Seeing as how I got to fly the skies back in January when attending CES, I can somewhat relate to this — mobile boarding passes. According to Trinity Mobile (one of the leading companies behind mobile boarding passes), 2009 saw an increase in mobile boarding pass usage to the tune of 1200%+. Talk about progress. According to their data, over 600,000 fliers opted in (voluntarily) for the paper-free boarding option as opposed to the meager ~50,000 from 2008. What’s impressive however is that there really hasn’t been any big public marketing push from either Trinity or the major airlines meaning users are opting in for this service by themselves.
As we as a society further entrench technology into our daily lives, we can expect to see the number of paper-based boarding passes shrink with each passing year. Estimations by Trinity have 2010 offering up over 2 billion mobile boarding passes with that number skyrocketing to over 15 billion by 2014.
I honestly can’t see why anyone would favor a paper boarding pass over a mobile/electronic one. It’s exponentially more convenient, which is why I only use such things. Who else has gone electronic on their voyages across the planet? If you have opted out of paper-based boarding passes, how easy or not easy has the whole experience been for you?
FYI: I’ve only flown out of major airports so I would expect them to be more on the up and up technologically speaking. A small regional airport may not quite be there yet. Drop a comment.
March 3, 2010 at 7:49 am
How do I go about getting a mobil boarding pass? I get the e-tickets, honestly never knew there was such a thing. lol way behind on my tech obviously.
But I want one!! Flying out of O’Hare in June, would like to not worry about anything but my Jesus Phone, and I guess my kids.
March 3, 2010 at 8:01 am
Either when you’re at the airliners/ticket booking site or in the email that they send you to confirm purchase, there should be a link or option to choose mobile boarding passes. For me on AA anyway, when I followed the link in the mail to take me to the online copy of my purchase, there was an option for downloading a mobile boarding pass.
It’s nothing spiffy, just a picture of a 2D barcode that they scan at the gate.