No Boarding Pass or Documents issued - Facial Recognition Technology
Jun 16, 2017, 12:07 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: ORD, JFK, EWR, LGA
Programs: AA Lifetime Platinum, Air Canada Aeroplan, Delta Sky Miles
Posts: 213
No Boarding Pass or Documents issued - Facial Recognition Technology
Today I watched a segment on a national news station, about facial recognition technology. At this time, JetBlue and Delta airlines are testing Biometric Scanning to potentially replace boarding passes at the airport which will identify ticketing passengers and allow them to proceed and board their flight, without any documentation. According to the news, this might be accomplished rather soon, and could be in service nationwide in the not too distant future.
This all sounds good, but with no boarding pass or document, how will most passengers find their seats? That certainly needs to be addressed. Most of us frequent flyers would simply know our seats in advance of boarding, but how will the infrequent and once-a-year flyers fare in this situation? I can assume there would be massive chaos and seat poaching during boarding, unless a procedure is put into place that will give the travelers the seats they were assigned.
Anyone have any ideas? Has anyone had the opportunity to be on one of the test flights with facial recognition technology, and if so, where was your seat number displayed for your flight?
By the way, the only US airline this would not affect is SWA, as they’ve always had an open seating policy that seemingly works well for them.
This all sounds good, but with no boarding pass or document, how will most passengers find their seats? That certainly needs to be addressed. Most of us frequent flyers would simply know our seats in advance of boarding, but how will the infrequent and once-a-year flyers fare in this situation? I can assume there would be massive chaos and seat poaching during boarding, unless a procedure is put into place that will give the travelers the seats they were assigned.
Anyone have any ideas? Has anyone had the opportunity to be on one of the test flights with facial recognition technology, and if so, where was your seat number displayed for your flight?
By the way, the only US airline this would not affect is SWA, as they’ve always had an open seating policy that seemingly works well for them.
Jun 16, 2017, 1:19 pm
#2
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2013
Programs: DL PM, MR Titanium/LTP, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 10,130
My understanding is you would still have a ticket or e-ticket but just be able to board using biometrics instead of having to pull out your phone / ticket to board.
Presumably you could still reference your phone ticket to verify seat
Presumably you could still reference your phone ticket to verify seat
Jun 16, 2017, 1:44 pm
#3
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: RNO
Programs: AA/DL/UA
Posts: 10,766
What an incredible waste of time and money 
Criminy, even the corrections officers at your local county jail take pictures of inbound inmates from two directions, and take pictures of all tattoos, yet they don't scan the inmate's eyeballs.
Utterly friggin ridiculous
Criminy, even the corrections officers at your local county jail take pictures of inbound inmates from two directions, and take pictures of all tattoos, yet they don't scan the inmate's eyeballs.
Utterly friggin ridiculous
Jun 16, 2017, 2:46 pm
#4
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Bye Delta
Programs: AA EXP, HH Diamond, IHG Plat, Hyatt Plat, Marriott Plat, Nat'l Exec Elite, Avis Presidents Club
Posts: 16,264
This won't save any time at security. The bottleneck in the screening process is still sending the bags through the X-ray, and passing through the WTMD/MMW.
ID checks are already pointless... this seems like doubling down on pointlessness...
ID checks are already pointless... this seems like doubling down on pointlessness...
Jun 17, 2017, 3:00 am
#5
Moderator: Manufactured Spending
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 6,578
I would think that fingerprint or hand geometry technology might be better than facial recognition technology for this purpose.
Some membership facilities like gyms use this instead of physical cards. It works very well.
Some membership facilities like gyms use this instead of physical cards. It works very well.
