Into thin air
Paper tickets land in museum where other dinosaurs are
Paper tickets land in museum where other dinosaurs are

By Jennifer Palmer

Published: June 3, 2008

Paper airline tickets soon will be displayed in a museum — literally.

The International Air Transport Association, a global trade association representing 240 airlines worldwide, has done away with paper tickets as of Sunday. Plans for a ceremony in Istanbul, Turkey, were to include giving museums around the world framed paper airline tickets.

"It's the end of an era,” said Steve Lott, head of communications for the association's North American division.

Some domestic airlines, however, still will offer paper tickets to the few customers who prefer them. United, Continental and Southwest Airlines all said they will continue to issue paper tickets upon request.

American Airlines customers will be issued a paper ticket only if e-ticketing isn't available (such as at some smaller airports that don't have the technology for e-ticketing.)

Sunday's move by the group mostly affects international airlines. Lott said 98 to 99 percent of all U.S. tickets already are e-tickets, but in Africa and Russia, for example, the transition has been slower.

Most travelers probably have already used an e-ticket and perhaps not known it. An e-ticket is simply a reservation on an airplane that doesn't require a paper ticket. E-ticket customers still can get a printed itinerary and a receipt for their purchase.

Checking in at the airline counter with an e-ticket requires only an ID.

"You literally can show up without a piece of paper,” said Jay Musgrove, president of Rainbow Travel Service, Inc in Oklahoma City.

E-tickets make traveling easier on customers, he said.

"There's nothing to lose. In the old days of paper tickets, it was like losing a $100 bill,” he said. Travelers then had to replace a lost ticket by purchasing a new one.

Many people incorrectly think you need a credit card to purchase an e-ticket or have to purchase an e-ticket online. Both are false, Lott said.

E-tickets can be purchased through a travel agent, by phoning an airline or at an airport counter, and you can still pay with cash or check instead of a credit card if you prefer, Lott said. "You just don't have to carry the actual paper ticket with you,” he said.

The International Air Transport Association was touting June 1 as the day of 100 percent e-ticketing. How was it so confident airlines would comply?

Lott said paper tickets are printed on special paper that had been supplied by the International Air Transport Association to travel agents affiliated with it worldwide.

But the association will no longer supply the paper stock, meaning airlines that issue paper tickets will have to pay the cost or pass it to the consumer.

Many airlines do just that. United charges customers $75 for a paper ticket. At American Airlines, customers can't get a paper ticket by requesting one.

"There's no reason or advantage to having a paper ticket,” said Tim Wagner, a spokesman for American.

Only about one out of 500 customers request a paper ticket these days, AAA travel agent Pam Eddy said.

"When you tell them how much it costs, they change their minds,” she said.

E-tickets cost airlines less to process — just $1 compared with the $10 it takes to process a paper ticket, according to the International Air Transport Association. Switching to e-ticketing could save the global airline industry billions of dollars a year, Lott said.

And those savings couldn't come at a better time, with airlines hit hard recently by record high fuel prices.

E-ticketing opens up a new world of conveniences for customers, Lott said. Customers already can check in for their flight at home, by using an airport kiosk or on their mobile phones.

Boarding passes may be the next paper document to become extinct.

Lott said several airlines are experimenting with downloading a boarding pass to a passenger's BlackBerry or cell phone.

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