Ok experts,

I just ordered 5 E-tickets for Contintental to the Carribean this Nov.

What did I do wrong?

Should I have gotten paper tickets?

What are the differences adn/or benefits of each?

Thanks in advance

You blew it tasnam, now if the computers crash and the economy takes a dive you won't have anything to wipe your you know what with.

Anyway, hope that you got the bonus miles!

A paper ticket is worth its weight in gold today since I'm stuck in ST Louis because of bad weather in STL and DTW. All of Northworst's flights were canceled and they protected me on the next available flight which is 1:30PM Saturday. The STL airport was a zoo with hours long lines trying to get to any airline's ticket counters. Even the 800 numbers were busy, told you the wait was 30 minutes or longer, or said they were too busy call back later.

If I had had a paper ticket instead of my e-ticket, I could have gone right to any airline gate and tried to get on as standby.
The NW line was estimated at 2-3 hours so I couldn't even get a ticket to exchange with another airline.

All the airport hotels were sold out and I'm stuck downtown conversing on flyertalk at the hotel business center on a Friday night.

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[This message has been edited by FOOLISHRUNNER (edited 07-28-2000).]

These were all from points ;-) no cash.

I did get an email confirmation and some "paper" (mailed to me usps) confirmation with flight times and flight numbers.

Is this a paper ticket?

I don't like e-tickets for the reason mentioned - you're SOL (at least majorly inconvenienced) if you have to reroute due to weather , etc. But I am currently holding one on CO, sometimes they can't be avoided without paying more, etc. Now AA tried to feed me an eticket on an international routing-- no way! You will be more than inconvenienced in that case! You'll be fine I am sure.

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Nope. You have what's called a Trip Summary and Report (TSR), issued with e-tickets.

On the issue of e-tickets vs. paper tickets, I always go paper whenever possible. If using an electronic tkt gets me a substantial bonus, like 50% on CO, then maybe I'll do it. But in all other instances, I stick to paper. Remember that the possession of a bona fide paper ticket gives you certain legal, contractal, and practical rights over the e-ticket. Besides the "use on other carriers" privilege, airlines are required to honor your bona fide paper ticket, even if there is no record of it in their computer. This legal/contractual right does NOT extend o e-tickets, even with the presentation of a TSR. See 1travel.com for more details.

You can have the e-ticket converted to paper at any CO ticket counter, all you have to do is ask!

The only negative with paper tickets is if you lose them.

E-tickets can cause problems such as the time I was told that my reservation which was paid for was canceled mysteriously. They did get me on the flight but my seats were given away and I couldn't sit with my wife.

If there is a strike or canceled flight where the airline will need to put you on another airline's flight, a paper ticket is required as the other airline will be unable to accept the e-ticket.

I go with paper the majority of the time.

So then...

E-ticket = travel to any booked destination "as long as there is a reservation is the properly functioning hugh computer system?"

Paper ticket = travel to any booked destination "+ proof that you have a reservation if the "system" has erased your confirmation #""

The paper ticket allows you to "show" them that you have ticket and/or put you on another airline if ness. (they won't do this with E-ticket?)

Simply goto the Continental counter and change it?

No cost?

Ask, "Would you please print me out paper tickets for this e-ticketed reservation?"

But be sure that, if you're checking in, to have the paper tickets issued first, and then check in using the paper tickets once printed.

There should be no additional cost involved.

[This message has been edited by FQTV (edited 07-29-2000).]

Since these are award tickets rather than paid tickets, the paper flight coupons would be of little value trying to get on another airline, in the event your flights were delayed or cancelled. No airline will aceept an award ticket of another airline unless the issuing airline has endorsed the ticket,i.e., agreed to pay the 2nd airline - for the flight, a highly unlikely event.

So really the only advantage of a paper ticket in this case is if the computer crashed and Continental somehow lost all account of your reservation. But even then, the e-ticket shows an itinerary and a record locator that proves you had a reservation.

[This message has been edited by JerryFF (edited 07-29-2000).]

Yes, you can convert E-ticket to paper, but absolutely not the other way around, which seems silly if you were to surrender the paper ticket.

Last May, I was attempting to return to the states from Milan and United canceled the flight (it had actually never left IAD the prior evening). I had always used ETickets for my domestic travel and didn't see any reason not to do so internationally. That was a BIG MISTAKE, further exacerbated by United's inept handling of the entire re-accommodation process in MXP!

I guess, in retrospect, I really should have known better. Although I had used ETickets to LHR for several trips last year, the concept really seemed to confuse the check-in agents and it tuned out to be much more hassle than it was worth.

After waiting in line for several hours at MXP to be reprocessed, I was eventually told that they could not help me, I had an ETicket and needed to wait on a different line elsewhere in the terminal to get a paper ticket issued. Why couldn't they have had an agent working the line and pointing people in the right direction?

Once I arrived at the END of other line, I needed to wait several more hours until it was my turn once again. It was bedlam. Nearly an entire 777s worth of people waiting to be serviced, many of them not even knowing what an ETicket was, let alone whether or not they actually owned one. I actually wound up walking through the line, pointing people in the right direction and offering scheduling advice.

When it was my turn to approach the counter, it was now well into the afternoon and there were no more flight options left, even on other carriers. It wound up taking me an extra two days to return from Italy. Ironically, once I was re-accommodated on another flight, they insisted on issuing me an ETicket, again!

So, I must echo all of the advice you have received thus far. You should most definitely get your ETicket converted to a paper ticket. The fact that it is a free ticket, does not necessarily mean that you will not be transferred to another airline should a problem arise. United has done it for me in the past, well before I started travelling very frequently.

Tasnam,

Alternately, you could give Continental a call and ask them to mail out your paper tickets. I just did that the other day with NW b/c the online booking system always issues an e-ticket whenever possible.

BTW, airlines can readily rebook you onto other carriers with award tickets. The only difference is that they often use FIMs (Flight Interruption Manifests) rather than simple endorsements.

But from what I have heard, this is actually to your benefit. A gate agent once told me that the common policy is, if the other airlines flight is overbooked, an endorsement only puts you on the standby list. With a FIM, however, the second carrier MUST put you on the flight, even if it means an involuntary denied boarding for other pax.