The airlines are increasing their efforts to convert us all to E-tickets. For example, I just found out that AA has now "removed" the paper ticket option from the ticketing loop. In other words, even if you ask for a paper ticket the agent can't issue one unless they take the extra effort to get out of the automatic ticketing loop. But, in my view, as a somewhat frequent traveler, e-tickets still have a lot of negative features, and *no* positive features (I have never left a ticket at home by mistake).

1. Rule 240 - About once a year (it happened earlier this month) I am on a flight which is delayed/cancelled such that I need to switch to another carrier. I don't want to wait for the airline to decide how to handle the 100+ passengers who must be reaccomodated. I have already booked alternative arrangements. I need someone to write "Rule 240 to XXX" and put their sine on my ticket. It can be done at any open counter, not necessarily the one with 100+ people in line. If you have an e-ticket you need to wait for someone to have time to process you, maybe to hand-write a FIM, etc.

2. Refunds - This is actually the biggest problem. I buy tickets, my plans change, I take another flight, I go somewhere different. After a month I might have several hundred or even several thousand dollars in unused tickets. I don't know what date or what routing or even what airline. With paper tickets there is no extra effort. I just keep them in a folder and, the next time I am flying that airline, I use the unused ticket as credit toward the flight (or I get a refund). With e-tickets it can be *very* difficult. Even if I keep the receipts, nothing tells me which flights I took, and which I didn't. And it gets even more confusing if I changed a flight. Unless the airlines modify their e-ticket procedures, I THINK THAT THIS WILL LEAD, IN THE NEAR FUTURE, TO A CLASS ACTION SUIT AGAINST THE AIRLINES FOR FRAUD. I would bet that the statistics will show that the airlines get a far higher percentage of "permanently unused" e-tickets that paper tickets. Under normal circumstances, after one year, that money belongs to the airline.

There are some other issues, but these are the most important to me.