UK Ferry Tickets

Queueing up at airport check-ins to hand over old-fashioned paper tickets will soon become a thing of the past.

Over 50 per cent of airlines offer online check-in and 89 per cent are planning to offer it within two years. Passengers are not taking it up quite as quickly as it is being offered; 21 per cent of travellers use online check-in and that is expected to rise to 35 per cent by the end of 2008.

E-tickets are widely used and, by the end of 2008, 86 per cent of all tickets will be electronic.

Everyone I know who gets an e-ticket simply prints it out from their computer. Often they end up with several sheets rather than the one ticket they used to have.

Meanwhile, online check-in was great when it first came out. When you got to the airport, you simply walked up to an empty desk to drop off your bags while fellow passengers waited an eternity in a queue. However, online check-in is now becoming so commonplace that the queue to drop off bags is often as long as the one to check-in as normal.

At Heathrow and Gatwick you can do an eye-recognition test that allows you to speed through immigration. Again, this is a great service but I will soon slow down when everyone starts doing it.

Guest Article by Jeremy Skidmore

Tuesday, October 30th, 2007