American Airlines on Monday announced it had implemented the ability for passengers to use mobile boarding passes at eight new airports in an effort to save passengers time and help avoid the hassle of printing paper passes.
Customers departing from New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Barcelona, Rome, Milan, Frankfurt, Manchester and Zürich will be able to use the new technology.
With the addition to these eight new locations, American Airlines offers the mobile board pass option to travelers departing from 43 U.S. airports and seven in Europe. Mobile boarding passes use a two-dimensional barcode and were rolled out in partnership with the U.S. Transportation Security Administration in 2008.
“With the addition of New York’s JFK Airport and San Juan, plus six international airports, an even greater number of our customers will be able to select the option to display their boarding pass on their mobile phone – speeding the process at the airport and eliminating the need for a paper boarding pass,” said Andrew Watson, AA’s Vice President – Customer Technology .
When passengers check in for their flight using AA’s website and decide to receive their boarding pass on their mobile phone they will receive an e-mail with a web link to the boarding pass. Customers must have an e-mail address and an internet-enabled mobile phone where the barcode can be received.
At the airport, passengers simply scan their mobile phone screen with the 2-D barcode displayed on it when going through security and when boarding. The same procedure can be used to check bags at any of the American Airlines self-service machines, ticket counters, or curbside check-in facilities located in the 50 airports.
London Heathrow (LHR) was the first international location to offer the program, and American Airlines is one of the first U.S. carriers to roll out the mobile boarding pass technology in the UK, as well as in Italy, Spain and Switzerland.
