British Airways and the iPhone
There is an App for that
There has been some amount of hype over British Airways’ re-launch of its application for the iPhone on Monday.
The updated app means, amongst other things, some customers are now able to get boarding passes sent directly to their handset.
It has been stated the technology, which is already used in some countries, could spell the beginning of the end for paper boarding cards.
BA plans to introduce the new services for the Blackberry and Android shortly.
At present, it is only available for the Heathrow, Edinburgh route and to people registered with BA’s Executive Club, but the carrier plans to make the feature available for all domestic routes by the end of August.
It will then be gradually rolled out to international routes.
The extension of the service will be reliant on airports accepting the new system at security and gates.
Here lies a rather large hurdle.
For electronic boarding passes to be accepted globally, it would mean a change in legislation for some countries. In India, for example, boarding cards must be stamped and it is unlikely customers would be happy about getting ink on their screens.
A BA spokesman admitted it could take a long time but saw digital boarding passes as the way of the future: “We get more and more people checking in online, producing their own boarding cards. There is estimated to be about one billion people to have mobile internet access by 2015. There may be some routes that will take a very long time, or they may never catch up to that point, but I think for the majority of air travel, I would say within 10 years it will be all-electronic boarding cards. I would be very surprised if it wasn’t.”
Of course this would rely on travellers owning the necessary technology and although I find the news exciting as a fine technological step forward, I cannot see people relying solely on an electronic system.
Is this really the beginning of the end for paper boarding cards and would you use the service given the chance?
| Comments | Post a comment |
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Sam Arnold, Kent 20 July 2010, 03:43PM | |
| What a fantastic idea, fewer bits of paper can only be a good thing as far as I am concerned. I think this could a very positive thing. | |
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Zack Turner, Yorkshire 20 July 2010, 04:51PM | |
| This all sounds good, but surely they cannot discontinue paper boarding passes, there will be a lot of old people out there that would be very frightened of this technology. | |
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| I think this is a fantastic idea and let's hope it does become more 'mainstream' in the future, the I phone I feel is the future anyway, and adding this concept only has to be a good thing. | |
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Catherine 21 July 2010, 03:41PM | |
| What a great idea. Helping the environment and one less thing to remember! I think this is a logical step - and another reason why I need an i-phone! | |
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John Simmons, Rotherham 21 July 2010, 05:12PM | |
| Electronic boarding passes seem the way forward, sadly high technology iPhone/Blackberry's are out of my price range. | |
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Mark Foster, London 22 July 2010, 05:11PM | |
| Paperless boarding passes are currently available for PDA's in many global airports. I believe the system works as an encrypted two-dimensional bar code along with passenger and flight information. Airport security officers use hand-held scanners to validate the authenticity of the boarding pass. I would like to see the technology developed and available for any phone and mobile device. | |
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Felicity, Chelsea 23 July 2010, 01:35PM | |
| This iPhone app is a great idea for frequent travellers who need to check into several flights and have no easy access to a printer. With mobile boarding passes there is no need to constantly wait in a line at the airport to deal with an agent. | |
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