Mobile 2.0 at the airport


Posted on March 18, 2008  /  2 Comments

Paper Is Out, Cellphones Are In – New York Times

the next step is electronic boarding passes, which essentially turn the hand-held devices and mobile phones of travelers into their boarding passes.

At least half a dozen airlines in the United States currently allow customers to check in using their mobile devices, including American, Continental, Delta, Northwest, Southwest and Alaska.

But so far, Continental is the only carrier in the United States to begin testing the electronic passes, allowing those travelers to pass through security and board the plane without handling a piece of paper. Their boarding pass is an image of an encrypted bar code displayed on the phone’s screen, which can be scanned by gate agents and security personnel.

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2 Comments


  1. From tickets to e-tickets to m-tickets … starting June 1, 2008 more than 240 airlines will issue only electronic tickets, will it take a decade to fade out e-tickets or will it be sooner? — http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/22/AR2008022202882.html?nav=rss_technology

    Last month their was a China Mobile ad in the local papers saying that if we paid over RMB 100 then we would get a RMB 65 worth can of cooking oil (value back). My wife transfered money from the bank using “her” mobile phone to China Mobile … they sent an SMS with a 15 digit code to “my” mobile phone. I went over to Carrefour (French supper market) presented them my mobile phone with the received SMS, they scanner the message with another handheld device and handed me the can of oil.

  2. Coupons over mobile phones (see comment 1) – I guess when Americans want to distribute coupons via mobile phones it become a “radical idea” but Asians having been doing the same (long before) simply as part of their daily business.

    see – http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/business/20count.html?ex=1366430400&en=e4262e85816b4bfb&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss