American Airlines has reprogrammed their check-in kiosks so that passengers dropping off bags who have already checked in (online, or using their mobile app) won’t automatically receive printed boarding passes. The kiosk will no longer spit out a paper pass by default. The airline wants passengers to use their own electronic passes, and stop wasting paper.
It’s meant to push more travelers to use digital boarding passes and cut down on printing costs, and is expected to save $175,000 per year as a result of printing 12.5 million fewer boarding passes.
Customers can still print a boarding pass from these machines even if they’ve already checked in – it just requires the extra steps to go to the ‘mini menu’ and select ‘print boarding pass’.
CEO Robert Isom made the very first thing he told employees upon assuming the role that they should never spend a dollar more than they need to. He’s repeated that the airline’s priority is not spending any more than they have to.
So while the airline primarily has a revenue problem – they have high labor costs and high debt service costs and those can’t be easily cut, and they don’t earn enough from passengers paying more for premium services – they’ve touted cost cuts to investors as their secret sauce.
Legendary CEO Bob Crandall is said to have saved the airline $40,000 by removing an olive from the salad in first class. It’s not clear when this was supposed to have happened beyond ‘the 1980’s’. However, $40,000 in 1980 would be $154,209.22 today. Paper boarding passes are Robert Isom’s olive.
Ultimately this is a reasonable change. American avoids spending $175,000 in dollars they don’t need to spend. But it’s also the sort of project that’s taken a lot of staff, IT and programming time (not netted out in the cost savings) and focus that could have been shifted to improving the airline.
Digital boarding passes are useless if your screen is cracked or scratched, your battery dies, you lose or misplace your phone, the app fails, etc, plus the lack of paper record. If there is a seat dispute I’ll show the paper pass vs showing my phone. Plus the delay of people pulling up apps and not scanning correctly.
I’ll stick with paper; the app is backup.
I haven’t flown American in maybe a decade, so I can’t speak for that airline, however I’ve flown Spirit, Frontier, JetBlue and Southwest airlines the past 4-5 years. None of them automatically printed a paper boarding pass at the kiosk. When I would check in and get baggage tags for checked baggage. It would ask you if you wanted to print your boarding pass, so you have the option but it doesn’t print it automatically.
Inconvenience thousands of travelers to save 175K. American is already expensive to fly, they don’t pay their employees shit. I just flew American today and both my bags were destroyed and no longer usable. There has to be a better way.
American already has narrow seat pitch, not enough premium seats, which would be purcashed if they existed.
To heck with them, Ill make a point of printing now..
Hmmm. $175k savings? Perhaps cut the CEO’s pension or retirement benefits by this much (not to mention probable bonus) for this brilliant idea. Perhaps passengers could load their own bags or volunteer to do extra cleaning as we all did during COVID and realized how filthy the planes were/are?
First, you write a sensationalist headline suggesting an airline is doing something wrong. But, oddly, at the end of the post you conclude that the actions by American’s management are correct! What’s with that? On a personal note, I find printed boarding passes to be mildly easier for me, but I also think it’s silly for them to automatically be printed at kiosks
Ive exclusively been using digital boarding passes for a few years (I used to have problems with them, but things have improved).
Franky I hated having passes print when I didn’t need them. And it slowed down my time at the kiosk by another thirty seconds.
Kudos to them for both saving themselves the money and saving the paper, ink, and energy on printing them. It’s not hard to click “print boarding passes” during the check in process.
This is a copycat move of United, which has done the same thing for the past few months. To print at a kiosk, either one of the new big-screen ones or the old ones, you have to pick “more options” and then choose to print.
Frankly, it’s better than Alaska’s stupidity of completely removing kiosks that can print boarding passes, as it gives those who wants paper the option.
Using a medical mobility scooter requires printing a baggage tag and answering a few dozen questions about the scooter. Or you get the baggage tag for the scooter at the gate. Storing all the handicapped passenger’s information would probably save 15 minutes per flight per handicapped passenger’of flight agent time. A cost savings far exceeding the change to on request boarding passes.
Another premium move by the management – not leadership – at American. Maybe, just maybe, they should see about what they could do to actually improve the flying experience for passengers in order to draw more business. Nah, that’s too revolutionary an idea.
I love AA! I always print my boarding pass at home as I prefer paper over digital. Their change makes sense.
In the days of climate change (save our trees).
Scammers getting ahold of that papper ticket ( there is way to much of our information on printed tickets).
Ultimately, American Airlines is my favorite a fair product for the fares offered.
Just another excellent reason not to fly American Airlines! They were my go to since I was 12, not anymore! Haven’t flown AA in years.
$31m per year in comp. Let’s assume he manages to make and enact one stellar decision like this each week, and this is how he spends his time. $0.175*52 = $9.1m per year value to the company. Given every employee should be stepped on at least 4x to be worth keeping, his comp either needs to be less than $2m/year, or he needs to step up his game at least 12x or be fired.
What a loser making loser decisions. I understand the goal is to encourage employees to seek opportunities for frugality, but the cost of IT to implement the kiosk change outweighed the benefits. This includes the cost of paper, the cost of labor to restock the kiosks, etc.
I’ve always used my phone to check in. Always thought it was a waste for printing no matter if you need paper or not. Good move, if I need paper I will go to next step and have one printed.
My upcoming cross country flight has no meals or video screen. Why stop there? Use plain metal seats. Wipe down with a damp rag and eliminate cleaning costs plus it give you a couple of badly needed inches of seat room without the upholstery. The direction things are going.
I haven’t used those kiosks in years, if moving away from kiosks saves a few hundred thousand bucks good on AA. It’ll save a lot of time as well. And, the ability to print stuff out is still available for those that are unable to use the mobile app for one reason or another.
Although I prefer a paper boarding pass myself, I have no problem with looking a bit deeper to find the print button.
It’s not about the printing, it’s about the option. I watched american airlines Cut corners and pinch pennies at the expense ,Safety, and inconvenience of customers. They are also taking out the fast walk lanes in certain airport.
So you will walk slower and spend more money in the stores that they own. And yes , they own most of those little shops up and down the corridors. When asked about getting to your gate on time, They said they were not as concerned with people mak in their flights as we will sell them more. But it is important for them to stop and shop at Overprised bookstores, Convenience stores, Souvenir shops
, Head glass stores, Fast food establishments, And anything else you can think that they will put in there. On top of that They charge an extra 50%-75% over retail.! Simply.
Because you have no other options. Now they’re inconvenient in you to To print your ticket that you have paid good money to have. So they get away with all profit and no get. American airlines Should be ashamed of themselves.I I will never use them or recommend them to anybody. And I wish more people would see the truth about their horrendous greed and personal safety inconvenience.
Is it just me, but does anyone notice that scanning boarding passes on a phone takes longer than a paper ticket? What will that do to boarding times?
And, how will we be able to tell who the gate lice are if we can’t see group 7 on their paper ticket?
If an airline destroys your luggage, possibly without compensation, why would you fly with them again unless you had no other choice?
There are some things you can do to lessen damage to checked luggage, though. One of which is to see how luggage is handled by looking out of a window at the airport, possibly from an airplane. None of the luggage is handled gently. Make it as tough for the baggage handlers to throw your luggage as possible. Hard sided luggage is the easiest to throw. Soft sided standard luggage is almost as easy to throw. Something like a military style duffel is awkward to throw, especially when packed to the weight limit. So after a lot of soft sided luggage destroyed over the years (I don’t even take hard side check luggage) I have gone back to the military style duffel bag that has things in it that are hard to damage such as clothes and other flexible items (food, toys, books, etc.). I fit a full sized backpack in mine to make moving easier if needed. Push comes to shove that my other bag, which is a soft sided 25 incher, gets damaged beyond being able to be used, I abandon it and use the backpack and the duffel as my two checked bags (if I need that much room.)
@jns — Oh! A rare non-political comment from you. Let’s go! So, Gary’s original post was on paper boarding passes, but since you brought up damages to checked baggage, I’d just like say: This is why I try to only travel with carry-on. However, if checked bags are the only way, a ‘pro tip’ would be that some US carriers offer replacement bags at their offices in the claim area, so, if your bag does sustain ‘extensive’ damage, not mere scuffs, do immediately check with those agents, calmly describe what happened, maybe even have a before-photo ready to go. And, maybe they stopped this policy, but back in 2014, I received a pretty nice large Olympia bag from Delta at ANC, after they apparently ripped a massive hole in my hard-shell checked bag. At the time, it seemed like the ‘right thing’ for them to do. Who knows, maybe there is still a sense of ‘customer service’ and ‘decency,’ or they gave up on all that after the pandemic. Bah!
The airlines got trillions during Corona. $175k is nothing. I prefer paper because it’s easy to show anyone sitting in my aisle seat.
Print it at home!
United has buried the paper pass request on a screen that makes little intuitive sense to find. My last UA trip I had to ask a roving agent for assistance, and she admitted it’s hard to find.
How long before the majors decide to do what the bottom-feeders do, charging to print a boarding pass at the airport?
The question no one is asking is, how much did it cost to pay the people who do the analysis to come to the conclusion of saving $175k per year.
I’ll be willing to wager the cost was a lot more than the savings.
@Ken — You’re onto something! Major corporations (especially top executives) prefer to blame their bad decisions on consultants, like McKinsey & Company, whose hourly rates range from $300-$800 per hour, with project minimums typically starting at $500,000; so, the follow-up question is, was a consultant already on-retainer, or was this the only topic they were brought-in on? Bah!
From time to time a paper boarding pass might be needed. Seems like a joke for $175K a year. But that’s the MBA crowd for you. Can’t solve big problems so tackles items that are pretty much meaningless and easy.
@George N Romey — It’s a rare occasion, but George, on this topic, you and I agree.
How many of us been delayed due to a passenger ahead of you somehow are surprised that they have to show a boarding pass and hold up the line while they take their time unlocking their phone and searching for the pass? I always print my boarding pass because it’s quick and easy instead of fumbling though my phone while balancing my carry-on bags and a $30 airport burger.
@AmericanAir Saving $175K is a solid start—but what if you could push that number even higher? Think bigger: more savings on money, paper, ink, time, & most importantly, creating a smoother, smarter experience for both your frontline agents & your customers.
Take a closer look at ticketing and rebooking—especially during IROPS (irregular operations). When passengers & their bags need to be rerouted to different cities or airports, agents follow a quick series of steps in QIK: voluntary or involuntary exchanges, rebooking, confirmation, and issuing receipts. It’s a straightforward process behind the scenes, just a few keystrokes—but the end result? The system churns out 6 to 10 sheets of paper for every passenger.
What’s on those pages? Boarding pass receipts, legal fine print, rebooking summaries—enough to make you wonder if you’re trying to publish a short novel.♀️ And here’s the kicker: most of it gets tossed. The customer doesn’t need all of it, and the agent knows it. Now imagine this happening for a family of six. Then multiply that across thousands of passengers, every single day, at airports around the world. That’s not just a lot of paper—it’s a massive, ongoing drain on resources, time, and money.
And it’s not just ticketing. Baggage reroutes? Same story—extra pages, minimal value. Hotel and meal vouchers? Often printed with more paper than anyone needs. If you could streamline these outputs down to just 2 to 4 essential pages or even better—introduce an optional tab that allows agents to email the important fine print directly to customers (with a simple yes/no toggle)—the operational and environmental savings would be substantial. Less printing, less waste, and a lot more efficiency across the board.
This isn’t just theory. Ask any frontline agent at the ticket counter or in the Admirals Club—they’ll tell you the same thing: most of this paper is redundant, and everyone would benefit from a leaner, more efficient process.
So go make the change. Save money. Save time. Reduce waste. Create a better experience for agents and customers alike.
Your budget will cheer, your agents will smile, and somewhere, a tree might just start writing you thank-you notes. ☺️
You know an airline is in trouble if they start counting paper cups, olives and toothpicks!
Ridiculous passengers either fail to comprehend or are crying about tapping tapping an extra button on screen to receive a printed boarding pass if they desire – like toddlers. Fifty percent of the time when I’m check in at the kiosk, the previous person leaves the printed boarding pass hanging from the machine slot. Its an EASY save of money, there is No Injustice occurring here, AA is Not Eliminating a “service”? Why the tantrums? If my children were in the habit of taking an extra (unnecessary) paper towel out of the dispenser and dropping it on the floor (left for someone else to pick it up and dispose of it) because they just didn’t need it, I’m gonna correct that action. It’s a “take what you require” and nothing more.
Who still uses paper in 2025?
I see a lot of people complaining about cracked phones or they can’t keep their device charged. That’s on you.
Get rid of your ratchet broken phone and keep it charged. It’s not hard. I have an 8 year old iPhone 8 that’s not cracked in any way and the battery still keeps a charge.
The less documents I need to flit about at an airport the better. I can’t wait until I can put my passport or realID in my digital wallet.
That person who says they’ll never fly AA again and hadn’t flown them in years anyway (but yet were your go to since you were 12? Weird flex), you aren’t their customer anymore, we haven’t missed you. We’ve moved on.
Data point, GenX and 50, and tired of people complaining about nothing.
Hard for me to admit how far down the “airline of choice” American has fallen. Not only do they have you pay for a ticket that used to get you a Boarding Pass in a Ticket Jacket, a seat and at least a Ham and Cheese! None of that this day and time – and no domestic inflight entertainment unless you bring your own device.
A crammed seat ( and that’s first Class) so so inconsistent inflight
service depending upon the FAs working your flight. (My FC meal finally served 2 hours into the flight from CLT to MBJ- still had the foil and plastic wrap on the food.). Really First Class!
This airline now plays at being a world class carrier. No more the “want to be” leader that it once strived to be.
I check a bag, I get a Paper Boarding Pass. I even peel and stick the baggage claim tags on the back of my boarding pass.
Does anyone ever hear “Welcome Aboard” as you enter the boarding door?!! Few and far between. Customer Service – so that’s what that was!
I always have the paper pass for back up.
The scanner would not read my boarding pass on 2 occasions .
When digital boarding passes came out, I wanted to be one of those “early adopters” so ditched the paper. Then I started to see how inconvenient the digital version was (phone went into sleep mode, scanner wouldn’t read the bar code, etc.). The scanner failed me a few times so I switched back to paper as my primary with digital as backup.
I’ve seen several stickers with “AAnus Airlines” “rebranding” stickers in DFW, DCA, PHX, & LAX that includes the tagline “Don’t Feed the Dog” and a link to an old Robert Crandall 60 minutes interview where he bragged about his cost savings ideas This was in reference to replacing security guards to prevent theft with dogs instead and to cut back on their feeding so they’re real mad.
I guess this kind of leadership of prioritizing cost cutting over customer experience improvement is deeply rooted.
Who still uses paper in 2025?
I do, @JamesRussell.
Quit forcing your choices on me.
Interesting. I didn’t notice this when getting my paper boarding pass at LHR for my AA flight to ORD a few days back.
I wonder how this will work for a lot of international flights (both leaving and going to US), as they tend to be pretty anal on having paper boarding passes over digital ones. Paper tickets are the more universal option worldwide, despite mobile ticketing increasing. And what is the backup if IT services fail? Have they learned from the IT meltdown last year?
Out of all the things AA could be doing to improve customer service, this is what they chose? Not surprising for a CEO with little imagination, if at all. No wonder everyone hates their lot.
Seems like a reasonable attempt at cost savings. While there were software changes, it was likely bundled into an update with a small incremental cost.