Two weeks ago I flew out to see a client in Nashville for a few days. Houston Intercontinental Airport and Continental Airlines instituted a new test program where you could have your boarding pass displayed on your browser enabled cell phone. I decided to give this a try and it worked like a charm!
Here's how it works: I logged into Continentals website to print my boarding pass. I saw a new link to have the boarding pass sent to my phone. So I clicked the link, and shortly an email showed up in my phone's email reader with a link to the boarding pass. When I got to the airport to go through security, I showed my driver's license, whipped out my phone, clicked the link, and my boarding pass with the bar code displayed on the screen. The TSA person used a hand scanner to scan the barcode, and I then proceed through security. Then at the gate during boarding, I again showed the same screen to the gate agent. She scanned the screen on my phone again, and I then boarded the plane for the trip to Nashille!
American Airlines is beginning to test this as well at various airports, and I would expect to see it rolled out pretty quickly to most airports. I intend to use the system again on my next flight. I must admit, I was a little nervous while standing in the security line, without a physical replication of my boarding pass in my hand. But, it worked fine, and helped the environment (albeit a tiny bit) in the process. Give it a try if you get the chance.
To Your Success,
Tim