I don't know whether the situation is the same in the US, but, here in the UK, I've never had to pay a surcharge for TOD. Until now. British Airways has sent my company a letter warning that from 1st April, there will be a £25 surcharge for TOD on routes where electronic tickets are available.

This is bad news indeed, as I avoid electronic tickets like the plague. What's other people's experience? My own is that electronic tickets just don't work:

- Some European airports won't let you through to the gate to do a gate check-in without a proper ticket or boarding card;
- Getting a refund on a non-used ticket takes forever;
- And, don't even think about trying to get your e-ticket endorsed for travel on another carrier. With a paper ticket, I just go straight to the ticket desk (and terminal) of my new carrier, and they do all the work. With e-tickets, the procedure is way complicated, often involving trips between terminals.

I have a theory that this last reason is the real reason why airlines are pushing e-tickets so heavily. They know that a person with an e-ticket is far less likely to switch carriers. I certainly don't buy the argument that printing tickets costs the airlines a significant amount of money since, even with an e-ticket, they have to print out an itinerary and mail it to you.

What do others think? Exactly how do e-tickets benefit the traveller in any way? (I guess you could argue it's one less thing to lose or have stolen, but that's a pretty lame reason since airlines have procedures for dealing with those situations.)