(Your city - Relax news) - From May 31, all passengers traveling with an airline member of IATA (International Air Transport Association), will travel with an electronic ticket, the e-ticket. No more paper tickets. For the airline industry, this represents savings of three billion dollars per year and significant benefits for the environment and passengers. Relaxnews looks back on this breakthrough and what it will change in the way people travel.
What is the e-ticket?
The e-ticket or electronic ticket is a dematerialized air transport ticket. It allows airline passengers to travel without a paper ticket and to show up at the airport only with identity papers. Airlines centralize all travel information in a computer database, once the reservation and payment have been made.
What are the benefits for customers?
With the e-ticket, travelers are no longer afraid of losing, misplacing or having their ticket stolen. They also no longer need to queue to register. Indeed, with the electronic ticket, they can check-in directly at the self-service terminals, if they have no baggage to put in the hold.
Another advantage: in case of modification, no need to return the paper ticket. All you have to do is call the airline or travel agency, which automatically makes the change and registers it.
What happens when booking?
When booking, if it is made via the Web, passengers will receive by email a receipt containing the confirmation of the reservation or a reservation number, to be printed preferably or to be carefully copied. They may be requested during check-in.
If the reservation is made with a tour operator, the latter will also give the traveler the same references, which may be presented when checking in on the day of departure.
Overall, the process of booking an electronic ticket is no different from booking a paper ticket.
What proof of purchase?
Travel agents have not received specific guidance from IATA on proof of purchase. They can therefore take the form of an email, a fax or even a photocopy.
How to check in at the airport?
To check in at the airport, the passenger need only present a valid passport, an identity card or any other identity paper and possibly the reservation number. Airlines have the passenger identification number, which is sufficient to identify them.
Passengers who do not have baggage to check in in the hold can use an automatic check-in machine. It will print the boarding pass directly.
With this new system, travelers with Internet can even, depending on the airline, print their boarding pass on their own from home. Indeed, the traditional magnetic stripe boarding pass will be replaced by a barcode boarding pass.
In some cases, airlines may ask the traveler to present the bank card used to pay for the tickets. If this is the case, they must systematically point it out when booking.
What savings for the airline industry?
The electronic ticket will save three billion dollars per year, or nearly two billion euros. The cost of an electronic ticket is $ 1 compared to more than $ 10 for a paper ticket.
Besides the financial benefit, the e-ticket will have direct impacts on the environment. In fact, IATA member companies issue 300 million paper tickets annually. So that's as much paper saved every year.
Site : www.iata.org
