Originally Posted by
DutchessPDX
And you can still lose a paper boarding pass. I always laugh at these comments. What's the point? Your made-up scenario is somehow better than my made-up scenario? I can tell you my phone is A LOT less likely to run out of juice than I am to lose a piece of paper in my bag.
I agree, less likely to loose it. But this is sort of beyond the point. United wants people to use electronic boarding passes. Why? Well, it saves them on the costs of printing tickets, and it also saves them time in handling upgrades and seat changes. You don't have to call everyone up to the gate to get a new boarding pass, you just push it through. The boarding pass also updates the gate and time of departure, which helps avoid confusion (and anger at United if someone misses a flight).
Lets just be clear that electronic is better for everyone.
The issue is not that everyone needs to print their boarding passes and staple them to their forehead so they are not lost.
It is that United has a customer unfriendly practice which clearly is not a glitch. Due to limits to there systems, they are pulling boarding passes when they think you will miss your flight, but you are not at 10 min before departure. In the good old days, someone from UA would see this, and they might look at how there systems are working, and fix an issue that clearly has the potential to mess over a lot of people.
Alas, United will just continue to mess over people. That is the real issue...