I just booked two e-tickets on AC. One was through Expedia and the other through AC's on-line "Personal Ticket Office".

The Expedia ticket had 6 segments but the statement that came back said that the e-ticket was confirmed. The Personal Ticket Office ticket was a simple 2 segment trip. Both were immediately upgraded to Executive Class using any fare confirmable at time of reservation upgrades.

The e-ticket documentation from Expedia, Personal Ticket Office (and all other on line vendors) does not provide enough detail regarding GST. This means that I have to get a copy of the sales receipt printed out at the ticket counter at the airport.

Last night it took me over 15 minutes to get these printouts (and I was the first in line)! Two problems arose: despite the confirmed e-ticket from Expedia, AC said that there is a 4 segment limit on e-tickets (I have had this problem with Canadian too) so they would have to reissue this all as a paper ticket. The simple Personal Ticket Office ticket was relatively easy to pop out a receipt for but because I had already upgraded she had to do lots of looking up in her agent book and force the ticket to print out an acceptable receipt with the right fare.

I was just dropping my brother off for his flight to LHR so the time didn't bother me. Had I tried to do that this morning when I am actually flying and will be somewhat pressed for time, I would have been royally ticked off! The only reason I have been insistent on e-tickets is that AC is having a promotion that includes theatre tickets and entries in a contest for a vacation based on e-tickets only.

So much for the benefits of e-tickets. I just may go back to paper tickets for a while until they get these and the other well known e-ticket bugs fixed.

I have sent a similar message to the AC SuperElite desk, we will see what their response is.

Sorry BB. Sounds like me, paper for first choice and e-tickets for a bonus only! Hopefully the wrinkles will soon be cleared from this e-tickrting.

BB, you know how much I fly...a lot. I have been using e-tickets on most of my most recent flights (including my real-time flight report that was so lengthy).

WHAT A NIGHTMARE THEY ARE!

Ticket agents and gate agents have no idea what is going on with them. Try changing to an earlier flight....forget it.....flight has left by the time they figure out how to do it.

No doubt the biggest problems for me have been using SE upgrades on AC that are 'through' segments (eg: flying from FRA-YYZ-YVR straight through). These require one certificate. Giving ONLY a boarding pass at YYZ (ie: no ticket and no upgrade cert.) just turns the gate agents mental.

I just did (Monday) YVR-YYZ-FRA....at YYZ the gate agent was yelling at me after she let ripped my stub from my boarding pass..."I NEED YOUR UPGRADE!!!" How embarrassing this was for me.....I said they pulled it at YVR. She let me go. Get on the A340....just about to sit down....In Charge FA comes up and calls me by name....saying I failed to provide my upgrade cert.....emabarrassing once again. I said "I told her at the gate desk it was pulled at YVR...please tell her to stop hassling me."

For sure this was due to it being an ET...cause they have nothing to take.

Also, every time I check in with an ET...they have different procedures....now they hand you a little card with baggage disclaimer....some give you lengthy paper of fine print....some only give you a boarding pass. Also, it has been pretty funny the different places they have stuck my baggage receipts.....once on my passport!!!!!!

Dorian

I have an e-tix for Air canada for my "North of the Border" trip Friday. Confirmed the ticket Wednesday night so I'm hoping there are no problems (of course I will post a trip report.)

Thanks for the warnings B-B! And we'll give you a Red Green Salute at the show Saturday night!

Just for the flip side of the issue -- I've used e-tickets succesfully on 120 flights this year, including delayed flights ranging from 1 hour to 1 day, re-routed flights, missed connections, being sent to a different airport, etc. Of course these were all domestic flights and to Canada on USAirways. I still consider them risky for international flights and on those I request paper tickets.

I've made on average 3-4 changes on my tickets. E-tickets make it soo easy. I've tried to exchange in one paper ticket and it's been a nightmare of finding out who in a remote office can send out an Airborne letter (they initially wanted me to get a second line manager's approval!!) and then seeing if it was actually sent, then arguing with the travel agency that they did receive it since AIrborne said they did, then the travel agency being delayed because of Floyd.

Personally, I'd use nothing but e-tickets for domestic travel. But as apparent from stories above -- YMMV!

I also have use E-tickets exclusively for the last two years for probably 300 flights and I have never once had a problem.

Have heard e-tickets cause a problem if one must switch airlines, so I avoid them. Is this the case?

every single time e-tickets caused and still cause me (or/and the check-in staff in Zurich and all over the world) more problems than paper-tickets. As long as my two main-carriers, being in the same (Star-) alliance (UA and LH), still work on two non-comparable computer-systems, e-tickets of one or the other (or both carriers) add to my problem not to get checked-through to my final destinations. And it is even worse, if my itinerary starts/ends with a non Star-Alliance member (like sometimes Swissair for me).

Oh yes, and try an e-ticket in Egypt if you want a real thrill! In March, TWA insisted in SFO that we take e-tickets to Cairo. MAYBE it would have been OK except that we flew on to Dubai. Upon return, we were not allowed in the transit lounge because the Egyptian authorities had never heard of e-tickets and viewed our receipt as a (duh) receipt. So we had to pay for visas to enter the country and go back in again. TWA reimbursed us (last week!!) but I will never do e-tickets internationally again.

I've been literally all over the world using e-tix, primarily on UA. Have only run into one problem, and that was last month in London.

If you take the Heathrow Express from Paddington Station to LHR you can check your bags at Paddington. If you're in BC or FC you can also get an expedited pass to speed you through security. Well, when I went to check my bags at Paddington I was asked for my ticket. I didn't have the physical ticket, as it was an e-ticket and the flight had been changed from LHR-IAD-SFO to the LHR-SFO non stop.

I think you can guess the rest. Without the ticket they wouldn't check me in, even though the agent (a LH employee) could look up on the res system, see my seat assignment on the flight, and see that it was an e-ticket. It all matched, but she was 'determined' not to take my luggage.

After some 'negotiations', the agent finally agreed to call United, who told her to take my bags and issue my pass for security.

None the less, would I do e-tickets again? Most definitely. In fact, I just finished 9 domestic flight segments in 8 days, all on e-tix and all on UA.

Some benefits.....

I was on the red eye SFO-IAD on Saturday evening, and between the check in counter and the RCC had a senior moment and lost my boarding pass. Simply asked for a new boarding pass at the RCC, and got one, no problem. Had it been a paper ticket with the coupon attached I would have had to file a lost ticket claim and buy a new ticket.

I'm forever changing itineraries mid trip. One fax back to the fantastic ladies at my local CTO and my itinerary is changed, without the need to reissue a ticket. Simply show my ID at my departing airport and I'm on my way. Don't even need the printed itinerary.

I for one love e-tix, and only get paper tickets under extreme duress when there is no other choice.

Robert Johnson

[This message has been edited by danville 1K (edited 09-17-1999).]

Catman: I had real problems with US Customs at YYZ trying to check in for my return flight to the US. The guy would not accept the ET receipt as a valid ticket. Finally I had to get the UA agent to escort me through immigration. When you check in at the start of your trip, I would get the ticket converted to a paper ticket if I were you.

So are there 4 segment limits on your e-tickets for U.S. based carriers? All Canadian tickets seem to have the 4 segment limit (so far).