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Mobile boarding passes: Fancy trick but not worth your time
By now you've probably heard of mobile boarding passes, the digital version of that slip of paper that identifies you, your flight, your seat and your pertinent itinerary information when flying around the planet. In concept they're pretty slick: when checking in for a flight online, one can elect to have the boarding pass sent to a phone – what's downloaded is a barcode (it's actually closer to a QR code) that can be scanned at the security checkpoint and at the gate to allow boarding. Or that's how it's supposed to work.These days, running Gadling and working on a dozen other small projects I find myself in the airport a lot, whether it's in bouncing in between O'Hare and LaGuardia for work or sneaking up to Anchorage to visit a few friends for a long, creative weekend.
All of this time on the road has given me plenty of opportunity to road test mobile boarding, both when I was living in Detroit, a Delta hub and now that I'm living in Chicago, a hub for both United and American Airlines. I like the concept; it's both environmentally friendly and more efficient.
My experience, however, is to the contrary. More often than not, when I download a mobile boarding pass something goes wrong in the process, whether it's at the gate, security or with my phone. As a result, I end up actually losing time and wasting energy at the airport.
The majority of flaws in the process come at the security checkpoint. Either the barcode scanner isn't working, isn't interpreting the data properly or the TSA agent isn't familiar with the process. Right now, their only solution is to send the passenger back to get a hard-copy boarding pass. Sometimes they'll let you cut in line when you return. Sometimes not.
It's not often, but a small portion of the faults come from malfunctioning scanners at the gate.
Another part of the problem can be traced to hardware. Turning an iPhone sideways to scan the barcode almost always turns the image sideways as well. If the resulting, resized barcode is too big, the scanner won't read it. Pick up the phone to look at the barcode and everything flips back over. Frustration goes up, people behind start to cough and things start to get awkward.
None of this is that big of a deal for a travel hardy person like myself, mind you, I don't mind taking the time to work with a green cause. My problem comes with the delays incurred with going to back to get a paper boarding pass. The thing is, if I'm at the airport I'm always either 5 minutes away from boarding or walking out of the place – I don't have time to wait in a giant security line only to be turned around to reprint my boarding pass – the risk is just too high.
That's why Monday morning on the way in from LaGuardia I picked up an extra paper boarding pass on the way over to the C/D gates. Sure enough, when I got to gate C8 the scanner wouldn't read my phone and 14 elite passengers nearly revolted behind me. Their frustration well reflects the current state of the art in mobile boarding technology: while cute, the concept needs far better implementation to ever become useful in a mainstream commercial travel.
[flickr photo via kalleboo]
It's not often, but a small portion of the faults come from malfunctioning scanners at the gate.
Another part of the problem can be traced to hardware. Turning an iPhone sideways to scan the barcode almost always turns the image sideways as well. If the resulting, resized barcode is too big, the scanner won't read it. Pick up the phone to look at the barcode and everything flips back over. Frustration goes up, people behind start to cough and things start to get awkward.
None of this is that big of a deal for a travel hardy person like myself, mind you, I don't mind taking the time to work with a green cause. My problem comes with the delays incurred with going to back to get a paper boarding pass. The thing is, if I'm at the airport I'm always either 5 minutes away from boarding or walking out of the place – I don't have time to wait in a giant security line only to be turned around to reprint my boarding pass – the risk is just too high.
That's why Monday morning on the way in from LaGuardia I picked up an extra paper boarding pass on the way over to the C/D gates. Sure enough, when I got to gate C8 the scanner wouldn't read my phone and 14 elite passengers nearly revolted behind me. Their frustration well reflects the current state of the art in mobile boarding technology: while cute, the concept needs far better implementation to ever become useful in a mainstream commercial travel.
[flickr photo via kalleboo]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Scott Carmichael Aug 1st 2010 3:36PM
Totally agree. I've stopped using them because the times saved does not outweigh the hassles. It can go wrong at so many points.
Until airlines come up with a more solid system (like what Air France is trialing using RFID cards), mobile image based boarding passes won't take off.
epilonious Aug 1st 2010 4:15PM
Commuting between ATL and SNA on Delta
Both have functional scanners, both have well-trained TSA and Gate-agents.
Aside from the occasional "you have to hold it under the scanner for a whole 2 seconds longer" I've never had it fail.
That being said, I've always printed out a back-up ticket (mostly because they now come with free drink/snack coupons)
Stephen Aug 1st 2010 7:36PM
One of the problems here has a pretty easy fix - the newest iPhone platform has an orientation lock that you can easily toggle.
http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/6125/iphone-ios4-lock-orientation-but-where-is-the-horizontal-lock/
My worst experience was getting in line for security and realizing my phone was dead :/
M-D Aug 2nd 2010 1:13PM
Amen - the rotation lock solves this problem and makes life a lot better at both the checkpoint and the gate.
I've been using the mobile boarding passes for some time (CO was an early adopter, and I've used them at EWR, SFO, MSY, LAX, IAH, AUS and other airports over the years); I've never had an issue at the checkpoint, especially since TSA started using the stanchion-mounted scanners. CO's gate scanners create an occasional issue, because they want to scan the screen at an angle rather than flat, but once you've done it a few times, it's a piece of cake.
I've only ever had one major issue - there was an instance where a flight was 'unofficially' delayed (CO delayed the flight but didn't update their systems, so the BP server thought the flight went up on time), and my iPhone froze; when I got it working again, I wasn't able to reload the BP, so I had to get a hard copy printed. A good way to avoid this: use the iPhone's built-in screencapture function (hold down the home button, then press the sleep button) to take a snapshot of the bar code, which will save to the Photo app.
I've also used UA's implementation of the mobile boarding pass without issue in PHL, ORD and SFO - theirs is actually more consistent, because they're using the same model scanner as TSA at their gates.
@AREX: No one has ever gone broke betting on TSA incompetence, but they know enough not write on the screen of a $300 smartphone.
WorldwideViking Aug 1st 2010 8:57PM
Hey, we've put together the Airside Express app for iPhone (free), which stores the boarding pass without needing to screen shot it AND it doesn't auto-rotate the image. Takes a minute to download the pass, but it works decently as long as you're flying CO or AA. New version coming out shortly...
matt Aug 1st 2010 8:53PM
I used a digital boarding pass for the first time last week on USAir. At first worried it wouldn't work but on my iPhone 3GS it worked like a charm at both security and at the gate. The rest of the trip I had paper passes but would gladly use the digital one again. I can definately see how the orientation, size, etc could mess it up but everything was working fine in my case. If they only had free Wifi at every airport, then it would have been perfect! What if you are downloading your pass and can't get signal on your phone! That would be tragic.
arex Aug 1st 2010 11:02PM
Totally agree with Scott. I've never even bothered bc i just know some TSA smartie will just screw it up. Don't they like to scribble their initials anyway? Yet another great idea screwed up by human ingenuity.
johnmc Aug 2nd 2010 2:03AM
It's working pretty well in SMF with AS/QX.
Chris Bird Aug 3rd 2010 9:05AM
I love the mobile boarding passes. I travel a lot and have had nary a problem. My phone is an Android Incredible. A clever feature is that if you rotate the phone clockwise, the image stays oriented in the phone. Counter clockwise and the image reorients. So for mobile boarding passes, I rotate clockwise. Problem solved.
It has also increased my personal coolness factor and that is so good for my self esteem!
Ana Aug 4th 2010 1:28PM
I've had the opportunity to use the boarding pass app a few times, but I always have a printed boarding pass in my purse...which is obviously pretty redundant. I've heard of too many issues to trust it completely.