So, by the way, again with the boarding pass stamp. This time it was even stranger. AerLingus.com had invited me to check in online, and to print a two-page boarding pass. There was a gate copy, and a passenger copy. Both displayed this instruction:
Proceed directly to your gate? On an international flight? OK, whatever.
But of course when I got to security, nothing doing. They sent me back to the ticket counter to get my boarding pass stamped. When I got there, they just tore up the passes I’d printed and issued me a new one. Which was…wait for it…not stamped.
It’s baffling. Mostly, I felt sorry for the developers who worked hard to put together a smooth interaction that leads to a very nice-looking boarding pass which, apparently unbeknownst to them, has no purpose whatsoever.
November 20, 2007 at 5:05 am
This works in Europe, I’ve flown from Spain to Ireland using this method. No need to visit the check-in counter.
Ryanair, the worlds largest international carrier use this method also.
November 20, 2007 at 11:49 am
This probably varies by airport. However, I pretty much always go to the kiosk by the counter and print out a pass anyway, easier than a stack of letter-size folded pages to carry in a jacket pocket and present to whoever. I also always fly from MHT where that’s easier, too… (along with pretty much everything else, if you don’t care about direct flights).
November 21, 2007 at 11:16 am
The system is set up for all of Aer Lingus’ flights and in UK & Europe if you have no luggage to check you just pitch up at security and strip off. Those programmers at AL need to keep up to date with the TSA; perhaps the TSA could offer a Web service with the security message of the day that the airline systems could print onto the boarding pass for them?
US to UK with only hand luggage? Maybe it’s not a common enough edge case for them to bother coding separately for it.