Photo: TSA

In an effort to make air travel easier, passengers at the Houston’s Bush Intercontinental Airport will soon be able to use their cellphones and PDAs to board flights. Continental Airlines is running a 3 month test allowing digital versions of boarding passes to be presented instead of their paper counterparts. A boarding pass containing a bar code encrypted with flight and passenger details will be emailed to passengers participating in the program. They can then present this bar code via a cellphone or PDA at the airport security checkpoints and gates, where the bar code will be scanned with a handheld scanner.

Currently, only passengers flying alone will be able to use this technology until Continental updates their system to be more robust. Other airlines, including Delta and US Airways, are working on similar system to allow for paperless boarding passes. Although Continental will be the first in the US to test this system, Air Canada has been offering paperless boarding passes for a few months and the traveler response is very positive.

Source: USA Today

Photo: TSA

In an effort to make air travel easier, passengers at the Houston’s Bush Intercontinental Airport will soon be able to use their cellphones and PDAs to board flights. Continental Airlines is running a 3 month test allowing digital versions of boarding passes to be presented instead of their paper counterparts. A boarding pass containing a bar code encrypted with flight and passenger details will be emailed to passengers participating in the program. They can then present this bar code via a cellphone or PDA at the airport security checkpoints and gates, where the bar code will be scanned with a handheld scanner.

Currently, only passengers flying alone will be able to use this technology until Continental updates their system to be more robust. Other airlines, including Delta and US Airways, are working on similar system to allow for paperless boarding passes. Although Continental will be the first in the US to test this system, Air Canada has been offering paperless boarding passes for a few months and the traveler response is very positive.

Source: USA Today