Has anyone ever flown paperlessly?

Amstel said:
maybe the phone thing is in tandem with a photo ID. I can see that being better than just the ID alone, but not without the ID at all.
Click to expand...

Certainly when you are going through the security line and are "greeted" by the TSA staff, you are required to have your boarding pass and ID present. Whether that boarding pass is virtual as in a PDF displayed on your phone or a piece of paper you received from the ticket counter.

I just wonder how effective showing that phone with that open PDF is to TSA. How much easier is it to photoshop a realistic boarding pass when the PDF is simply Time New Roman printed information and a scrambled maze of dotmatrix goodness for a scan code that the TSA doesn't even have to verify works? That at least gets you into the terminal. And where on your virtual boarding pass does the TSA physically sign with a marker that he or she has verified it?
 
dbzeag said:
Then you didn't do it paperless. You were handed a boarding pass. That's paper.

The idea this email had be do is to open a PDF file with the boarding pass information in it already, show my phone with the open PDF to a TSA agent, and I could pass. No paper, no print out, nothing tangible at all to prove you are who you are and that you are boarding with a ticket to that plane. It is all digital.
Click to expand...


In your case I would have printed out the document which said this method was kosher. I know it kinda defeats the purpose of going paperless, but it's a new system and one thing we all know is that transitions to new systems never go smoothly..
 
oh, and checking bags when you already have a boarding pass (whether electronic or printed at home) is the same as always. just go up to the kiosk, swipe your credit card/miles card/passport/drivers license and it'll pull up your reservation. tell it you want to check bags and then you can skip the reprinting of your boarding pass. someone will call your name at the counter and when you get there they'll have your baggage tags ready to go on.
 
Amstel said:
maybe the phone thing is in tandem with a photo ID. I can see that being better than just the ID alone, but not without the ID at all.
Click to expand...
you always need your boarding pass and photo id to get through security regardless of whether it's paper or electronic.
 
dbzeag said:
Then you didn't do it paperless. You were handed a boarding pass. That's paper.

The idea this email had be do is to open a PDF file with the boarding pass information in it already, show my phone with the open PDF to a TSA agent, and I could pass. No paper, no print out, nothing tangible at all to prove you are who you are and that you are boarding with a ticket to that plane. It is all digital.
Click to expand...
not true, you still need to show your id. the boarding pass proves db has a flight, your id proves you're db.
 
Jonny_B said:
here, it looked like this:
iphone-sms-prod.gif


that would be airline AC, flight 0431, seat 12 A
Click to expand...

Provided you had enough battery life to display the image at the proper brightness at the security line AND 1.5 hours later boarding the plane, a data to retrieve the email in the first place, and no strange screen protector to allow the lasers to read the bar code.

And it won't work at all anyway because you are required to put all electronic devices on the xray machine to scan, yet you are to show your boarding pass after you walk through the body scanner to verify the boarding pass was signed. If your boarding pass is on your phone, you don't have it with you, you wouldn't be allowed through. Not all airports require ID and/or boarding pass to get through the walking body scanner, but the airport in WV I used in 2008 did.
 
Jonny_B said:
oh, and checking bags when you already have a boarding pass (whether electronic or printed at home) is the same as always. just go up to the kiosk, swipe your credit card/miles card/passport/drivers license and it'll pull up your reservation. tell it you want to check bags and then you can skip the reprinting of your boarding pass. someone will call your name at the counter and when you get there they'll have your baggage tags ready to go on.
Click to expand...

Yes I did see that option. But if you are already at the kiosk, why not press one button and get a paper copy of the boarding pass to begin with?
 
Jonny_B said:
not true, you still need to show your id. the boarding pass proves db has a flight, your id proves you're db.
Click to expand...

Yes, but the digital virtual boarding pass is very easily faked and do the TSA stations even have the tech on their bench to scan the bar code to check if it is legit and it is assigned to the correct user? I know the airport in WV doesn't.
 
dbzeag said:
Certainly when you are going through the security line and are "greeted" by the TSA staff, you are required to have your boarding pass and ID present. Whether that boarding pass is virtual as in a PDF displayed on your phone or a piece of paper you received from the ticket counter.

I just wonder how effective showing that phone with that open PDF is to TSA. How much easier is it to photoshop a realistic boarding pass when the PDF is simply Time New Roman printed information and a scrambled maze of dotmatrix goodness for a scan code that the TSA doesn't even have to verify works? That at least gets you into the terminal. And where on your virtual boarding pass does the TSA physically sign with a marker that he or she has verified it?
Click to expand...
they do scan it, at security. that's why it's not available at all airports yet. they don't sign it, but I don't know what that signature is for. If it's for extra screening at the gate, then perhaps the scanning system makes a note that comes up when you have it rescanned during boarding.
 
dbzeag said:
Provided you had enough battery life to display the image at the proper brightness at the security line AND 1.5 hours later boarding the plane, a data to retrieve the email in the first place, and no strange screen protector to allow the lasers to read the bar code.

And it won't work at all anyway because you are required to put all electronic devices on the xray machine to scan, yet you are to show your boarding pass after you walk through the body scanner to verify the boarding pass was signed. If your boarding pass is on your phone, you don't have it with you, you wouldn't be allowed through. Not all airports require ID and/or boarding pass to get through the walking body scanner, but the airport in WV I used in 2008 did.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure you could tell the guard that your boarding pass is on your phone.
 
dbzeag said:
Yes, but the digital virtual boarding pass is very easily faked and do the TSA stations even have the tech on their bench to scan the bar code to check if it is legit and it is assigned to the correct user? I know the airport in WV doesn't.
Click to expand...
not all do. if they don't you can't use the electronic boarding pass. how do you know they don't have it in WV yet? it's just a small handheld scanner that, when i went through in detroit, was sitting on a shelf within their podium thing until i arrived and needed them to use it.

also, a digital boarding pass is scanned and checked against a list. if you can't hack the list it doesn't matter how nice your forgery looks. not to mention that i'm certain it wouldn't be that difficult to fake a paper boarding pass, especially considering they'll accept ones your print out at home to get through security.
 
Last edited:
Jonny_B said:
they do scan it, at security. that's why it's not available at all airports yet. they don't sign it, but I don't know what that signature is for. If it's for extra screening at the gate, then perhaps the scanning system makes a note that comes up when you have it rescanned during boarding.
Click to expand...

I think the signature is to tell those at the body scanner that someone from TSA has reviewed the ID and ticket as legit allowing you further access.
 
DB is getting his panties in a wad on this thread. :fly:

It works just like a paper pass; show ID and phone, they scan your phone and instead of tossing your boarding pass it's eletronic and green. I fail to see the security issue.

Old people. :lol:
 
Well I think I am going to try it. What do I have to lose? I will go 100% paperless and even pay for my checked bag online, too.
 
dbzeag said:
And where on your virtual boarding pass does the TSA physically sign with a marker that he or she has verified it?
Click to expand...

I think that if they scan the dot-matrix code at the curb they can log into their system that you've checked in. when you get to the gate, you can pull it out again with your ID & the check-in rep can verify again on the system that you've checked in at the curb.
 
Amstel said:
I think that if they scan the dot-matrix code at the curb they can log into their system that you've checked in. when you get to the gate, you can pull it out again with your ID & the check-in rep can verify again on the system that you've checked in at the curb.
Click to expand...

But you don't use your ID at the gate.
 
Amstel said:
I think that if they scan the dot-matrix code at the curb they can log into their system that you've checked in. when you get to the gate, you can pull it out again with your ID & the check-in rep can verify again on the system that you've checked in at the curb.
Click to expand...
you check in before they email you the link to your boarding pass. i usually check-in the night before. then, if carrying on, you get scanned and id'd at security, and then they scan your boarding pass again at the gate.
 
note: I've been through airport security eight times in the past six months, all the way up to the gate itself, without a boarding pass.

TSA security procedures are ridiculously full of holes. This is just another system that can be exploited.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back