Photo: TSA
USA Today reports that Continental Airlines has launched a 3-month experiment down in Houston that lets customers clear security and board planes without paper tickets. Instead, ticketed customers download information into their cellphones or PDAs that creates bar codes on device screens.
The two-dimensional bar code, a jumble of squares and rectangles, stores the passenger’s name and flight information. A TSA screener will confirm the bar code’s authenticity with a handheld scanner. Passengers still need to show photo identification. The electronic boarding pass also works at airport gates.
If the pilot program saves as much time and money as Continental expects, the cellphone ticket program will likely expand across the country and eventually around the globe.
As someone who wants to minimize the amount of stuff I have to carry around, I think this sounds pretty cool. I’d be even more excited, though, if someone figured out how to put my credit cards and driver’s license inside my cellphone so I could stop carrying my wallet.
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