Originally Posted by Flaflyer

......................As for "I also have never understood why a boarding pass has to be so big." Either you are showing your age or I will show mine if I know the answer. You mean a card 3.25 inches wide by 7.375 inches long by 0.007 inches thick? Well back in the day when pistons still moved planes, the airlines and the ticket agents first computerized and due to a monopoly by a certain computer company, that computer company made printers that only printed on one size card which they were the sole supplier of. $$$$ All these years later, it would be unbelieveably expensive to scrap every ticket printer and reader in the world and replace them using something other than an IBM punch card. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punched_card if you are under 40.