Don't Leave Home Without a Charged Cell Phone
If you're flying out of Los Angeles or Orange County airports next week, make sure your mobile phone is charged and ready to go - especially if you've purchased a new mobile boarding pass from American Airlines.
AA, following in the footsteps of Continental and Delta Airlines, last week announced the option to have your boarding pass sent directly to your mobile phone or PDA, in an attempt to save paper and money, and speed things up for travelers.
The new boarding passes are available for domestic outbound flights from Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD) Airport Guide, Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) Airport and John Wayne Airport (SNA), Orange County, California.
While the technology is still relatively new, AA is not the first U.S. carrier to offer this service. Continental Airlines started testing it in late 2007, and were quickly followed by Northwest, Delta and Alaska Airlines. The AA trial will raise the total to five airlines over 13 airports.
How the Mobile Boarding Pass Works
After checking in online - aa.com or aa.com mobile - a link to an image of a two dimensional barcode will be e-mailed to you. Once saved, all you need to do is recall the barcode, and display it when you arrive at security - and voila; an easy, fast, and paperless way to get on a plane.
The trial will be extended to more cities and with more options if it proven successful at these high traffic airports.
Current Restrictions with Mobile Boarding Passes
In their current form, the mobile boarding passes have certain limitations: if you don't return from one of the three airports you still need a traditional boarding pass on your way home and travelers can only list one person on their reservations.
Clearly this new system could bring up an entirely new set of security issues once the creative bad guys start taking an interest, although The Chicago Tribune suggests that the mobile boarding passes offer an additional layer of security as they are scanned twice whereas paper boarding passes are only scanned once. In addition, the system has been tested and approved by the Transportation Security Administration, and includes encryption technology to guard against forgeries.
While we have written about Web technology trends and our hopes and expectations when it comes to mobile Web services, the question remains whether the mobile phones and wireless signals of today are efficient enough to cope with the new technology.
Our advice? Make sure your battery is fully charged before heading off to the airport.
Comments
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Air New Zealand (closer to RWW home) announced a similar - but bigger - program a few weeks before this. There's a good discussion with their CTO about the boarding passes, compatibility and more at http://www.geekzone.co.nz/freitasm/5910.
The Air NZ experience is bigger because it ads access to its business lounges through their mobile passes, plus special RFID tags sent to their Silver, Gold and Gold Elite travellers.
Posted by: M Freitas | November 15, 2008 7:04 PM
Air Canada and West Jet are also playing with 2d codes for check in.
Ironically when i show the check in desk my 2d code, she prints me a copy to show security.
Posted by: Phil Barrett
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November 16, 2008 3:13 PM
This is realy usefull technology! Hope mobile pass will be accepted in all airports soon.
Posted by: Roman | November 18, 2008 9:36 AM
This sounds like a great idea in theory but in practice - it's going to be awhile before it gets wide spread adoption. Airports don't seem to be able to agree on something as simple as whether you are supposed to walk through with boarding pass in hand or in the bin with the rest of your stuff - now they are going to have to make a decision that will give them the third option of whether or not your mobile phone is really your boarding pass??
I think it's going to have to be adopted by most airlines before it will become a convenience rather than a novelty.
Melody Wigdahl
Mobioptin.com
Posted by: Melody Wigdahl | November 20, 2008 7:11 PM