Stranger

Needs not actually be physically ripping it off. Just voiding it and denying boarding. They do have the authority to do that. Let' not get caught up in rhetorics.

s0ssos

Nope. You have a link to a law?

YEG USER

The scenario I was thinking of was something like this:

Pax - takes a picture of employee and asks for their name
Employee - asks to see Boarding Pass
Pax - hands over boarding pass
Employee - rips up boarding pass and says "you won't be travelling today."

Regardless of how different people may see this, at no point did the poster say/imply that the BP would be forcibly removed from the pax. To accuse the poster of condoning/advocating violence was, IMHO, unwarranted and inappropriate.

s0ssos

So how does your scenario work with an e-boarding pass?

YEG USER

Irrelevant since you can’t rip one up, which implies paper, and ripping a BP was the comment that caused accusation of condoning violence.

s0ssos

So how do you "void" the boarding pass of someone who has a mobile one?
A lot harder, right? Which should be the case always. It shouldn't be one person's decision. That is an abuse of power, basically.

YEG USER

AFAIK a GA can easily void a BP with a few keystrokes in their computer. They don’t need to access someone’s smartphone. Abuse of power? Perhaps, depending on the circumstances, but non-violent.

YYCNoob

If an employee is granted the power to make that decision based on the information they have at hand, why can't they make that decision?

I don't know about the internal process behind Air Canada, but I would hope that they would have some type of thorough review process with the GA and the passenger for all of these incidents where a passenger had their BP voided because there is a high probability that they may be disruptive on the flight, and if the GA can adequately justify the decision they made with the information at hand, I honestly don't see how it is considered abuse of power.

RangerNS

My mother spent a couple of years in bank teller training, and I've taken discreet math classes. Accordingly, I cross through empty spots in forms and write my t's with very big tails. And when I deal with physical paper, reports and tickets or coupons, once invalid I rip them.

GAs and others should not trust a physical or electronic boarding pass (but often do... Lounges...), but validate them against the computer record. So why voiding them by ripping them up?

First, habit, knowing or being trained by someone who grew up when "do not fold, spindle or mutilate" meant something.
But second and most important, cogitative load. Have you seen behind a typical podium when it's busy? Scrooge McDuck could swim in the piles of paper they have. An intact paper BP or app screenshot are suspicious, but a ripped one is unquestionably not worth considering.
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An overt and almost ceremonial destruction is clarity for all and harkens back to a different time. It's no more violent than calling someone who works for a living "Sir".
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