| November, 2007 |  |
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Will cellphones replace paper at airline check-in counters?
Airlines may soon be asking you to ditch your paper boarding passes and instead check-in using your cellphone or BlackBerry, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. The Houston Chronicle writes that “a new bar code standard” was announced Thursday by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), something that could “pave the way” to allowing customers to use cellphones and other mobile devices to check-in for flights. Several airlines -– including Continental and Southwest -– tell the Houston Chronicle they’re interested, but say the Transportation Security Administration would first have to make allowances for customers who have checked in wirelessly to pass through security without a paper boarding pass.
How would it work? The Houston Chronicle says that “instead of a traveler or airline printing a paper boarding pass and then having the bar codes scanned at airport security and the gate, passengers would register their mobile numbers with the airline and get text messages with boarding pass bar codes. They could then simply hold the screen of their cell phones under the scanner, and off they would go.” If such a system were instituted, it could be another way for U.S. airlines to cut costs. “You’re eliminating the paper completely,” Steve Lott, a spokesman for the IATA airline trade group, tells the Houston Chronicle. “But you’re also eliminating the need for a printer.”
Some airline passengers welcome the idea. “I would love it,” Tom Schrier, a Houston traveler who flies weekly, says to the Houston Chronicle. “I can’t always print a boarding pass, but I always have my BlackBerry with me,” he says. Some international carriers have already added mobile check-in options, including Air Canada, Air Berlin and Spanair. But Lott says that “in the U.S., the hurdle would be getting approval from the. They have some concerns about this.”
Full monty screening
Most folks slip off their jackets and shoes at airport security checkpoints. A passenger at the Minneapolis airport took the dressing-down a step further. Police said a screener was waving a metal-detecting wand over the man’s pants in July when he dropped trou to reveal he wasn’t wearing underwear. “There, how do you like your job?” he said, according to a police report. He later pleaded guilty to indecent exposure and paid a $163 fine. “We needed to take some action on that,” airport police Lt. Matt Christenson told the Associated Press. “Otherwise, everybody would be dropping their pants.”
Punching out
Seeing a passenger apparently deep in slumber as a train rolled toward York, England, a conductor discreetly stamped and returned the man’s ticket. When the train arrived at the station, the rider couldn’t be budged, and paramedics were summoned. “It turned out that the passenger had expired long before his ticket ever did,” said a report in the British Transport Police’s magazine
St. Louis expands Wi-Fi options
“Passengers at St. Louis Lambert International can now use Wi-Fi, available at ‘a majority of areas’ in its terminals and concourses, the airport says. The cost is typically $7.95 a day, but may vary depending on whether users have separate Wi-Fi subscription accounts and what they charge.”
O’Hare a top hot spot for Wi-Fi users
From USA TODAY reporter Roger Yu’s Airport Check-in column: “Chicago O’Hare had the highest number of Wi-Fi log-ons among airports worldwide in the first half of 2007, estimates iPass, one of the largest Wi-Fi service providers. The result was based on about 2 million log-on sessions among iPass users. Rounding out the top five were other busy airports: Dallas/Fort Worth, Atlanta, San Francisco and London Heathrow.”
| November, 2007 | |
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