December 5th, 2007
Continental passengers can use their phone as their boarding pass
I am a frequent traveler and my general practice is to check-in on the web the day before my flight and print out my boarding pass. However, once I am ready to depart my destination and return home I am in a hotel and most of the time I cannot print out a boarding pass. I do always have my mobile phone with me and it looks like Continental Airliness passengers can use their mobile phone or PDA as their boarding pass in a three-month trial program launched yesterday. If you are flying out of Houston’s Bush Intercontinental Airport on Continental then you can show TSA the code that the airline sent you on your mobile device.
The code is a 2-D bar code that has your name and flight info encoded into it. TSA will use a handheld scanner to verify the authenticity and will then check your ID like they would with a standard boarding pass. If your device battery dies you can still print out a boarding pass at a kiosk or agent desk. One limitation of the trial program is that you have to be traveling alone.
I travel to Houston from time to time and will definitely be trying out this system if I get the chance. I look forward to a national roll out too as it will allow me to speed up my return trip when on business.
Thanks to PhoneScoop for the article.
Matthew Miller is an avid mobile device enthusiast who works during the day as a professional naval architect in Seattle. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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