Last week I traveled between Canada and the US. Each time I travel, internationally or domestic, I’m always curious to see how and where the process will be modified due to the impact of technology. This time I noticed a few places where the changes had been made, and a few places where changes are still needed.
Ever since I started using a smartphone a few years ago, I’ve noticed ways in which my travel habits have been impacted. For example, I never print out boarding passes, car rental reservations, or directions to anything because I know I can access it electronically. I’ve heard some of my fellow professionals talk about having everything available electronically, including documents like our passports. I feel a bit conflicted about this for a number of reasons I will discuss later on.
When flying to the US from Toronto’s Pearson Airport, you’re required to pass immediately through immigration and customs to get to the boarding areas. On the US side, instead of filling out a paper customs form, you now go to a small station with a computer. Here you scan your documents, answer a few questions about what you’re carrying directly on the screen, and pose for a picture. Then a “receipt” of the transaction is printed out. This receipt determines which line you wait in to see the immigration officer. The paper is flimsy but it’s likely only printed for convenience so it doesn’t really matter. On the Canadian side you still fill out the paper form and then scan it into a machine, which prints out a scanned version of it, also on flimsy paper
To get to the actual immigration officer, I had to have my boarding pass scanned once or twice. Here I experienced a common challenge with having it electronically, namely that the barcode scanners can’t always read it off my screen. I have a protective covering over the screen so that could be part of it. This time the security officer instructed me to make my screen brighter and that seemed to do the trick.
Even though I love the convenience of having my boarding pass electronically, I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of annoyance at having to adjust my settings to have the barcode read. I’ve also had other problems arise due to having my boarding pass electronically instead of in paper. One time my battery was dangerously low. Another time I powered my phone down just as I was entering the plane only to have the flight attendant ask to see my boarding pass. When I explained I had just powered down my phone she was fully prepared to have me either de-board to get it printed and come back, or wait a couple of minutes for everything to power back up. Of course I powered the phone back on, but it caused a bit of a jam with the other passengers.
I’ve also noticed there are a number of areas in the airport where you’re just not supposed to be using electronic devices, like when you’re waiting to pass through immigration. While waiting to immigrate into the US, I was making sure that my boarding pass was ready to go on the phone. Even though I didn’t need it to go through immigration, I’m just accustomed to having it ready. One of the officers barked at me that electronics weren’t allowed. What if we all had electronic passports? What kind of changes would need to happen to make it acceptable to use electronic devices? I can only imagine the problems this might cause for both passengers and officers.
When I finally arrived at the boarding gate, I was a little surprised to see the usual seating areas replaced with tables and chairs, each spot sporting an iPad tethered to the table. It all looked very new age and I couldn’t help but think how dated our first attempts at being digital will seem in 5 years. Below is a picture of what the new waiting area looks like.
I sat at the bar where I was able to order and pay for a drink on the iPad without any human interaction. I was slightly disappointed when a person, rather than a drone, deposited my beer in front of me, but I guess they’re not that advanced yet.
My flight was delayed and I was pleasantly surprised to see that I could check the actual flight status from the iPad in front of me. It was really convenient. However, when they started boarding, the whole thing fell apart for me. I was literally surrounded by screens and not of them was posting boarding information, which to me would be one of the best things to have available in text. Instead I had to strain my ears to listen for my exact flight in competition with every other flight boarding at the same time. Often the announcements were happening simultaneously making it really difficult to hear what was going on. My gate happened to be one of four all clustered in the same area, so it was even a little difficult to tell what was happening by looking at the gate number.
Throughout the whole boarding process I couldn’t help but think we can definitely use technology to make this part of it a better experience. Why can’t they just post the boarding information on the screens or on the little iPads? It can’t be that difficult. I was really baffled by this.