roverkt

I've experienced the convenience of using a digital boarding pass on SWISS and BA on my iPhone's Passbook, and was wondering why SQ doesn't also adopt this.

I fly >100k miles/year with SQ, and being based in SIN, it'd really be convenient for me to be able to use the Passbook on IOS, instead of queuing each time I wish to check in, even when I don't have check-in baggage.

I'm aware that SQ has its own app, and one's able to get a boarding pass there, but it doesn't work as smoothly as on the Passbook. BA (and I believe SWISS) do have their own apps too, which are integrated with the Passbook.

Promoting increased usage of the Passbook would save SQ in terms of queues at check in and the cost of printing boarding passes.

Anyone else here has had experiences using the Passbook for flights, and also think SQ's behind the times here?

vbroucek

Perhaps because the PassBook is not as good app as you think and there are some rather unreasonable conditions from Apple to use it?

roverkt

I've used it and it's better than the SQ app by miles. Re conditions set by Apple, that's something for the airline to deal with.

echoz

What unreasonable conditions are there?

vbroucek

If you were Apple Apps developer, you would already know. If you are not Apple Apps developer, don't bother finding...

echoz

That's the thing. I am an iOS dev and I've never heard of "unreasonable" conditions applied to getting apps to be passbook enabled. Heck, its specs are openly available and you do not need an app to use Passbook. It works through email as well, which is what companies like Eventbrite are doing.

So what are these unreasonable conditions you speak of?

Guy Betsy

Never mind Passbook. Lets just get SQ to get a more user friendly interface for mobile check ins !

some dude

Totally agree, Passbook is great, and open, and doens't even require an app. It's unfortunate that while SQ's hard product is a class leader, their website/app are stuck in 1995.

lsed

I dont think anyone can board with a mobile app in SIN. It seems you're always required to have a printed boarding pass?

stargold

This.

If SQ's home airport, i.e. SIN airport authority won't allow mobile boarding passes (as I believe it is the case currently), then it pretty much makes any effort to implement mobile boarding pases pointless at this point in time. Passbook is certainly out of the question.

lokijuh

One theory, it seems that most (but not quite all) of the airlines using Passbook (according to Wikipedia) have substantial borderless operations (ie domestic or Schengen), where mobile boarding passes can come in really handy. Maybe it's not so much of a priority for airlines such as SQ, which are purely international, and therefore passengers need to pass through immigration when taking most of their flights. A number other purely international carriers like CX, EK, EY and QR are also absent from the list (assuming it is up to date).

roverkt

SIN does allow mobile boarding passes, as per SQ's website:

http://www.singaporeair.com/en_UK/pl...bile-services/

To quote the relevant bit:

"*Mobile Boarding Pass is currently available for flights departing from Singapore, Amsterdam, Auckland, Bangkok, Barcelona, Christchurch, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Fukuoka, Hong Kong, Osaka, London, Manchester, Milan, Munich, Nagoya, Rome, Taipei, Tokyo (Haneda), Tokyo (Narita), and Zurich (excluding US-bound flights)."

And if you download the SQ IOS app, there's a button on the bottom left where you can retrieve your mobile boarding pass (a QR code). I've downloaded it before but never tried using it because of its inconvenience, and frankly, I can't trust the app to work when I need it to and don't want to risk unnecessary hassles. I hope SQ isn't using this as a test case to gauge interest in mobile boarding passes before developing IOS integration cos the reason for the apparent lack of demand would be that the SQ app itself is so unreliable and user unfriendly.

Passbook, of course, is a vastly different story -- call me an AAPL fan but it did feel good to see the "wow this is so cool" in the eyes of my colleagues and other passengers when they saw the ease with which I checked in simply by using my iPhone 5. I even got a few winks from security agents who had to verify my ID against it.

Only slight hitch was when the BA agent refused to touch my phone and asked me to place it under the scanner. I suppose they don't want to be held liable for accidentally dropping my iPhone, or maybe just that if it enters hibernate mode, the owner would know best how to wake it up quickly.

So I surmise what's left is just the integration of the app with Passbook, and the still elusive "unreasonable conditions" AAPL sets that apps developer vbroucek says exist but somehow isn't able to name.

SQ just probably isn't willing to try something new unless it's tried and tested, I feel...

roverkt

Yes this is hellishly annoying. I'm not sure why the website defaults to the mobile version after some clicks when the full website version is much easier to deal with, especially with seat selection.

Awesom Andy

CX has its own mobile bps, but I've never seen anyone use it (apart from myself).

Daxiuyi

Not 100% relevant because I prefer Android rather than iOS (but if you want to play in Apple's walled garden, go right ahead). But I have used SQ mobile boarding passes at Changi via the SQ app.

Basically you go straight up to the security counter where they check your details, tell the guy you're flying on SQ (doesn't work with any other airlines - tried once with MH and no dice), they scan your QR code and give you a little slip of paper with your name, flight, gate # etc.