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Want a Printed Airline Boarding Pass?
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Want a Printed Airline Boarding Pass?
The airline has removed kiosks at nine airports so far, including Portland International in Oregon. Alaska executives said Thursday, April 20, 2023 that their goal is to reduce crowding at check-in areas and get passengers to security checkpoints faster. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, file) (AP)Get more news about boarding pass manufacturers,you can vist our website!
Hers has nothing to do with engine trouble or turbulence. Ulster frets about relying on her phone to display her mobile boarding pass at the boarding gate. For every flight, she prints it out at home or at the airport.I want to have that piece of paper," said Ulster, a 57-year-old writer and copy editor in Pelham, N.Y. “I just tuck it into my passport. There’s no worries about preserving the battery on my phone."
The fear of fumbling around with a phone at the gate while impatient travelers harrumph behind you—or, worse, getting hobbled by a dying battery or dodgy Wi-Fi—gets some passengers more anxious about boarding the plane than flying at 35,000 feet.Airlines looking to save time and money—and add a new fee or two—are putting pressure on passengers to go digital. Alaska Airlines, for one, is overhauling its check-in lobbies at 115 airports and removing self-service kiosks where customers could print out boarding passes. The company is installing iPad-based stations that print only luggage tags.
Alaska Airlines passengers can print boarding passes at home, if they have a printer. If they forget, they can wait for a customer-service agent to print one, no charge. Ten airports have the new iPad-based machines up and running so far. About 90% of the airline’s fliers at those airports use digital boarding passes, said Charu Jain, Alaska’s senior vice president of innovation and merchandising.
Some airline travelers might recall the old days—before the 2007-09 recession—when checked bags were free and it didn’t cost extra to pick a seat. Some low-cost carriers have added physical boarding passes to the nickel-and-diming list.Breeze Airways charges $3 to print each boarding pass. Allegiant Air charges $5, unless the traveler is a current or retired member of the military. Passengers on Spirit and Frontier airlines can pay as much as $25 for a customer-service representative to print them a boarding pass.
A Frontier spokeswoman said travelers are charged “only for those things you could have done yourself." Passengers can also pre-purchase help from an airport agent at a reduced price, she added.
Ulster is no Luddite. She uses digital tickets for commuter rail travel and takes the subway using Apple Pay on her phone. She and others just want the security of a piece of paper guaranteeing them a seat on their flight.
Daniel King, a 46-year old cybersecurity consultant who lives outside Boston, believes that having phones replace paper passes contribute to delays at airport checkpoints because of user error. “I think it just causes more chaos than it’s worth," he said. “When tech works it does save time. The problem is tech doesn’t always work."