joel67

Just tried to board with a mobile boarding pass at an airport (MKE) where PMCO seems to have no scanners. I was quite surprised since PMUA, which I usually fly, won't issue mobile boarding passes where they don't have scanners. Did I just hit a system glitch, or is this a common issue to watch for?

Bulldog83

MKE is listed as mobile boarding pass location -- maybe they were out of service?

http://www.continental.com/web/en-US...s/default.aspx

Was it just a problem at the gate or the TSA checkpoint as well?

Hartmann

A few of the gates in ATL don't have scanners either, but security has them. The GA takes your sequence number and name and checks you in manually. It slows down boarding a little but they don't seem hassled by it.

star_world

Sounds like a system glitch. It normally doesn't offer it if it's unavailable at the airport in question, in my experience. What did the GA say to you regarding its availability there?

Hartmann

There is only one (maybe two) gate scanners at ATL and I haven't used it the last few weeks I've been here, yet I get a mobile boarding pass every time. The security checkpoints here have the scanners.

TommyC80

I've never had trouble at the gate, but have run into issues with TSA before. Last month I was in SJU (where there is no elite security line)...waited for 20 minutes before getting to the agent to find out that the scanner was broken. They made me go all the way back to check-in and get a paper boarding pass, but thankfully they let me skip the line at security when I returned.

If I was a Kettle I would have missed my flight though because the checkin line was a mile long and there were no standalone kiosks! Of course, I was able to just breeze up the blue carpet and print my BP.

joel67

The GA smiled and said their systems are still in the stone age and they don't have scanners. (In retrospect, I'm not sure if she meant MKA or CO in general.) She said that sometimes passengers manage to get through security and are surprised at the gate.

By the way, when I presented my phone at security, the TSA guy said "Beam Me Up Scotty!" and then reached under his pedestal to retrieve a scanner that clearly doesn't see much action.

joel67

Just noticed in another thread that a press released dated today touts expanded availability of airports with mobile boarding passes, so maybe they've just added MKA and simply don't have all the equipment quite in the right places there yet.

By the way, this really didn't bother me since everyone was pleasant and the GA simply looked me up on the computer, without bothering even to print a paper BP. I just wanted to see if I needed to be more careful in the future.

xzh445

Correct. The locations are here
https://www.continental.com/web/en-U...mobileboarding


Don't equate Mobile Boarding Pass locations with Gate Readers. The Mobile Boarding Pass readers (or Scanner on a Stick) is a device that is stand alone (not connected to a network, but has certain technologies employed that eliminate fraudulent BP's) and has been purchased by the air carriers for use by the TSA at the checkpoints. (The TSA should be purchasing these, but that is another topic)

Gate Readers are devices connected to the PC's at a boarding gate, which interact with the airline's host. Thre reason, specifically at ATL, that there are not gate readers at all of the gates, is that some of the gates that CO uses are Common Use (can't remeber if ATL is SITA or ARINC). While both SITA and ARINC have worked with the airlines and have Gate Readers for common use, it would appear that they have not been installed at those gates yet. The one Gate at ATL with a Gate Reader, is not common use, and has a CO Gate Reader.