US Airways Dividend Miles - Why Print 8 Boarding Passes When 4 Will Do?

With US no longer willing to accept paper boarding passes (ie: they hand them back to you) why do they continue to force us to print 8 passes on four pieces of paper (OLCI) on a typical 4 leg RT?

My hunch is that they think they are reducing the amount of trash/labor they handle at the gate.... but the reality could be that all that paper just moves onto the plane and FAs are picking it up one by one and disposing of it inflight.

Hey US..... toner ink is expensive... could you cut us a break and reduce the paper by 50%?

Hey US..... toner ink is expensive... could you cut us a break and reduce the paper by 50%?

For that matter, all you need is one piece of paper: One bar code for all of your flights that day on that itin.

Alaska does it.

For that matter, all you need is one piece of paper: One bar code for all of your flights that day on that itin.

Alaska does it.

Scandinavian does to.

I think this is supposed to change onthe beginning of 2011, where you'll have one BP for all segments on the same leg. It's only been a few weeks that they're not retaining the paper BP; change does take some time.

Hey US..... toner ink is expensive... could you cut us a break and reduce the paper by 50%?

3000 printed sheets at about $100 a cartridge is, about 3 cents a sheet. If you flew 120 segments, this would cost you $3.60 yearly.

This can't really be the crux of your argument.

why do they continue to force us to print 8 passes on four pieces of paper (OLCI) on a typical 4 leg RT?


There's a way to print one segment per sheet of paper, you need to check, "print without weather and ads," or something like that. Checking that will close the pop-out window, take you back to the original check-in screen, and it will take about 10-30 seconds, and redo the page.

I'm just waiting for the mobile boarding passes to come somewhere else besides Vegas. I've used them for both AA and DL, and I cannot tell you how much easier it is (for me at least). You can check in online, even on the way to the airport, and when you're on the road, you don't have to track down a printer just to avoid waiting in line.

Great technology. Hope the testing in Vegas goes well; if you are travelling from Vegas, make sure to use it so they see that the usage is there!

I'm just waiting for the mobile boarding passes to come somewhere else besides Vegas. I've used them for both AA and DL, and I cannot tell you how much easier it is (for me at least). You can check in online, even on the way to the airport, and when you're on the road, you don't have to track down a printer just to avoid waiting in line.

Great technology. Hope the testing in Vegas goes well; if you are travelling from Vegas, make sure to use it so they see that the usage is there!

In this situation, what could I send in for proof if my miles didn't post?

In this situation, what could I send in for proof if my miles didn't post?

When in doubt, always do a, "Print to PDF," which you can setup with your web browser. Save copies of the PDF's, just in case. I do this when I'm traveling and don't have access to a printer. I think on one occasion I actually did have to reference a hotel booking via the PDF.

I always save a PDF of my OLCI BPs. That way I don't have to keep track of the paperwork along the way. That way I have BP's saved in case I need them later for mileage credit.

If you're not somewhere where you can do a Print to PDF, you can also save a copy of the barcode itself on your phone as a picture, then if you need it for proof of boarding, email the picture from your phone. It's not the most straightforward method but it does work, as I had to do this when using mobile BP on UA not too long ago. I think this was something goofy on UA with our reservation, and not the mobile BP process itself, as we used mobile BP in both directions and got proper credit for the outbound but then had an aircraft change and flight number change on UA for the return, which I think is when our US DM fell off the reservation.

In my discussion with US about getting credit on that segment and what to do for future flights, it sounded like they didn't really know--- they'd not thought of that scenario. So we will have to take our own precautions till they have an actual procedure put in place.

Curious if Jim or one of the other FT'ers with insight into US operational structure can tell us if the US IT workers are unionized just like the other departments are?

When in doubt, always do a, "Print to PDF," which you can setup with your web browser. Save copies of the PDF's, just in case. I do this when I'm traveling and don't have access to a printer. I think on one occasion I actually did have to reference a hotel booking via the PDF.

Oh absolutely, but I'm referring to the mobile boarding passes. Perhaps a copy can be emailed from your device if proof is required?

Oh absolutely, but I'm referring to the mobile boarding passes. Perhaps a copy can be emailed from your device if proof is required?

Here is the issue: other carriers (at least the ones that I have used) do not actually send you the barcode. They email you a link to a website that has your unique BP barcode and that's what you bring up to scan in for the flight. It is not a permanent record (and I wouldn't want it to be, either, as the cost of warehousing millions of barcode images each year will undoubtedly be passed along to the consumer-- the one barcode I had to send over from a partner airline was about 2mb itself. I believe US works the same way but on the one trip that I departed LAS, they didn't have the scanners yet do I didn't bother.

At any rate, these get purged by the airline about 36 hours after the flight. If you don't realise the account credit is missing for 2 weeks, you're unable to retrieve it now.

This is why I was recommending storing a copy of the barcode to your phone-- so you do have a copy if you need it. If not, periodically delete them. Many phones will have a Save to SIM or other option when you select the image itself. Yes you can email a copy from your phone IF you have a copy stored locally but if all you have is the link from the airline, it's not enough proof as it isn;t the barcode itself.

3000 printed sheets at about $100 a cartridge is, about 3 cents a sheet. If you flew 120 segments, this would cost you $3.60 yearly.

This can't really be the crux of your argument.


No it is not, but Color inkjet averages $.25/page..... Which is where some of us print our BPs.