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Southwest Airlines Is Doing Away With Pneumatic Tubes, Paper Tickets (consumerist.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the get-with-the-times dept.

As part of Southwest's biggest tech upgrade in its 45 years of existence, the company will doing away with several of its antiquated practices, including paper tickets and the use of pneumatic tubes to send messages at airports. Consumerist reports: The airline says the goal of these upgrades is to keep planes moving in and out of airports as quickly as possible. "We're looking for minutes," Chief Operating Officer Mike Van de Ven told Bloomberg. "How do I save a minute here, a minute there? In 2017, we are more deliberate in our continuous improvement efforts." The new reservation system will allow Southwest to accept foreign money -- something its rivals can already do -- bounce back faster from storms, and have more control over price changes and schedules. Ramp workers will be getting tablets with real-time information to speed up airplanes' "turn time" -- how quickly they can deboard and reboard passengers and take off again. Tarmac staffers also won't be using pneumatic tubes anymore to send notes via canister about lost luggage and other communications to the cargo workers in charge of calculating jet weight and balance. Digital transmissions will replace that system, as well as printouts for workers who transport bags to and fro. Customers will be seeing changes as well, as the new reservation system means Southwest can ditch paper tickets altogether and stick with electronic tickets only.

57 of 92 comments (clear)

  1. Big tech! by aglider · · Score: 1

    Both the pneumatic tubes and the paper tickets.
    it took a 5 year project I presume!

    --
    Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
  2. Rough edges visible miles away by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Pneumatic tubes were state of the art 160-odd years ago, so you could say "time for change". And the spirit of the times has it that the more electronic everything, the more automated, ICTified, digitalised, digitally transformed, or whatever the buzzword is this week, it must be automatically better, right?

    Well, no. Why does "accept foreign currency" depend on not using pneumatic tubes? One'd think that it's much easier to transport foreign notes to the back office using a tube than scanning it or something. Or, you know, walking. We don't have zippy zappy star trek transporters yet. So the argumentation is a little silly, and that means that the real story is something else. We're seeing an attempt to "projectize" themselves out of some corporate inertia swamp. That's the real story.

    I for me think that's fine and dandy but be careful not to throw out the good with the bad. Electronic-only boarding passes? How am I supposed to hold those? So they're now requiring me to carry a mobile phone or tablet just to hold that ticket? Doesn't seem a good idea to me. Especially since the TSA might^Wwill seize the thing if I don't allow them to take a complete copy of everything that's on it.

    So I don't really care what this here airline, or any other airline, wants to do internally. I do care as soon as I have to bow and scrape to their internal procedures, moreso when that exposes me to entirely avoidable risk. Are they going to give out loaner tablets for the tickets maybe? If they want to be all-electronic-everything-rainbow-fartsy, then they shall have to. Bet they didn't think about that at all.

    1. Re: Rough edges visible miles away by Mitreya · · Score: 2

      99.9% of the people flying have a cell phone, but keep coming up with these potentially insightful thoughts.

      And the phone never runs out of charge unexpectedly.
      Also, a phone would never refuse to connect to internet when you are trying to download your ticket in line in the airport (happened to me a few months ago).

    2. Re: Rough edges visible miles away by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      So, lack $60 for a shit android phone from a China but have the money for a ticket? (Since I am assuming you mean people coming properly, if you think that customs is involved)

      Try $30. Fuck, you can pay $40 for a prepaid Android phone in a shop in the USA. A Motorola one, even, the cheap little moto.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    3. Re: Rough edges visible miles away by tomhath · · Score: 3, Informative

      So fly a different airline if you insist on having a paper ticket and reserved seat, Southwest won't miss you.

    4. Re: Rough edges visible miles away by Powercntrl · · Score: 1

      Try $30. Fuck, you can pay $40 for a prepaid Android phone in a shop in the USA. A Motorola one, even, the cheap little moto.

      Try $15 and change.

      https://www.walmart.com/ip/Net...

      Damn burner phones cost less than the dinner I had last night.

      --

      ---
      DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
    5. Re: Rough edges visible miles away by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      I'm pretty sure your phone won't die "unexpectedly"

      I updated the apps on my phone before a flight a year ago and found that there was a bug in the SMS app that prevented the phone from sleeping. I lost 30% of the charge on the way to the airport. If I hadn't noticed, it would have been flat long before I tried to board my connecting flight. I don't know what their procedure is to handle this, but I'd imagine that it involves printing paper boarding passes, which requires them to keep all of the associated infrastructure.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    6. Re: Rough edges visible miles away by knightghost · · Score: 1

      Have you seen how many people fumble their phones and hold up the line? It'll take 3x longer to board if everyone has to use their cell.

      Paper works better.

    7. Re:Rough edges visible miles away by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 2

      The article mentions electronic tickets, not boarding passes. These e-tickets are little more than a reservation number in the form of a QR code which can be scanned from a phone or a printout to save a little time at the terminal, but the number can still be manually entered by the staff member if need be. A couple of times I've flown, the airline didn't even ask for my ticket and got my reservation on screen simply by scanning my passport.

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    8. Re: Rough edges visible miles away by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Or your frcken battery dies right before TSA line.

    9. Re: Rough edges visible miles away by DarkOx · · Score: 5, Informative

      law of large numbers. Pick an aircraft with 140+ seats all sold someone is going to have problems with the device. It will be disruptive.

      That said the article is about tickets, which are NOT boarding passes. For those who don't fly often let me explain: I can't remember EVER having a paper plane ticket. e-tickets have been a thing since the 90's even non-computery types usually use e-tickets because that is what their travel agent or secretary does for them. The general public usually books online. and you guessed is issued an e-ticket, which is really just a reservation number/code. They then just show up at the check-in counter and provide their name, destination airport, and the reservation number if they know it and the customer service person looks it up and prints them a boarding pass.

      Boarding passes not tickets are what the TSA scans, and what the airline either rips (small carriers that server county airports and the like still do this) or scans at the gate, so they have an accurate passenger manifest and ensure nobody gets on the wrong flight.

      Assuming this is talking about tickets and not boarding passes than I would say the time to retire paper ticketing infrastructure was a long time ago as its not useful and I can't think of really any reason why anyone anywhere needs to use. On the other hand paper boarding passes are nice. They are much faster to scan than trying to guess what distance your cell phone screen needs to be held at so they can read the QR code. I really wish people would not do that. When you use those dumb wallet apps or even the airlines own app you are holding up the line, you are THAT GUY and I hate you!

      Additionally after a long week onsite somewhere when I am on my way home I'd like to be able to watch the airlines movies streamed over wifi to my phone or read a book with the kindle app and not fear that a dead battery is going to complicate getting on my connecting flight! Its nice to know I can just pull that paper pass out of my pocket and go, even if I have drained my phone watching "Die Hard 14 - People are still leaving piles of money in strange places" on the plane.

      --
      Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
    10. Re:Rough edges visible miles away by Nkwe · · Score: 4, Informative

      I for me think that's fine and dandy but be careful not to throw out the good with the bad. Electronic-only boarding passes? How am I supposed to hold those? So they're now requiring me to carry a mobile phone or tablet just to hold that ticket?

      The article talked about paper tickets not paper boarding passes. They are not the same thing. A paper ticket is a document that holds the value of your journey, it is like cash and similar to cash, expensive to handle. A boarding pass is a document that says you may get on the plane and on most airlines indicates your seat assignment. The boarding pass holds no monetary value. The boarding pass typically has a ticket reference number on it, but it is not the actual ticket. All other airlines that I am aware of (at least the majors in the US) got rid of paper tickets years ago, they all still have options for paper boarding passes. I don't fly Southwest due to their boarding process and lack of assigned seats, so I wasn't aware but was surprised to hear that an airline was still using paper tickets.

    11. Re: Rough edges visible miles away by thsths · · Score: 1

      Yes, 99.9% have a cell phone. But: 0.1% of a few million is still a lot of disgruntled customers.

      And there is the question whether the cell phone is compatible with whatever software contraption Southwest are working on. I know, they are pretty decent when it comes to software, but again 99.9% is not good enough.

    12. Re: Rough edges visible miles away by Notabadguy · · Score: 1

      Yes, 99.9% have a cell phone. But: 0.1% of a few million is still a lot of disgruntled customers.

      Yeah?

      Businesses would be THRILLED to have a 99.9% satisfaction rating - because there are ALWAYS going to be people who are upset about what they got / how they were treated /other. Professional complainers.

    13. Re: Rough edges visible miles away by Bender0x7D1 · · Score: 1

      Assuming this is talking about tickets and not boarding passes than I would say the time to retire paper ticketing infrastructure was a long time ago as its not useful and I can't think of really any reason why anyone anywhere needs to use.

      While 88% of the US population has Internet, only 77% have broadband. Dial-up would make it hard to shop for, and purchase, plane tickets. Plus, 92% of the population has cell phones, only 77% have a smart phone - which makes it impossible to pull up your electronic documents. Reference

      Just because you can't imagine why anyone would need it, doesn't mean there aren't valid reasons for it. You just need a bit more imagination. I mean, we didn't even get into foreign tourists who might not have a cell plan in the US. The elderly. The disabled (ex: blind). Or people who do not use technology for religious reasons (Amish). Or who live where there is no Internet or cell service - at all (Nowhere, Alaska).

      --
      Reading code is like reading the dictionary - you have to read half of it before you can go back and understand it.
    14. Re: Rough edges visible miles away by Known+Nutter · · Score: 1

      When you use those dumb wallet apps or even the airlines own app you are holding up the line, you are THAT GUY and I hate you!

      Yes... hurry up and scan all those boarding passes quickly so everyone can stand in line inside the jetway with their thumbs in their asses.

      --
      Beware of the Leopard.
    15. Re: Rough edges visible miles away by SvnLyrBrto · · Score: 1

      I would venture a guess that 99.9% is a low estimate for the number of people who have a phone. Regardless of what the actual number is though, I'd also guess that it is dwarfed by the number of people who live in the states that have refused to implement the REAL ID act and whose citizens are going o suddenly find themselves unable to fly at all next year.

      --
      Imagine all the people...
    16. Re:Rough edges visible miles away by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      Pneumatic tubes was still in common use even 20 years ago. The problem is that "state of the art" takes a very long time to get into common use, and when it is in use it's often nowhere as good as proponents claim. Capital costs and training costs will suck up the majority of savings here anyway, meanwhile the actual workers will be clicking, clicking, clicking, clicking, pounding the side of the machine, clicking again, and just for one order.

    17. Re: Rough edges visible miles away by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      But how do I staple my phone to the expense report?

    18. Re: Rough edges visible miles away by nanoflower · · Score: 1

      I do not have a cell phone and have no desire to get one. I, for one, enjoy my lack of an electronic leash even though I have the money to get one and still have enough cash left over to get an airline ticket.

    19. Re: Rough edges visible miles away by default+luser · · Score: 2

      And there's nothing stopping people from printing their own ticket. This is what I already do with e-tickets, since I don't always trust my phone.

      --

      Man is the animal that laughs.
      And occasionally whores for Karma.

    20. Re:Rough edges visible miles away by markxz · · Score: 1

      Pneumatic tubes are still common today in cash heavy businesses to move money from front to back of house securely. In hospitals they are used for transport of blood samples.

      I would have thought the need for them is less essential in airports which mostly deal with card transactions.

    21. Re: Rough edges visible miles away by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      That is not true. There is no difference to the TSA if what you are displaying is a JPEG or an HTML rendition.

    22. Re: Rough edges visible miles away by Gussington · · Score: 1

      Have you seen how many people fumble their phones and hold up the line? It'll take 3x longer to board if everyone has to use their cell.

      Paper works better.

      Makes no difference how fast you board as the slowest part of the boarding procedure is passengers dicking about finding their seats, working out how to get their oversize bag in the overhead compartment, and holding up everyone else while they do this.
      If anything they need to deliberately slow down the onboarding to give people more time to sort their shit out.

    23. Re:Rough edges visible miles away by arglebargle_xiv · · Score: 1

      That was my reaction as well. What's next, will they be retiring their biplanes and closing the smoking saloons on their airliners?

    24. Re: Rough edges visible miles away by DarkOx · · Score: 1

      Those people STILL HAVE NO USE and probably NO ACCESS to paper plane ticket, unless they are literally going to the airport to buy one at the airline counter where they could still be easily issued an e-ticket!

      Think for a second great aunt Tilly is going to go to her travel agent or make a reservation by phone (voice). They can then and in fact do provide here with an e-ticket and the reservation number. Hell even if they have to mail of fax her, the travel documents it can still just have an e-ticket number printed on it that she can read off at the check-in counter using the same process the rest of us use.

      I meant it when I said there is no reason anyone needs a paper ticket. Considering all the classes of people you mention I still can't see a use case for any of them being given a 'traditional' airline ticket. My mother has some in he scarp book for her travels as a child that is the only time I have even seen paper tickets (I am in my mid thirties). These things only even exist today for the people that go out of their way to get them.

      --
      Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
    25. Re: Rough edges visible miles away by cthulhu11 · · Score: 1

      This is why I won't rely on them. Or when you get delayed for hours and your battery runs out because either you didn't carry a charger, or someone else is already camped out at all three of the outlets in the entire terminal.

    26. Re: Rough edges visible miles away by cthulhu11 · · Score: 1

      Or board sanely. That means getting rid of half a dozen phases of special priority boarding, and instead board from the back and sides first. If facilities and weather permit, board from the back door as well.

    27. Re: Rough edges visible miles away by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      This is Southwest, they've already eliminated that with the cattle call system which encourages those to grab the first reasonable seat available - generally it flows front to back window/aisle and then the last third fills in the middle seats. It is FAR faster than conventional airline boarding in my experience.

    28. Re: Rough edges visible miles away by Gussington · · Score: 1

      Or board sanely. That means getting rid of half a dozen phases of special priority boarding, and instead board from the back and sides first. If facilities and weather permit, board from the back door as well.

      I was on an Emirates A380 flight in Prague when they announced they'd board in sections. Sweet I thought, stack the back rows first, working forward, creating an organised boarding process. Well some fucktard read the instructions wrong and decided to load the front sections first, then called the section immediately behind after it. The result was pure chaos and the flight got delayed by 30 minutes due to ensuing mess. I just don't understand how something so simple can be done so wrong so often.

    29. Re: Rough edges visible miles away by kaatochacha · · Score: 1

      My dad does NOT have a cell phone with anything other than phone capability.
      Yes, he's old. But that's like saying "No access for wheelchairs, if you wanna fly, you gotta walk"

    30. Re: Rough edges visible miles away by kaatochacha · · Score: 1

      I'm pretty sure your phone won't die "unexpectedly"

      bwahahahahahahaha!. I'm sorry, that's the funniest thing I've read all day.
      https://www.google.com/webhp?s...

    31. Re: Rough edges visible miles away by kaatochacha · · Score: 1

      Thanks, I hadn't thought ticket/boarding pass. You're right, I haven't had a paper ticket in forever.

    32. Re: Rough edges visible miles away by cthulhu11 · · Score: 1

      Wince. Families traveling together might need divergence from optimal, but the successive waves of FFM tiers, active military who are rarely present, etc. are a bit much, especially when most travelers don't really have much of a choice what airline they fly. I've at times had gate agents hassle me about boarding with a special-needs child FFS, but salespeople who've never heard of webex? Please.

    33. Re: Rough edges visible miles away by Gussington · · Score: 1

      Uh, we're you replying to me?

  3. Only now? by johannesg · · Score: 5, Funny

    By the time they get rid of the pneumatic tubes for tickets for people, Elon Musk will be selling tickets for pneumatic tubes for people...

    1. Re:Only now? by Rei · · Score: 3, Informative

      Normally I wouldn't respond, because I'd think that most people would be able to recognize a joke... but because whenever Hyperloop comes up people actually seem to think that it is a pneumatic tube system...

      1) Hyperloop Alpha is not a pneumatic tube system. The capsules are not pushed by pressure. Quite the opposite, the tubes are a partial vacuum. Capsules are propelled by short accelerator segments, then spend most of the trip drifting (except for at very low speeds at each end, where it settles down onto electrically-driven wheels).

      And for the other side of the spectrum...

      2) Hyperloop Alpha is not a maglev vactrain. It is neither maglev nor a vactrain. More to the point, it can't even function in a hard vacuum. Lift is provided not by maglev, but by an airbearing; it's a very-close ground effect aircraft. Because it's not a hard vacuum, air builds up ahead of it; it uses a compressor to shunt the air to behind it and to boost the air bearings.

      ((Insert "The More You Know" rainbow here))

      --
      Aeris Died For Your Sins.
    2. Re:Only now? by jenningsthecat · · Score: 3, Funny

      ...whenever Hyperloop comes up people actually seem to think that it is a pneumatic tube system...

      1) Hyperloop Alpha is not a pneumatic tube system. The capsules are not pushed by pressure. Quite the opposite, the tubes are a partial vacuum.

      So is it fair to say that Hyperloop sucks and a pneumatic tube system blows?

      --
      'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
  4. Please don't ditch paper completely by TFlan91 · · Score: 2

    I love digital tickets, but sometimes, on long journeys, i like the reassurance of having a paper ticket in case anything happens to my phone.

    1. Re: Please don't ditch paper completely by hobbes+vs+boyle · · Score: 5, Insightful

      TFA mentions *tickets* only, not boarding passes. May be sloppy language on their end. But if not: I haven't seen a paper airline ticket in ages.

    2. Re:Please don't ditch paper completely by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Ha!

      No, you misunderstand. You must be under 35 or so.

      Back in the 20th century, Airlines issues paper tickets. They're like a ticket to a play, sporting event. etc. They mailed you these tickets. Everyone freaked out about losing them or forgetting them. If you lost them or forgot them, you had to buy another one. It sucked.

      Then sometime in the 90s or so, the airlines switched to all electronic tickets. They were tied to your identity. What you're talking about it a "boarding pass". Those aren't going away.

      It's incredibly shocking though that Southwest still has this relic of the 20th century.

    3. Re:Please don't ditch paper completely by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      Digital cargo handling, hmm, internet of things. You go north, your luggage goes south, to be picked up by someone else ;).

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    4. Re:Please don't ditch paper completely by Gussington · · Score: 1

      I love digital tickets, but sometimes, on long journeys, i like the reassurance of having a paper ticket in case anything happens to my phone.

      You still have this option, the responsibility of printing is merely shifting from them to you if you so choose.

    5. Re: Please don't ditch paper completely by Gussington · · Score: 1

      I fly Southwest almost exclusively and I always get the paper ticket. I am often on a phone call during boarding and someone who scans 1000s of tickets a day will always be faster at me at scanning the ticket.

      They still scan the ticket, you merely hand them a phone instead of a piece of paper. Everything else is the same.
      If you're a rude enough person that you are on the phone during this transaction you can always say "one sec, I'm just scanning my boarding pass". it literally takes 3 secs max. Crisis averted...

  5. Meanwhile... by hyades1 · · Score: 2

    Somewhere in Russia, a team of hackers are licking their chops.

    --
    I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
    1. Re:Meanwhile... by Bert64 · · Score: 2

      Well doing something last means you should be able to learn from the mistakes made by others, and therefore not be saddled with lots of unmaintainable legacy cruft...
      Unfortunately, late adopters seem to want to just copy everyone else - mistakes and all.

      --
      http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
    2. Re:Meanwhile... by hyades1 · · Score: 1

      That is one of the wisest comments I've read here in a while!

      --
      I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
    3. Re:Meanwhile... by Gussington · · Score: 1

      Somewhere in Russia, a team of hackers are licking their chops.

      At what? That Southwest are now doing the same thing that every other airline in the western world has been doing for years? None of this is new...

  6. Internet Piping by pipingguy · · Score: 1

    So they're replacing one system of tubes with another system of tubes?

  7. Not paper boarding passes, paper tickets by ErichTheRed · · Score: 3, Informative

    I work in the airline IT world. "Paper tickets" aren't the paper boarding passes you print out at the kiosk. These are actual tickets issued at travel agents or airport ticket counters, and go back to a time when you could buy a ticket independent of a reservation or seat assignment. In fact, travel agents used to be able to manually hand-write them and the only thing keeping them secure was that ticket stock was controlled. It's similar to buying a train ticket for a commuter railroad from the machine at the station...unless you're reserving a seat, you can exchange it for a seat on whatever train you get on. Same went for paper tickets -- if you had a ticket that said "JFK to LAX" you could go to the airport and check in on any flight if you had an open reservation.

    The article mentions that they're doing this to get rid of paper buddy passes, which really are the only paper tickets most domestic airlines deal with these days. It's incredibly rare to process paper tickets for passengers these days.

  8. No More Pneumatic Tubes? by PPH · · Score: 1

    Well, that sucks!

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
    1. Re:No More Pneumatic Tubes? by Szeraax · · Score: 1

      Actually, it will suck less than it does now...

  9. Re:Won't be more reliable by TWX · · Score: 1

    To nitpick, since you've opened yourself up for it, the Windows Domain Controller and the AD domain is not the same as Ethernet, and isn't even the same thing as TCP/IP. On top of that, if Southwest uses AD, they are not limited to a single DC, nor to DCs in one geographic area or site to span their entire domain across the WAN.

    Granted, it takes time and arguably money to design a network and directory services system that can handle the fault-tolerance they would need, but if they spend their time and money wisely they can probably achieve a network that can handle segment drops due to weather and other problems that inevitably affect wide area networks.

    --
    Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
  10. Re:E-tickets have limitations by tomhath · · Score: 1

    When is the last time you needed to show a paper ticket to get your boarding pass? Just insert a credit card or driver's license into the kiosk and it finds the ticket for you.

  11. Tubes by Patent+Lover · · Score: 1

    Looks like their replacing their pneumatic tubes with those internet tubes that get clogged with emails.

  12. End of an Era by saccade.com · · Score: 1

    Ah, pneumatic tubes. Explains this bizarre label I saw taped to the wall at a Southwest get at LAX: https://twitter.com/isonno/sta...

  13. Does this mean... by martinfb · · Score: 1

    Does this mean that my seat will not get smaller (again)?!

    --


    Self-importance and self-indulgence is the root of ALL evil.