Many moons ago I had the experience of traveling as SLF on a domestic flight somewhere in SE asia. The flight was supposedly fully booked, so I just went to the airport and at the check in desk (yes, it was a wobbly desk) I asked the nice smiling girl to call the senior supervisor. A jolly fellow appered, wearing SIX stripes on the cuffs and sholder, who on hearing my humble pleading, readily exchanged a hand-written boarding card for some small pieces of generally green coloured paper, doing away with unnecessary formalities such as issuing ticket... Those were the days
