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.
Not a bad idea.
I like it. The less paper the better, and as mentioned, those who seriously want or need a paper pass can still get one.
What an annoying change! I admit I have never flown American Airlines (though I flew US Airways prior to the merger). Whatever airline I fly, I prefer to have both a printed and digital boarding pass. What if the digital boarding pass becomes inaccessible because my phone dies or is seized by CBP? What if the printed pass gets ripped or otherwise damaged? I just like that extra bit of insurance and hate the idea that finding the print mode becomes harder.
Where’s semi-regular commenter, @Paper Boarding Pass, when you need them!
The smart-phones are nice and all, but I still like a little paper, in case the battery dies, and especially when some exit-immigration controls require them, to stamp, or whatever. Not really a USA issue.
Just flew on United, where most people, including myself, used electronic boarding passes. Painfully slow! The gate attendant had to , in many cases, take passengers’ phones and position them over the reader, then hand the phones back. Those who had paper boarding passes had a much quicker transaction. Multiply that delay by several hundred. It was miserable.
Go back to paper please!
How much bpa do you want?
Not worried about paper. Come on.
@michael golub — What are you even trying to suggest, sir? Yes, chemical compounds are in literally everything. However, we are not ‘ingesting’ our boarding passes, so your comment is no better than a conspiracy theory on UFOs or against fluoride (listen to your dentists; it’s good for your teeth!) For instance, the FDA already prohibits BPAs in baby bottles, etc., because there can be elevated exposure from those containers, and kiddos’ brains are still developing. So, please do tell us your ‘theories’ on chem trails next. This is, after all, an aviation blog, in-part. Go on! ‘Re-educate’ us.
Maybe they should pay the CEO commensurate with how well the airline does reach quarter.
I agree with the commenters who like paper. The reliance on electronics is risky! I always print out the paper ones at home or on the motel. The phone scanning is ridiculously slow. Their scanners won’t read it if the screen is scuffed/scratched, etc.
Robert Ipsom, CEO of AA made 34.1 million in 2023. AA has other places to cut costs without further taking from their customers and workers.
How many trees do we really need to waste? It is not just about the $175,000 it is about the trees, the forest, the fresh air, the labor to move the paper, the trees etc.
Not a great idea for seniors with shaky hands that can’t work a smartphone. Yes they are still alive. I personally am okay with it but my screen keeps going blank waiting in line. Lol
I like a paper boarding pass.
Gary’s point in the last paragraph is spot on. How much was spent in IT resources to save this $175K and could those resources have been deployed elsewhere for something more important…
I don’t like having to have my phone on all the time at the airport. Paper works best. Since when did having a cellphone with you in use become an airline requirement?
Old people with shaky hands will always be with us, we will all reach that point if we live long enough. I can see international travel requiring a printed pass when trying to get across borders, but domestic, not so much. I found it annoying having a printed pass belch out at me when I didn’t ask for one so I like the change. I would suggest making the “print a boarding pass” option as obvious as possible, not buried in a sub-menu.
This is not a bad thing, I have been using mobile boarding passes for years. What was extremely annoying to me was when I did need to check a bag I would intentionally only select bag tag, and the kiosk would automatically and wastefully print a boarding pass. I think that this is what they are actually correcting here.
Great idea actually. I always found the paper passes redundant and wasteful.
Does it really cost that much to reprogram machines not to print them?
As someone in IT who does these kind of things, I say it shouldn’t have caused more than 15-25K just for this change. This is assuming that they have a normal release cycle for new features and bug fixes etc and this is just one among many small changes.
Now if you create a project just to do this change, it’ll probably cost many multiples of that.
Forget the phone. Just scan my face when I board.
Maybe the solution is to give passengers the option. And if paper is more costly to the airlines, then charge a nominal fee to cover their costs. Then, let people decide. Free-market folks should like that.
@tomri — I’m as center-left as they come, and I do care deeply for the environment, but this (airline boarding passes) is not the primary source of our problems on that front. No, if we want to actually do better with the environment, we need to stop polluting, and get off coal, oil, gas, etc., and rely on nuclear, solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal, and dramatically improve efficiencies in battery storage, desalination, and agriculture. But back to the issue at hand: Most paper is recyclable, so if the airlines could use better paper for boarding passes that could be reused–that would be practical and actual progress. However, if it’s merely up to the airline, as a business, realistically, they’re just going to do whatever is least expensive and maximizes profits, unless there is enforcement of better environmental policies. Finally, it seems that the much of the EU, UK, Canada, and just a few states, like CA and NY, have any real pro-environment policies these days. And look who’s leading us these days (in USA)–it’s just not going to get better any time soon. Future generations will justifiably loathe us all who lived in this era for what we have done. I still hope we’ll change course soon, but it really isn’t looking great. My conclusion is to ‘follow the money,’ and you’ll know why we aren’t ‘doing the right thing’ anymore.
What those kiosks used to do years ago and no longer do is produce a receipt.
Alaska is trying to get rid of paper tickets too.
“Never spend a dollar more than we need to” sounds like it should be the motto for Allegiant, not American.
People expect to get more for paying more with American, but it sounds like they want to make it a budget airline in everything but price.
Since customers still have the option to print one if they wish, I see this as a good change.
I like this change. I flew AA last week. I had to scan the boarding pass on my phone to use the kiosk to print the bag tag. Then it asked “do you want a printed boarding pass” I said no. Then it printed one anyway.
Congratulations, 0.0004% of the annual operating cost saved.
Mr. Fatty failed to mention United did this first two months ago…
CEO Isom probably doesn’t fly coach on his airline often.
It’s so painful to watch passengers try to scan their mobile tickets. It often takes 4-5 times as long as a passenger with a paper ticket. But that’s okay.
He’s going to save AA 175k per year and the board will approve a 500k increase in his 30+ million per year salary because he’s such a genius.
I always get a physical paper boarding pass. Last year needed them for two EU261 claims and one CC travel delay claim. (Both airlines wanted photos of boarding passes (not the QR code) – breakage and to delay.
The boarding pass typically most of the time has the printed boarding time (as well as scheduled departure AND YOUR SEAT – I was on a flight that had boarded and they changed the digital boarding pass with seats of two PAX – granted not really a lot you can do – if the replacement PAX is a pilot or deadheading crew -and yes you only are paying for tranist from point A or B even if they stick you on a bus or plane – contract of carriage doesn’t guarantee you a specific seat even if you pay for it. But if your waiting to board a plane and a Gate Agent calls you to the podium- and ask for your boarding pass – I have always asked whats up before handing it over (you might being downgraded or upgraded – again not a lot you can do – but if you have to claim compensation for being downgraded – its cleaner with boarding passes (emails don’t always included seats esp on some partner flights/bookings).
The other thing is most mobile apps make it close to impossible to view past flights/trips AND boarding passes. Yes – I use Award Wallet Pro and used App in the Air [RIP]- which do a good job archiving past flights, rentals and most hotels stays. But how many apps have come and.gone over the years. i.e. App.in The Air stopped support Oct 17th(?) 2024.
But as other have said, dead, damaged, lost, stolen, or seized it can life more if a challenge – we likely.would have been SOL and missed our connecting flight in BKK in Jan 2023 – as airport security- would only accept paper boarding passes to pass thru security and get to the transit desk to print out boarding passes for BKK-MNL.
I have also wondered what happens during an internet/power or an IT outage.
I have issues with airline apps go in a crash-loop after they updated the app.
Physical documentation is king.
I fly AA every 4 to 6 weeks. I check in and pay for bags online (saves $5.00).
When I pull up my mobile boarding pass, I take a screen capture, like they suggest, in case internet glitches. No problems at the gate.
I love the change. I used to walk up and see boarding passes from previous customers still in the machine, laying on the floor, or overflowing the trash cans.
I think this change is totally worth it.
The $175,000 the company saves each year is equivalent to 2 days of the CEO’s salary. If American wants to save unnecessary costs, they should start with their executives.
Airlines need to save money where they can. Digital boarding passes aren’t a bad way to save money. It said they still print boarding passes for those who need them. Give them a break, it’s better than cutting flights!
IT’S ALWAYS HAS BEEN AND 4 EVER WILL BE ABOUT THAT ALMIGHTY $$DOLLAR — MONEY — THE LOVE OF IT IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL ( I TIM. 6:10)… MEANING, PEOPLE WILL GO TO ANY LENGTH TO GET IT, EVEN DOWN TO MERE PAPER WHEN THE SIMPLEST SOLUTION FROM A “CARE ABOUT YOU THE CUSTOMER STANDPOINT” IS TO MAKE IT AN OPTION THAT IS READILY AVAILABLE AND EASILY ACCESSIBLE! PERIOD. AT SOME POINT, TECHNOLOGY WILL ALWAYS, FAIL! PERIOD.
I like it, especially if it’s intelligently done. I often go to a kiosk, phone in hand with my boarding pass, and end up getting a paper boarding pass.
The devil is in the details. If the system tries to start the process by asking the user to scan a boarding pass, electronic or otherwise, it makes sense not to print a boarding pass.
If the user types in a record locator or scans a passport or other ID, it could leave a box unchecked as it displays information about checking bags, etc. Then a user can tap the screen to add printing the boarding pass to the process. It could even assume that a user doesn’t have a boarding pass if the user picks an alternative to scanning a boarding pass to start the process, with an option to uncheck the box for not printing it.
The AA app, unlike some other airline apps, can be open in split screen view. Presumably, I could split the screen, show the boarding pass on one half and my ID Pass or digital license in the other half to get past security. That could speed things up. So getting rid of unnecessary paper could be more efficient and save paper. Even better would be a way to automate an App Pair setup.
On the other hand, paper is much easier for people who have no idea what I’m talking about, don’t know what app pairs or split screens are, and somebody needs to simplify the process to get people to use it.
Paper passes please! It’s especially helpful when a squatter is in your seat and the flight attendant has to sort things out. Plus, I’ve had a connecting flight cancelled and it gives the airline counter a paper trail of my original trip.
American Airlines–stepping over dollars to pick up pennies.
Tracking and data harvesting
There’s gotta be a better way to go digital/cut costs other than smartphones and the tracking and privacy issues that go along with those.
There’s gotta be a better way to go digital/cut costs other than smartphones and the tracking and privacy issues that go along with those.
@YoniPDX- I fully agree, I like paper for the reasons you succinctly stated. Plus, Overseas OneWorld lounges often want to see a paper boarding passes and it gives me something to stick those separate baggage claim forms to.
Technology and cost-cutting are fine, as long as it doesn’t impair customer service or choice. This concept certainly won’t work for my 90 year dad and his flip phone, as he flies around the world in F.
Stepping over dollars to pick up pennies.
Based on my experiences, my thoughts are similar to YoniPDX.
Some time ago, I did a mileage challenge to 100K on American. My final flight was JFK-SFO, hang out with my friend, SFO-JFK. There was something weird about my flight JFK-SFO. I returned to NY and my miles did not book, and I failed the challenge. So I called, and they said that I did not actually fly JFK-SFO. Luckily, I had my paper boarding pass with TSA stamps on it, they ended up giving me the miles and I succeeded in my mileage challenge.
Also, another time, my return flight was Athens (ATH)-London (LHR) -New York (JFK) on British Airways (BA) in Premium Economy. When I went to the airport, my reservation somehow had disappeared from BA computers. I showed them my paper printout, and after about 30 minutes they rebooked me, with complementary Business LHR-JFK. But still, glitches do happen. When they do, a paper record helps.
AA can cut more costs by making their IT department compete for servers and network equipment.
OH HELL. The delays in boarding while people search the phone for the e pass will bury the 1.4 cent per print savings . I could make a million dollars if 10 million people give me a dime but the transaction time???
Oh how we have evolved! I remember in the late 90s, early 2000s when United had different colored ATB stock for your class of service. It was soo nice having that GOLD United Airlines boarding pass& ticket jacket. The rest of you in steerage got the basic cloud-blue. Silver was for business class, but I forgot if they got GOLD boarding passes or not as well.
All these people who say they like it are going to be the first to complain when the kiosks become bogged down with people spending an extra 5 minutes each trying to figure out how to print a boarding pass and having to have an agent come help them. Have you seen the crowds at the Orlando ticket counter? There are a lot of people who don’t use the app.
Just as long as we have the option to print. My phone is sometimes packed. Unlike some, my phone isn’t always in my hand.
Paper QR codes do seem to be recognized faster/more reliably than from phone screens.
Makes sense to me. Watch your pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves.
CEO Robert Isom earned a total compensation of salary, stocks and bonds of over $31m last year.