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Mobile Boarding Passes Are God's Gift to Modern Air Travel

Where: Germany
May 24, 2010 at 3:25 PM | by | Comment (1)

We had a huge problem. Last week, when we hopped all around Germany on Lufthansa flights leading up to the big A380 First Flight, we needed to check into several flights and had no easy access to a printer, nor did we want to wait in a line at the airport to deal with an agent. Therefore we turned to the newest technology—mobile boarding passes—and quickly fell in love with them.

Mobile boarding passes are had simply by checking in online via your smartphone. The airline then emails or texts you a code which will be scanned at the airport, in lieu of a paper printout. They are only offered on a few airlines and only so many of their flights. In the US, airlines like United, Continental and American are seeking to expand the program to over 30 airports, banishing long ticket line waits and last-minute Kinko's runs.

On the international scene, it's Air Canada, Lufthansa and SAS pioneering the technology. Needless to say, we felt über cool using just our phone to get through security and board both our Frankfurt-Hamburg and Düsselforf-Newark flights.

The easiest way to discover if your flight offers mobile boarding passes is to use your phone to access your airline's mobile website or app. If it lets you check into your flight on the phone, a mobile boarding pass option will appear to either email or text the boarding pass. If it is not available, then the site will ask you to print the .pdf file like normal.

Related Stories:
· Soon You'll Be Able to Check-in Via iPad on These Airlines [Jaunted]

[Photo: adactio]

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So now you can ship your iPhone to MileagePlus!

From my experience, United has been terrible at crediting frequent flyer miles from Star Alliance partner flights, and I've had to mail in my boarding passes more times than I can count.

Last year, I tried submitting a request for some missing Lufthansa flights on the United website. Twelve months and half a dozen phone calls later, I still didn't have the credit, and the one-year time window expired. They did give me a consolation credit, and I learned a valuable lesson: In the future, stick to the old-fashioned mailed request.

I guess if you check in with your iPhone, you could (in theory) also print a boarding pass when you get home? In case you have to mail it to your friendly neighborhood frequent flyer program?
kaisatsu2 on May 31, 2010 at 11:06 AM #Permalink

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