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Comment by skinwill | Hacker News Reader

A buddy of mine is the son of a United Airlines mechanic who was fairly high up in the organization. When his dad passed United gave him a stack of blank wax tickets. His son could write the destination on them and fly for free. Near the end of the stack they were largely ornamental as he could just tell them where he wanted to go and they would print a proper ticket. But still, it was a rather classy way to honor his father.

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I haven't heard the term before. What's a 'wax ticket'?

It refers to exactly what they describe: A blank, open-ended ticket you can fill in by hand.

It's translucent slab of pale honey-scented wax whose faint, imprinted digits will distort if you press them too firmly. Also keep away from even moderate heat.

It's a decorated envelope, you write the destination on a clean sheet of paper then wax seal it with the company-issued signet ring.

I didn't know wax was used as a medium anywhere today. Isn't it heavy and hard to write on?

There is no wax. It was a typo.

That is certainly not what it describes.

The literal next sentence is 'His son could write the destination on them and fly for free'. That was added to be a description of what a 'wax ticket' is

It’s WYO (write your own) not wax. I’m guessing the GP was on their phone and it autocorrected the word.

https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/afacwa/pages/687/attac... (page 318)

Wow, I was already imagining a type of ticket printed on some kind of wax paper where one could easily write permanently onto it. Disappointing to hear it was a typo.

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