E-Tickets --> Paper Tickets
 

This may be premature, but I'd like to hear other opinions on this one..

I have tickets BDL-MSY-AVP for mid-May. Should I think about getting those converted to paper tickets in case US Airways shuts down? I've heard you're better off with paper tickets in these instances.

I'm bumping this up since no one has responded. I'm interested in this as well as I have US award tickets for UA flights next year too.

I'm not sure it really matters. If you are booked on UA, then they must have a electronic record in their systems that you are ticketed to fly with them. Would not seem to make a difference if you are holding paper vs. an E-ticket.

I will agree with this. I think United has all the same info in the system. I think this is premature still. I do understand that no one knows the future of US but it has been that way since 2000 :(

Anyhow what I would sugest is to print out as much of the receipt information as possible. For all my future flights I will carry both an itinerary and also a eticket receipt that show the ticket number on it and fare basis. This is something I tend to do anyhow.

Happy flying :)

The only reason to have a paper ticket is if you think you might need to take it to another carrier in the event of service interruption.

For example, when a strike occurs, other carriers will often try to accomodate passengers on a space available basis and accept the original ticket as payment (which they later submit to the original carrier for collection). If you have an e-ticket, that usually won't work.

With respect to a possible US shutdown, I don't think it will matter whether you have e-tix or paper for award travel. UA and other *A carriers will still have a record of your e-ticket in their reservation systems. Whether they choose to honor that ticket is a matter of some debate.

IMO it is highly unlikely that a non-*A carrier will honor a US award ticket for travel - they aren't in the business of providing free travel to competitor's customers.