[photopress:Airline_Tickets.jpg,full,alignright]The day of the paper air ticket has nearly passed. The electronic ticket which you access through the Internet and print out through your computer is abroad in the land. Soon the printed version will fade from the scene. There will be no regrets on the industry side. An expert with the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC) said they are already on their way out.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) which represents airlines, not passengers, will stop providing paper tickets, which now account for more than 70 percent of China’s paper air ticket sales, as of October 16.
Li Qi, an expert with the security technology center of the CAAC, an expert with the security technology center of the CAAC said all Chinese airlines will popularize electronic air tickets by the end of this year.
Li Qi said, ‘E-ticketing will reduce the operational costs of the airlines, making price drops possible.’ The cost of an e-ticket is about a tenth of that of a paper air ticket, according to the IATA, which required its 261 member airlines to abandon all paper tickets by the end of 2007.
With e-ticketing, passengers can make reservations on line or, sometimes, by telephone and check in with a ticket number. That is the theory. There are some practical reservations which may make it happen a little slower than these industry experts forecast.
Many passengers feel insecure about holding no tickets in hand.
Getting a reimbursement is very difficult because many airports and ticket selling agencies flatly refuse to print reimbursement vouchers for e-tickets.
On a multi-trip ticket it only requires for one sector to go wrong and the system falls apart. The customer has to find a way to reissue all the new segments. And where does the customer do that?
Zhu Qingyu, who is in charge of market research at the China Air Transport Association said facing those difficulties, the e-ticketing needs to improve its selling system and after sales service. He is right. Airlines love electronic tickets because it save them money. Not all passengers love them to the same extent.
Source: Xinhua