E-Tickets
A traveler’s scariest nightmare used to be losing a paper ticket. Whether for a bus, train or aeroplane, losing the tickets was a major annoyance. As technology has advanced, and more travelers are booking their own flights online, the e-ticket has become the ticket of choice with airlines. An e-ticket is an electronic airline ticket, or electronic reservation. A traveler with an e-ticket isn’t issued a conventional paper ticket.
Instead, he prints out his reservation info, and often his boarding pass, from email before heading to the airfield.
The reservation is in the airline’s PC system. The e-ticket saves airlines cash because they don’t have to spend money and postage issuing paper tickets. The e-ticket is also more trusty, since the traveler needn’t rely on the post to get his ticket, or on a ticketing clerk at the airfield, who might not know a ticket was to be held for the traveler at the counter. An e-ticket is also less expensive than a paper ticket. U.S. Airlines typically charge about $20 US Bucks ( Greenbacks ) to give out a paper ticket. This helps offset printing and postage charges.
Older travelers would frequently rather have a paper ticket, and will pay the additional charge, but most travelers like the ease of the e-ticket. Using the e-ticket sometimes is composed of having the reservation info outlined and prepared for inspection. If online check-in is available, a traveler is always suggested to use this process. If this isn’t possible, travelers might be able check in at the electronic kiosk for their airline at the airfield, or they can always check in at the ticket counter itself.
When checking in at the ticket counter, the traveler will show the e-ticket reservation info to the agent and have the boarding passes printed there.
Airlines and most major world airlines use the e-ticket, not all airlines do. It is always recommended to test and see whether an e-ticket will be accepted at the ticket counter. This is especially so for travelers flying on a major airline’s codeshare partner. The primary airline will most likely respect an e-ticket, but the codeshare partner might or might not.
An e-ticket can be bought from an airline’s web site, from a travel site or from a trip agent. But reservation info should be printed and available, since PCs can crash and the traveler may have to show the info to a security agent. With an e-ticket, a traveler can feel a little more secure about the standing of his flight.