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Comment by caractacus | Hacker News Reader

Is it really worth $129 so that you don't have to print out a paper copy of your boarding pass when your battery is low?

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A lot of people no longer have printers, or at least working ones. They'd have to find an Internet cafe and brave the risk of keyloggers, print things off at work, or get a document printing company to do it.

Or print it at a kiosk upon check-in?

I can check-in from my phone.

Edit: downvotes don't make that any less true. The situation the OP was observing could very well have been that the person had checked-in via phone and when boarding was starting, the phone's battery died.

Yes, she had an airline app that allowed you to check in using your phone. Not much use if your phone runs out of charge just when you are about to get it scanned to board the flight!

The question was why didn't she get the paper when she checked in to her flight at the kiosk at the airport?

Because she doesn't necessarily was even near the airport when she checked in. Nowadays you can check-in online or via your phone up to 24 hours before your flight starts.

And you never see any paper. Yeah, that sucks when your phone runs out of battery. In our trains, the conductor has now USB chargers in case such things happen.

Technology fails, we fail. It happens. We manage to adapt.

Think of the trees. (of course manufacturing this extra piece of electronics is probably not "good" for the environment, but assuming that many people already have a smartphone, it makes sense to have a boarding pass QR code as opposed to getting everyone to print an A4 each time. Just think how many pages would be saved per year!)

Well, that's only one scenario - it's definitely useful - would be nice to have it built into the back of a phone.

If you don't have a printer handy, yes.

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