Where's my E-Ticket???
 

I booked an e-ticket through Air Canada's electronic booking system... but it's two days till Toronto and NO copy of the itinerary in the mail.

The charge is on my AMEX... but nothing in the mail.

Printed a copy of my itinerary and the woman
at Air Canada told me as long as I had a confirmation number the ticket was "in the
computer" and I should be fine.

We'll see.

So added to CATMAN's list of tips "Anything
you book or reserve or buy or signup for on-line... print a copy of the sign up/order
form!"

Has this ever happened to any of you before?
Should I worry about not being allowed to board? CATMAN

This will NOT be a problem. The piece of paper is worthless. If it's in the computer you should be all set.

as E-ticketing (with UA) starts now in Europe:

what happens if at check-in the computer is down?

You will be OK. It is useful to write down the booking number but not essential. I use Air Canada's e-tickets all the time but I get them to fax me my copy. A copy is useful to get through security if you are checking in at the gate instead of standing in line at check in counters out front.

There is a catch with e-tickets everywhere so, while I use them, I do know they have problems. The major one is that if, at the last minute the plane goes "mechanical" and you want to jump ship to another airline, it is more difficult with an e-ticket. With a paper ticket (full fare, not discounted), other airlines have always accepted the flight coupons. Also, if the "gone mechanical" airline makes arrangements with the other airline, the other airline will accept discounted paper tickets but I have been in situations where they would not accept the e-ticket. Where timing is tight it means you have to go buy a full fare ticket from the other airline (standing in line when you don't have time to do so).

I feel a little better... but while I prefer
E-Tickets for the convenience of NOT losing
the paper version... I have my concerns.

I always put the e-ticket number for airlines
and reservation # for hotels and car rentals
into my little Sharp Wizard scheduler computer incase I lose things or people ask.
This is my mini computer/office but doesn't
not have on-line access.

BlondeBomber made a reference that gave me a
mental flashback to Berlin and the AirFrance
checkin area where the computers went down
and everything had to be done manually.
They kept shutting down lines and I kept ending up at the end of the line (there is
no sense of organization at Berlin's Tegel
airport, people are everywhere! Sorry if
I offend our German readers.)

I had a paper ticket (via Delta) and Air
France gave me a hard time checking in then
more of a hard time when I sat in Business
Class (I booked reservations there and they
said I was not on the original computer list
-- My name was misspelled horribly as
Blandchared!)

AH Technology! It makes our lives even
harder! CATMAN

You're right about TXL, Catman - it's a nasty, disorganised airport, and it's one big smoke arena! I don't think it was really designed with commercial flights in mind.

it was designed in 1953 - and your president "I am a Berliner" started to feed the Berlin-people having one flight per minute landing at Tegel.

Rudi - I know that Tegel was the American (military) airport in Berlin (I'm not American...) - it was designed to help the people of Berlin, as you say. However, now that most flights to Berlin are commercial, the design that worked well for military flights is really awkward for commercial flights - it's hard to find out where you are going, and each flight has its own little immigration etc section, without many of the amenities that are common in large international airports. With the German government due to move to Berlin, perhaps they'll consider building a new international airport for the city.

I win the Emmet_nancy award for today!

Congratulations Baobab.... I thought I had it
in the bag with my babbling in THe BUZZ!

Yes, Tegel served a very important role in keeping West Berlin alive thankfully during the cold war. But I hope Berlin gets a new international airport eventually. Or renovate Tegel or add a new terminal and use the others for Domestic routes.

Thanks for the info Rudi... I really missed
a LOT of history and sometimes feel I was
born a little late (CATMAN debuted in 1965!)
CATMAN

sometimes dreams become true before you start to dream: use Berlin-Schoenefeld as your airport.

A little something I pulled off Arthur Frommer's travel site related to e-tickets (a letter to their newsletter editor):

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
Travel Warnings From Our Readers

To the Editor:
Beware of e-ticketing. While using e-tickets with United Airlines I trooped through hundreds of people lined up at multitudes of gates at Los Angeles United shuttle only to be turned away because upon presenting my e-ticket receipt I could not produce the credit card I purchased it with. (Credit card had been recently lost and replaced with a new number.)

I then had to go all the back to the other end of the terminal to Customer Service so they could begin all over with only a few short minutes left until boarding my flight which was again back at the other end of the terminal.

The fact that I could show many other forms of ID including other credit cards made no difference. From now on I'll insist the airlines mail me a ticket. This is the first time any airline has requested this including United.

Thanks for the warning, BlondeBomber. I try
to carry ALL my credit cards with me, but I
know people who absoluately refuse e-tickets.

I NEVER got my e-ticket from AC so as I suggested before... print out your itinerary
so you have something. Did NOT have problems checking in with a piece of a paper, although
the jolly Canadian checking me in going back
to U-S said this was the first time he saw
the paper I had. It had the itinerary and
my reservation number.

BUT: Isn't it true that some airlines are
going to convert to complete ticketless travel (At least domestically) soon?
CATMAN

There are still a lot of bugs to work out before they go completely ticketless. They probably would like to but I like the freedom to choose. In some situations, it has proven to be necessary to have that paper ticket and all the other backup as well.

my travel-patterns are (often) to complicated to be e-ticketed: combining different tickets/tarifs/airlines (mostly StarAlliance-partners)/rebates (UA silverwing-vouchers: counting for UA, AC, SK) and I can't load the on-line-sticket-shop with all those interdependable-dates (if fly Y following flyght X, is full I have to take an alternate flight X, etc. and often I have woven travel-patterns of two journeys into two-tickets: to beat Sunday and/or 7 days-stay-rules, or to combine the cheapest-transatlantic-tarif Europe-NewYork/Washington with the cheapest inner US/Canada/Mexico-visit-USA-coupns-ticket).

There is no way to do this trough on-line-ticket-shops, I already need at least half an hour at the airline's ticket-office downtown till everything (incl. waitlisted upgrades, preferred seating, special-request: hotel-informations for last minute-calls from the airline, etc, etc,) are woven together.

And how can I "influence" with Swiss chocolates on-line?