Travel documents !

[esa-aardvark]

Leaving shortly on a long trip to Europe. I just counted the
pages of my travel arrangements, tickets etc. Not quite finished
I have 55 pages of e-tickets, hotel reservations, car bookings.
That is for 4*long haul, 7*short haul, 3*car rental, Insurance, 4*hotels.
I remember leaving for the USA years ago, and making quite a tour around,
7 or so internal trips, with just the single old fashioned ticket cover
with all the vouchers inside. Still have to copy my passports and plastic cards.
I still have to do at least one online check in; why do I have to wait until 30 days before flight?

There must surely be a better way.

[Espada III]

30 days to check in...luxury! Most full service airlines won't let you check in until 23 hours before the flight.

[PAXboy]

Whilst the single (very flimsy) voucher did have it all and the ATB boarding pass was the standard 'DL' envelope size, two things have changed: Money + Legal requirements.

I'm just back from a long trip and most of the travel agent's 17 pages were taken up with legal stuff. Each item had standard reminders about what I was supposed to do [so that they would be able to prove that they had done all they could to tell me what to do] and it was formatted with very wide margins wasting space. I just put the PDF on all my electronic devices and read it from there.

Once LCCs started getting pax to print their own boarding card - they knew that folks would print on A4, so they started selling advertising. I just loaded the actual boarding pass (still the same shape) and put that on my phone. I carried minimal paper.

All carriers want to get away from paper and much progress has been made but the inertia in the system is enormous. There are a lot of airports to convert to paperless and a lot of (usually older) pax who still like a piece of paper. Over the next 20 years we will see the generations change and each airport refurbishment will move it closer to electronic.

However, the printing of legal excuses and @rse covering will continue ...:hmm:

[ExXB]

You don't need to take paper copies of your hotel/car rental confirmations. Almost always your name is sufficient to find you. Have the booking reference handy and a PDF of all the paper in the unlikely event you,actually need to prove you have a booking.

The Warsaw/Montreal conventions require that for international air transport you be issued a ticket. This too can be electronic and you don't need the paper.

I get most of my boarding cards electronically on my iPhone. Every European airport I've been to in the past five years can read a bar code off my phone.

Immigration at Toronto (I think) asked me for my ticket a couple of years back - no problem giving it to them on my phone.

Nobody needs paper in the 1st/2nd and much of the 3rd world these days.

[philbky]

Two years ago did a 14 sector round the world trip. Had to carry paper vouchers for some land side trips to hand to the guides but carried just one piece of paper for all the air travel which listed ticket locator numbers. This worked fine at all the check ins with Aer Lingus, Virgin, Singapore, Qantas and Air New Zealand and a couple of immigration checks, when asked for a ticket, until we got to the Cook Islands.

The woman on immigration wanted to see a paper ticket, had no idea what a locator number was and made out that the list and the stamps in my passport from previous sectors meant nothing. As far as she was concerned, my wife and I were potential economic migrants! Eventually, to save holding up the hundred or so people behind us in the sweltering customs area, she called someone from Air New Zealand who quickly put her right.

[Hartington]

In the very early days of electronic ticketing a large business travel agency in the UK had two senior employers of one of their (US) clients refused entry to the USA. Why? They had failed to give them the paper copy of the e-ticket. They had given an itinerary instead (which didn't have ticket numbers amongst other things). Since then I have always printed out the paper copy of my e-ticket and have had to show it (only a couple of times but show it I have).

[Heathrow Harry]

yes - it only needs one jobsworth to screw up your whole trip

[ExXB]

However the US border control now has access to your airline's reservation date aka PRN. As do many others.

[Heathrow Harry]

But if THE RULES still say "paper" then you can be sure you'll find someone who will insist on the paper copy ................ and maybe Taser you if create a fuss............

I carry a copy and dump it as soon as I've finished that part of the trip....

[occasional]

However the US border control now has access to your airline's reservation date aka PRN.

However it is not unknown for an airline to lose your reservation data.

[Hartington]

A PNR is NOT the same as a ticket and it is the paid ticket that is proof. Not only that but the PNR data sent by the airline is sent. The border agencies don't have realtime access to the PNR much less the ticket.

[ExXB]

Hartington, well the US do have real time access. Why, because a paper ticket can be easily forged, or the ticket refunded after receipt printed. A PNR can't be forged.

The airlines just found it easier than having their customers held in a little dark rooms while they verified and printed a 'recent' version of the ticket.