Frank

When you book independent flights some airlines only allow you to check in on line, no standing in a queue at the airport. So you check in online and print off your boarding card at home.. straightforward right.

But.... some airlines only allow you to check in 25hrs or maybe 1 week before the flight but you are already away on holiday when you need to check in for your return flight so your only way to check in is to use the hotel or a cybercafé printer.

Is that any clearer?

just send me the tickets or let me print them before I go on holiday, who wants to be bothered with ticket printing on holidays...plus the printer in the hotels down more hassle.

Who is going to send you the tickets?

Many airlines now don't use tickets. It's all electronic these days.

I give up
Back to the original post- remember to log out when on a public computer, whatever you are on for

Judith wrote:

Frank

When you book independent flights some airlines only allow you to check in on line, no standing in a queue at the airport. So you check in online and print off your boarding card at home.. straightforward right.

But.... some airlines only allow you to check in 25hrs or maybe 1 week before the flight but you are already away on holiday when you need to check in for your return flight so your only way to check in is to use the hotel or a cybercafé printer.

Is that any clearer?

Brilliant! That's all I wanted to know. thanks!

The current major whinge seems to be about Ryanair, who insist you check in online, or pay £70/€70 to check in at the airport. They have recently changed their check in deadlines making it that unless you pay to prebook seat numbers you can only check in 7 days prior to your flight. They do require you to print boarding passes as well, or pay £15/€15 at the airport. They are introducing electronic boading passes next month (unless the date has slipped) which should alleviate the problem.

Most scheduled airlines have a 24 hour prior check in, but don't require a paper boarding pass. An electronic one is perfectly fine. Thomas Cook Airlines just accept your booking reference.

I'm not aware of many airlines where you actually need a paper boarding pass anymore.

Most scheduled airlines have a 24 hour prior check in, but don't require a paper boarding pass. An electronic one is perfectly fine. Thomas Cook Airlines just accept your booking reference.

I'm not aware of many airlines where you actually need a paper boarding pass anymore.m

Now I'm getting confused - if you don't have a paper boarding pass, how do you get through security into the departure area? Admittedly, I haven't flown anywhere in the last 12 months but when checking in on-line I've had to print it out or when using the self check-in terminals at the airport the machine has always printed one out and I've always been asked for my boarding pass at security. And once through I've always had to produce a paper boarding pass at the till in the airside shops. Are you saying, Sunaddict, that both of them now just accept being shown the boarding pass on a smart phone or tablet?

SM

On a scheduled airline you can check in online ( usually 24 hours ) you don't need to print a boarding card though , you can choose to pick up the boarding card at the airport or send it to your phone .whilst doing the online checkin .

when you then arrive to drop your bags they will print you a boarding card ( on thin card ) and stick your luggage references to them ,
you do need a boarding card to access the departure lounge either a traditional card , one of your own printed on paper or a barcode from your phone .

What you describe, Andy, is what I am used to, apart from the phone bit, and it was the statement that you no longer need a paper boarding pass at all that was confusing me. So do security and the shop staff now have readers /scanners that they can use to scan a barcode on your phone in order to confirm the details of your flight etc for them? Particularly when going to Cuba, having a boarding pass that confirms that I am travelling outside of the EU can make a big difference to the price of the whisky I buy to take with me for my hosts!

SM

I've got an I phone but I don't use it for that , !!! it even automatically sends a boarding card to my phone when I do online checkin but I usually choose to "pick up boarding card at the airport " when I bag drop ,

(I just feel that in the future I phones will run everything for us , banking , airports etc , so will have to get used to it eventually , I think phones are for talking to people , I even hate texting )

Security and dept lounge shops have barcode readers just like supermarkets do , they can read the barcode on your phone and they read the barcode that is printed on your boarding card .
It's all run on barcodes , the barcode relates to you , your flight , etc
Even if you used a barcode on a phone or card it will hold the same details , you will be entitled to the appropriate price for your whisky .
Give it time we will all be chipped with a barcode !!! It's not as stupid as it sounds though

Perhaps I should edit the thread title
For India we had to have tickets in order to enter the airport.

Andy, please don't patronise me - I am fully aware of barcode technology and how it works - what I wasn't aware of was that you no longer need it printed out on paper but that airport security and shops etc can and will scan the barcode from your phone and that they have readers that are not confused by possible reflections from the glass screen of the device. I can't say that I have ever noticed the security people actually scanning the bar code on either paper boarding passes or on people's phones. It has always been based on a human being visually scanning it with their eyes but perhaps I haven't been observant enough as I go through.

Given the number of times that the scanners at my local supermarket can't read the barcodes properly on their own products and given how unreliable my new superduper chip reading catflap has proved to be in practice, the technology definitely has some way to go before all we will need is our barcoded chip in our necks rather than a passport.

SM

I would feel very uncomfortable having my whole holiday dependent on my mobile phone working, not having a flat battery, not having just been stolen or dropped etc. There's a lot to be said for a piece of paper!

At Bristol you do have to scan your boarding card to get through the security gate. Often wondered about the security of wi-fi abroad on a tablet if I needed to use online banking, hopefully I won't as it would only be in an emergency.

I'm sorry if you think I was being patronising , I certainly didn't think I was hand on heart , after re reading my 2 posts I would accept that I was replying in a simplistic way due to the confusion way back in the thread , if I'm honest I thought my first post was a bit " stating the bleeding obvious " but as I've already said there does seem to be a little confusion and perhaps I've replied in a clear and factual way ( IMO ) again I'm sorry if I caused offence .

1 . the barcode readers at security do read all types of boarding pass , paper , card , electronic

2. Security do scan the barcode to access you into the search area and then Det lounge .

3 the readers have no more difficulty reading a mobile barcode due to reflections in fact a badly printed , smudged , crumpled boarding pass would cause more problems and can happen frequently .

4 . Apparently a lot of people do use mobile boarding passes , and I imagine it will only increase over time , as Frank said a flat battery would be a worry , I think paper / card ones will still be around for a while though .

I'm in the food retail game ( not supermarket ) and barcodes can be a pain sometimes things don't scan because the supplier will change pack sizes like 10% extra or 5g less ( Mars !!! ) or PMP packs , and they obviously have a different barcode and its not been set up , if we didn't accept substitutions the shelves would be empty in 3 months .
They also like to put barcodes in obscure places like folds on packets and curved packages can also be troublesome .
But then they make reordering far more simple ( when they work !!! )

My latest addition to the cat family is having enough trouble with his conventional cat flap !! He seems to enjoy the doorman service I provide He does have backward knee joints ( it's called patella *****???? ) and appears to hop like a rabbit , but his mobility is still good .

Sorry it's all Fiona , A good reminder though to exercise caution when using public computers , especially when using them for online checkin ( there is a link there somewhere )

Frank wrote:

I would feel very uncomfortable having my whole holiday dependent on my mobile phone working, not having a flat battery, not having just been stolen or dropped etc. There's a lot to be said for a piece of paper!

Me too Frank - I realised that technology had left me way behind, when my oldest lad turned the central heating on at his house, via his phone, whilst sat in a chair at my house.

The barcode reading - I've only been to Malaga Airport for the last few years, and at the end of those zig-zag roped off areas which gets a lot of people into a small space and before security, there is a barcode reader on the last post - Here there is a person who takes the paper boarding card and places it over the screen of the reader, to read the barcode on your paper boarding pass - I haven't seen it myself, but apparently you can place your phone over the reader for it to read the barcode..

I just don't 'get it' - or maybe I just don't want too, lol - Surely you'd have to have your phone on at the check-in, just before security to get airside, at the gate and when stepping onto the plane.?

The problem with barcode readers being unable to read, is because there are several types of readers, and the ones used in retail/supermarkets are different to those reading a barcode from a boarding card.
The ones used in retail are red laser scanners and the ones reading from a piece of paper or a mobile use completely different technology.

I only know this because the first job my youngest lad had after Uni, was working for a firm in Oxford that makes the different machines.
IMO, for this to take off - your phone and other gadgets would have to have a chip inside which can 'convert' all the different technology from the various types of barcode readers that may be in an airport.

Barcode readers don't come cheap, so who is paying for all this, when a paper card does the job.?
I remember when API was first introduced - it was estimated that half of the check-in desks throughout the country didn't have the technology to read the encrypted information on your passport, so rather than spend the money updating them, it was cheaper to have the passengers send the information via a website.

Sanji x

After all this discussion, which I found very useful, I happenned to log into my booking reference with Thomas Cook regarding my Corfu holiday next month. Guess what ? I can check in on line 24 hours before I fly.

There won't be any e-tickets , just boarding cards which I print out. If we do that, we go to bag drop offs at the airport with our passports and boarding cards. No other paperwork will be required. A week ago I wouldn't have had a clue what they were talking about. There is no facility to check in on line on the return journey, which is just as well, since I wouldn't be able to print out the boarding cards - which is exactly where we came in at the start of this thread.
I can't wait for technology to move on a bit further, when I can scan myself into a 3D scanner, e-mail myself to Corfu, where they can print me out on a 3D printer, saving a lot of hassle and wasted jet fuel. Roll on.

When you print out your boarding card and turn up at the bag drop you will then think what was that all about as it will take just as long as before and you didnt have to walk arount with this a4 sheet in my hand.

They also offered me express check in for £10. Does this allow me queue jump?