I'm traveling to Belgrade, Serbia (the Former Yugoslavia) soon on a Lufthansa flight, ultimately. It's an e-ticket. I have this fear that I'm going to get to BEG for my return portion and have the lady look at me with a look of disdain or curiosity as I show her my printed itinerary.

So, what do you guys do when you go to a, ahem, weird, or maybe less infrastructured airport?


Thanks!

I've only been to a third world airport once. Fortunately, miami DID have computers, though

Yep, MIA is pretty bad. The best part about it is the mold green color scheme. It sets expectations appropriately for everything you experience afterwards.

When you check in for the first portion, explain your concerns and ask they print you something on card stock, either the e-ticket information or a paper ticket to get you through easier.

If they don't, bribe the old lady in Serbis with a box of chocolate or something

Even last year in Zurich (on a Continental flight to EWR), the pre-checkin security person looked at me like I was from Mars when I said I had an electronic ticket. She walked over and had what seemed like a ten-minute chat with her supervisor, then came back and asked me the standard security questions.

The person behind me in line also had an electronic ticket. She gave him the same completely puzzled look--the expression really suggested that it was the first time she had ever heard of such a thing--and went for another very long consulation with the supervisor. I guess this happened every time.

The Swiss are known for being highly efficient workers. Maybe this was just a bad day.

I would expect that your e-ticket would not be the first seen by LH contract workers in Belgrade....

I concur. I wouldn't be worried.

If you are, maybe you can get the agent at the originating airport to print out your itinerary on ticket stock type paper since "it looks official." I just realized cordelli already mentioned this. Oops.

When I travel a little off the grid, I often type up an itinerary containing my travel details. It's helped me out more than a few times when I've had hotel or car reservation problems -- when I hand it over to an agent, they seem to look at it as if it's an official document. (Of course, they might just be thinking "why did this anal retentive schmuck spend so much time typing up his itinerary?")



[This message has been edited by snorkmaster (edited Jan 04, 2004).]

Get a paper ticket printed.

My parents and my sister flew LH PHL-FRA-TXL on e-tickets in September, and they had massive problems at FRA both times.

And keep in mind that FRA is LH's hub, while Berlin is the German capital. Still...

BEG is not a third world airport it is just like airports in America or Europe (although a rather old one) So do not worry about using an e-ticket I have used one several times leaving BEG.

I think the airport which would have the most rouble dealing with an e-ticket which I have flown from is Dushanbe (Tajikistan) but then again I do not think that Tajikistan Airlines issues e-tickets.

Well Dushanbe better be ready for E-tickets, Air France just got authority to fly there. That said BEG will be able to handle your E-ticket without problem, as pointed out before you wont be the first to pass through with an electronic ticket.

The swiss are also known for following rules strictly and not tolerating process difference. In Switzerland everything that isn't illegal is mandatory.

I travel extensively in developing countries and ALWAYS get paper tickets just for this reason. In many countries (India, for example), you can't get into the airport at all without showing your ticket to a guard/soldier outside. I have low confidence in the familiarity of most of these guys with the e-ticket concept. Since they are usually toting large guns and have limited command of other languages, it seems like the best idea to make things as simple as possible.

Things must be going backwards in Germany (security?) I flew eticket ORD-FRA-TXL multiple times in 1999 without a hitch. Breezing through FRA was so fast that I barely even noticed it.

I did get a few blank stares last year when flying an eticket from HEL-ARN-ORD. At Stockholm you have to exit security get your luggage, and recheck it when you make a connection. And the guy did ask a few questions after seeing my iten. on a crumpled up sheet of paper, but let me through without much of a problem.

It's not just third-world or foreign airports that can be "weird" and require extra preparation.

Two friends of mine, on separate occasions, missed their NW flights out of TOL because the TSA screeners had never seen a boarding pass printed from NW's website. Each time, due to rush-hour traffic and underestimating how far TOL is from DTW, they didn't get to security until 20-30 minutes before departure, so the Mesaba/NW Airlink employees had already taken off their "ticket agent" hats and put on their "gate agent" hats, so there was no one behind the ticket counter to print them boarding passes that would look "real" to the TSA screener. Both missed their flights to DTW. One waited for the next TOL-DTW flight and (obviously) missed her connection. The other drove back to Detroit and made his connection, but had to argue with the DTW agents to resurrect his reservation, which had been cancelled for missing the first leg.