Tech Shout!

Technology has surely changed the face of earth. Gone are the days when you had to stand in long, boring lines to just get a ticket from one city to another, as online booking of tickets is now available. And guess what, things have got only better and safer as now your journey will be all the more convenient and simplified.

Houston-based Continental Airlines has partnered with Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to introduce a rather interesting initiative through which travelers can use their mobile handsets or PDAs to board flights, replacing the conventional paper-made boarding pass.

The technology involved in this idea was developed in a three-month test program, and was launched on Tuesday at Bush Intercontinental Airport.

The rampant fake paper-made boarding passes led to the idea behind developing the latest electronic ones, as the technology involved cannot be cracked by frauds.

So how is exactly is the procedure to show the new innovative boarding pass different from the age-old paper-made boarding pass?

Passengers have to show a code that has been sent to their mobile phone or PDA, by the airlines company. A two-dimensional barcode, a jumble of squares and rectangles, which stores the passenger’s name and flight details, is sent to the passenger by the airlines. It is necessary to carry a photo identification proof to show it at the counter.

The TSA handheld scanner helps in confirming the legitimacy of the barcode.

Currently, Continental flights at Intercontinental will be the only one using this new technology. And owing to its success, it could even be extended to airlines and airports across the US, in around the next three months’ time.