According to the New York Times, if the 240 members of the International Air Transport Association start using these bar codes that it can save the airline industry roughly $500 million annual! The hope is that once these two-dimensional bar codes are being used exclusively, that foreign airlines will begin to use them as well. One just has to remember to pack extra batteries and/or their charging cables so your phone will not loose power.