EUA Mini-BP
 

Yesterday I was flying SFO-IAH, A4 that morning when I headed to the airport. At the Pclub 40 minutes before departure the agent told me that F was sold out but only 12/14 checked in and I was #1. Went to the gate, handed my BP, got the happy BEEP BEEP BEEP. And the agent handed me a small slip of thermal paper with the flight #, date, seat, PNR.

IS this a new thing for gate EUAs?

Anyone else get them?

This happens when your seat changes after already checking in. Today, CLE-LAX, change in equipment, all FC seats got screwed up and many got the thermal paper with their new seat assignments. Some weren't too happy.

It's happened to me a few times this year, I believe in IAH, but perhaps in EWR too.

I thought it was weird, it was the first time I'd seen it.

But I've also seen people with thermal-looking boarding passes that weren't OLCI passes... perhaps they are from curbside?

They've been doing this for over a year now. Any station that has the standard CO gate readers can do this.

Given how many holdbacks and gate upgrades they've been doing, it can come in handy.

@:-) btw, EUA (Elite Upgrade Automation) refers to the advance upgrades (3-hours out or more), not the ones done at the airport.

SK uses this type of system at CPH for people who are on standby at the gate and don't get a seat assignment until the last minute.

At OSL, the gate readers can take a BP, strike out a flight or seat number and print out new info in red ink just below the old, making the BP still usable, even if you switch flights.

I think both systems are great for saving paper and I'm happy to hear CO has adopted the thermal paper idea.

I despise thermal paper boarding passes.

^ agree ^

I hate the normal CO thermal BPs. United can shoot out nice cardstock ones from mr. easychickin...

I prefer cardstock boarding passes, but they're hard to come by on CO, given that most stations now have ekiosks at the ticket counters. DL has the worst thermal paper boarding passes around - no color, small print, etc.

I've gotten these in the past at IAH, but what's so bad about them, other than looking like gas receipts?

I think xyzzy is referring to the kiosk BPs, those are thermal paper too.

Don't leave them on a window sill
 

The sun bleaches them out.

The stick to certain other printed papers.

The sad thing is? They probably do save CO a lot of money. Thermal printers are incredibly reliable, very small, and don't need to be restocked except for paper. Also, since the paper is very thin the machine can go longer intervals without having to be serviced at all. I wouldn't be surprised at all if they saved upwards of significant 6 figures a year by using thermal instead of dot matrix/cardstock.

UA got on the kiosk/gate reader bandwagon before everyone else, which is why they have older technology implemented. You've seen those floor-mounted, metal gate readers that UA uses -- they're huge!

UA is switching to thermal BPs. They're now recoding their EasyCheckin Machines (Chickens) and gate printers to print a barcode, a la CO. Newer Chickens will have thin, thermal paper and a barcode as well.

Sorry to let you down, but thermal is the way everyone is going...