cabernar

While out for lunch today, I decided to try mobile check-in for the first time. Since mobile.aircanada.com doesn't appear to support the iPhone browser, I used the regular OLCI on aircanada.com, and an interesting thing happened: I couldn't enter the letter R into the first or last name fields. The on-screen keyboard reacted the way it normally does, but no letter appeared. I tried it in the city field and booking reference fields, and it worked just fine. However, I wasn't able to enter the Z in the booking reference field.

After a few minutes of trying various letters/fields (and general confusion), I was able to solve it by using capital letters, which it accepted just fine. Has anyone else ever had anything like this happen?

FWIW, aside from that hitch, OLCI appears to work just fine on the iPhone, including seat selection.

chovaz

Just out of curiosity, how does the whole "entering customs" and "going through security" process work with a mobile checkin? I've done it once, but I reprinted by pass at the airport over fears of that exact situation. They both (entering customs and security) check your boarding pass but the image that you are sent when you use mobile checkin doesn't have any sort of information on it other than what a barcode reader can interpret. No terminal, no departure city, no arrival city, no gate, no time, etc...

Do they just look at the little black and white image of scattered bars on the phone and let you go??

Gogie

And more importantly, when your AP miles aren't posted and you are told to send in your boarding pass, do you have to send your phone in?

cabernar

You get two SMS messages when you check in. The first contains the particulars about your flight, in plain text. You show this when dropping bags (if applicable) and at security. The second contains a weblink to your barcode, which is what the GA scans at the gate. At least that's what I've understood reading the AC website. I guess I'll know for sure tomorrow.

Electronic BPs are only available for domestic and ex-Canada international flights on AC metal. Flights to/from the US are not eligible, most likely for reasons related to CBP.

More info on electronic BPs here: http://www.aircanada.com/en/travelin...obile/ebp.html.

fly-yul

No, you can cut and paste the image into the letter that you then fax to aeroplan. Works great.

I save each boarding pass image to a folder on my blackberry. I name each file with the flight info and date travel (and reason for business travel). This is a great way to make your expense report / travel file easier to manage.

jarusoba

You may not be able to do that with the iphone though.

ckccan

I used it on my blackberry a couple of times, and both times, security and the gate agent seemed to struggle, so now I just use OLCI and print a boarding pass somewhere along the way...

colinyyz

I can confirm the iPhone and "R" issue - my last name has an "R" in it and I've been unable to check in online on my iPhone.

Would LOVE to hear the reasoning behind this one (perhaps there is a surcharge if you last name has an "R" in it? ).

RCyyz

Just a guess but it could be a (simple) browser issue. AC has never really fully supported anything other than IE running on Windows. While you can use Safari or Firefox (or Opera I suppose), AC for the longest time had a disclaimer if you came in on anything other than IE Windows that the site might not work properly.

guessaaa

You get two SMSs, one with the flight details, and another with a link to the barcode. The first SMS you show at checkin (they look you up in their computer by last name) and then at security (they look at it, then call their colleagues to have a look) where you show them it just before tossing your phone/BB in the security tray and going through the metal detector. Sometimes they need explaining that the date/time stamp of the SMS is not the date of departure if you check in 24 hrs before, and that they need to look 2 lines down. At the gate you show them the barcode which has your flight and seat number, and the GA enters your seat number in the computer to show you've boarded. If they're not tech savy, they will look you up in the computer, print out a BP, then scan it in and give it to you "Here, use this instead." AC dosn't actually scan the barcode supplied.

1st Class Gekko

I've had the barcode scanned 4 times in the last week. So it seems they are starting to use it.

cabernar

They tried scanning mine at YOW, but it wouldn't register. Not surprising, considering how smudgy my screen is...

For the interested, here's the rest of my eBP adventure. While tagging my bag, the agent at dropoff printed out BPs for me, even though I had shown her the SMS. I asked, and she said it would save me having to show ID at security, but she said I didn't have to take them, so I chose to live dangerously. The CATSA fellow looked at the flight details SMS for a second and waved me on without issue. At YUL, the GA took my ID, searched my name and checked me in, only glancing at the screen to confirm a BP existed. Boarding the a/c was uneventful, though one FA remarked "you probably don't need me to tell you your seat, it looks like you're on top of things".

CdnFlier

That's an awesome explanation of it. Once I saw the security fellow consider highlighting my bb (I was impressed). I don't always find that they give me a printed one at the gate, sometimes they just ask my seat and confirm it as boarded and that's it. YYZ seems to have the right scanners now but not too many other airports.

wirez666

I experienced the inability to type the "R" issue as well. The issue seems to be resolved if you change the letter to CAPS.

fly-yul

I don't have an iphone but I'd be surprised if you can't save an image. Pretty basic function.