Shakyuk

so true

BristolUK

This is something that conerns me should I ever get a trip to Europe organised for the family.

It was all so straightforward checking me and suitcase in and getting my boarding card. Seems more involved now, unless it's still an option.

scrubbedexpat091

While some airlines mostly low cost ones charge for a boarding pass at the airport a good chunk of airlines still don't.

If you have a printer you can check in online and print your boarding pass.

BristolUK

They charge for a boarding pass? What happens if you don't want one, they just tell you your seat number?
I've done the ticket printing loads of times including all my trips to Canada before the permanent move.

Most of my holidays for years were done like that too, the only exception being where I had taken a late booking and collected tickets at the airport.

I can see that checking in on line would save queuing at the check in desk but I'm not seeing any time saving if you have baggage to check in as well.

Atlantic Xpat

You have to have a boarding pass. Low Cost Carriers (Easyjet/Ryanair) want you to use a boarding pass on your phone or print off at home. They actively discourage you from printing off one at the airport by charging for it. The Easyjet app is actually pretty good - you can check in, get your electronic boarding pass & it'll track your inbound flight for you. (So no more wondering whether it'll be here in a minute as you can see that it's only just left Magaluff & will be another hour or more!. Knowledge is power and all that.)

Air Canada et al, will still let you print a boarding pass at the airport. Generally you'll go to a kiosk, print your boarding pass, print your bag tags, put them on yourself and then queue up to drop your bags off. The electronic boarding pass provides little benefit in this scenario other than its one less thing to carry/lose. Where it does come into its own is if you are travelling just with carryon. In that case, just breeze through security, (Ok, you're presumably flying through Halifax, so less breeze through security than line up and observe the utter chaos, organisational dysfunction and glacially slow service that is legendary in Halifax), and you are straight airside and ready to fly.

dbd33

As a serial slagger of airlines and airports I feel obliged to say that I heart EasyJet.

Atlantic Xpat

I'm generally in agreement, except that I seldom carry cash in Canada. Tap and Go for debit/credit is every bit as available in St John's as it is in London. Apple Pay and Uber not so much though. I seldom use a cheque other than to set up a new payment & was amused the other day to find that Scotia online actually has a feature where you can print off a cheque with all the relavent details to do this. An advance! but not as much as being able set up payments through a direct debit form or, shock horror, completely online.

The increasing use of electronic payments is a boon for the traveller as it removes the need to bother about getting local currency. I only get sterling in London for the 50% of black cabs who don't take plastic. (& who are luddites that deserve to lose out to Uber). Everything else from the tube & buses to restaurants & pubs can be tap and go. Or Apple Pay.

I've come across a couple of times where having no cash has caught me out in places I would have thought had embraced technology. Notably Hong Kong, where taxi's only take cash and Singapore where I landed with warm glow of confidence that taxi's only took plastic to find that since my last visit they'd fallen out with Visa (which I have) and switched to Mastercard (which I don't). That involved an embarrassing conversation with a cab driver with my blushes saved by hotel doorman who lent me some cash til I could get to an ATM!

Atlantic Xpat

Again I'm with you on the basis that you get exactly what you expect. Low frills, unless you pay for them. No pretension, generally cheerful cabin staff & an experience generally above that of Canadian carriers. The travel hack I recommend is buying a seat at the front of the plane or at the very least buying Speedy Boarding. It's relatively cheap (especially if one is conditioned to Canadian airfares) and enables skipping the line up & getting overhead locker space for your stuff. I'm amazed that more people dont do this.

Shakyuk

Part of me really wanted to argue with you on that point to make a big thread of irony... A bigger part of me couldn't be bothered though

scrubbedexpat091

Kind of amusing in a way that the oldest no frills airline in North America (Southwest) has more frills then many of the traditional carriers so no.

Free checked bags for example where all the traditional airlines charge.

caretaker

.

Jingsamichty

I'm a weekly Ryanair traveller at the moment. They are excellent at what they do which is getting you from A to B as quickly as possible. I always get the 'Leisure Plus' fare which is the equivalent of speedy boarding. Hand luggage only, on the plane first so always get space in the overhead locker. No fuss, no nonsense - well, apart from trying to flog you scratchcards.

A 1hr flight from Stansted to Bremen, and almost never late or delayed. The app is great, no boarding cards required. All for about 50 Euro return. You can't knock that.

BristolUK

So long as I could print one at home, okay.
So long as one has a suitable cell phone. I don't.
Thanks, that's the impression I got from past comments. So possibly queuing twice if there's no machine free. But I imagine the drop off queue will be quicker.
I kind of like the security of having that in hand - after all, baggage now checked in so not carrying it anymore. It keeps me focused.
Unlikely for our Europe scenario - which seems as likely to fly via Toronto or Montreal - but possible for, say, Moncton-Toronto for 3 or 4 days.

Siouxie

No, at Pearson they won't allow you into the queue for dropping off bags (the old check-in) unless you have your boarding pass, as my sister found out.

dave_j

I have amajor issue with today's 'smart' technology.

It's dumb to place so much reliance on gadgets that seek to eliminate the 'plan B' in our lives. Plan A, the smart phone or whatever, is wonderful when it works, and it does this most of the time.. but when it doesn't the absense of a plan B raises the blood pressure and leaves you sweating.

There is a general inability of most to understand the design fundamentals of the gadget.

How many have pushed the little button marked 'Return to factory settings' and stared wide eyed in the hope that it'll do just that? How many have breathed a big sigh of relief when it springs once again into life or sunk despairing in the nearest chair and reached for the wine when it hasn't?

Out there, there are engineers who design and build gadgets. These are the people in control of their lives, the rest of us simply hope that they have their brains in gear because we have come to rely on them so much.

Let's face it, we've become slaves to little plastic boxes and they run our lives for us. Forget the CIA or whatever the KGB calls itself today, it's technology that has us in it's grip today and we should use it with care.