Comment by silisili | Hacker News Reader

Comment by silisili | Hacker News Reader

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I have no idea about Europeans, but as an American who's flown a lot recently, the push to smartphone based tickets has been a nightmare. Not because of the tickets, but people aren't seemingly smart or considerate enough to use them correctly.

Paper tickets were so fast. Fold, press, beep, done.

App based tickets? Constant announcements (I'm talking 10 or more during boarding) to turn your brightness up. Despite that, I saw

1 - 25ish percent of people had dark screens, so the attendant had to take the phone, up the brightness, scan it, then hand it back.

2 - A number of screen with cracks or something (didn't get a good look) that required moving the QR code around to get it to scan.

3 - An alarming number of people who didn't bother to even unlock their phone, who then proceed to fumble with thumbing or face scanning, close whatever they were doing, then go into the app and find their ticket.

I'd say the boarding process took at minimum two to three times as long as they did with purely paper tickets.

The paper scanning is hardly the limitation with onboarding.

I feel like you never fly because if you did, you’d know the biggest limitation in boarding speed is the inefficient method they use to board people… not the scanning part. If everyone scans efficiently (something you see often at places like SFO), you just are waiting on the jet bridge… It only takes one person who needs to take off their coat before they sit down or has trouble putting their oversized carry on in storage, etc. to completely shutdown onboarding.

It's ok to point out a flaw in my argument without calling me a liar.

I probably should have said 3x the scanning time, perhaps not total boarding time, I agree with that much.

That said, if the person blocking your seating arrived on the plane 20 minutes later because scanning took an extra 20 minutes, that still means you were delayed 20 minutes + person blocking you.

But I'd expect someone who flies from an airport smarter than everyone else in the US to have already factored that in.

Temporarily controlling screen brightness is something that, at least on android, the app can do itself...

The cracked screen thing - funny.

I wonder how long these twats will hold out.

I hope by the next time I fly Ryanair, someone has figured out how to emulate the look of the app and extract the relevant data so I don't have to run their garbage malware on my phone in order to have the pleasure to fly a "cheap" airline which bills you for everything after using every dark pattern imaginable when you purchase their tickets.

I fly a lot and most people are using their phones now without issue. But when someone does have an issue I remind myself that many people rarely fly, and haven't been through the process hundreds of times. Phone, paper, whatever - people screw it up if they haven't done it before. Boarding first, pre-check/global entry are all beneficial in part because you're dealing with other frequent flyers.

While annoying, the boarding pass scanning process usually isn't the bottleneck.

After I scanned my boarding pass, I then waited in line in the jet bridge, because people in the plane were busy putting their luggage in the overhead compartments, searching for their seats, moving to let people sit in the window seats, and other assorted activities.

Quick, someone make a new list:

Myths programmers believe about app-based airline tickets

1) Smartphone users have a constant, reliable, and fast connection to the internet.

2) People flying Ryanair always have a charged phone.

2a) Okay, but at least a powerbank.

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