You've watered the hydrangea, got your passport, cancelled the papers and set
the video for The Apprentice. But isn't there one last pre-holiday
ritual you've forgotten? Ah yes. You just need to tear the house apart
looking for your plane ticket.
Well, no more. From tomorrow airlines' paper tickets are heading to the great
shredder in the sky. As of June 1 International Air Transport Association
(IATA) members, who make up 94 per cent of all airlines, will use only
electronic tickets (e-tickets).
Turning up at Heathrow and explaining to a check-in agent trained at the
Stalag Luft charm school that your proof of travel to New York was
accidentally flushed down the loo will be no more.
Ever since Southwest Airlines in the US - followed here by carriers such as
easyJet and Ryanair - started issuing a reference number rather than a
ticket, most of us have got used to paperless travel.
It's all a far cry from when I worked at a large travel agency in West London.
Daily the calls would come. I remember a New Zealander: “My ticket was in my
jeans' pocket and I put them in the wash. Does it matter?” Of course, they'd
be travelling the same day, and yes, putting a ticket to Auckland on a hot
cycle did matter.
People assumed - incorrectly - that we could just press a button and issue
another one, but because fraudulent claims of “lost” tickets were common the
answer was no. There were forms to fill in, couriers to be organised, credit
card payments to be retaken and teeth to be gnashed.
Tony Russell, managing director of Trailfinders, remembers a woman who called
him in a panic from Thailand. “She'd had a row with her husband so he ripped
up her ticket to stop her coming home. Unfortunately for him, we were able
to get the airline office in Bangkok to reissue her ticket and they
travelled back together. In stony silence I presume.”
I've always found a certain romance to holding a ticket in your hand, even
with its small-print references to the Warsaw Convention and bizarre codes.
Why did Y mean economy? And what form of pond life were you if it said Q, L,
W or N? Surely secret airline language for “seat next to loos, serve meal
last”?
“R” was the most coveted, as it was only used for Concorde, but even
supersonic passengers got the standard-issue coupons after spending
megabucks.
A paper ticket could be as thick as a small book, full of exotic journeys,
packed with promise - Bali to Surabaya, Cusco to Arequipa. E-ticketing on
the other hand can't cope with more than 16 sectors at one go - a potential
problem for someone doing a year-long, round-the-world trip.
That ticket wasn't “just” a scrappy bit of paper. Back in the 1950s and 1960s,
when travel was still glamorous, their covers were glam too; a picture of an
Ethiopian valley, a Hawaiian island or an alluring stewardess. By the
Eighties and Nineties they had become drab, just as flying generally has
become a drab experience.
A paper ticket was proof that you wouldn't be in the office for two weeks,
that you didn't have to face your useless boss or be stuck in traffic jams
for a fortnight. A piece of A4 printed out next to Bob in accounts doesn't
really cut it.
By the numbers
400 million paper tickets processed by IATA every year
50,000 trees saved a year by not printing tickets
$3 billion saved by the airlines from e-ticketing
Source: IATA
Pip--BKK..computers don't screw-up..they'll just wink and blink at you as long as the 'juice' is on...people screw up...Have a great day.....
Mr Tim, san marcos, U S of A
No trees will be saved by this as virtually every passenger prints their e-ticket on one or more pages of A4. Indeed you need to show a "ticket" to enter the airport in many countries. The cost of the trees/paper and ink is transferred to the traveller.
Nick, Gillingham, UK
Great as long as the computers dont screw up!!
Pip, Bangkok, Thailand