ATL now boarding with cells

Passengers with Web-enabled cellphones can check in for domestic nonstop Delta flights out of Atlanta using electronic boarding passes starting today.

Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines last year tested its first airport with the electronic boarding pass option last June, at New York’s LaGuardia Airport. It has since introduced the option at Minneapolis/St. Paul, Memphis, Detroit, Indianapolis and Las Vegas, and plans to add Salt Lake City and Orlando in the next month.

The technology allows passengers to use Web-enabled mobile phones and devices to check in online at Delta’s Web site and pull up on their phones an electronic boarding pass with a two-dimensional barcode that can be scanned at the security checkpoint and boarding gate.

Continental, Alaska, American and Delta’s merger partner, Northwest, have similar programs.

Delta hoped to launch the paperless boarding pass in Atlanta last year, but said the rollout of redesigned security checkpoints delayed the launch.

At airports with the paperless boarding pass option, the percentage of passengers that use it is in the single digits, mainly very frequent travelers, said Josh Weiss, Delta’s managing director of delta.com and self-service. Delta aims to get 85 percent of passengers to use either kiosk, mobile, delta.com or curbside check-in by the end of this year.

HOW IT WORKS

Delta plans to launch a new mobile boarding pass today for passengers at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on domestic nonstop flights. Here’s how it will work:

Step 1: Customers with a Web-enabled BlackBerry or cellphone check in at mobile.delta.com.

Step 2: At Delta’s Web site, customers can pull up a boarding pass on their mobile device. If they browse to another Web site, they can renavigate to Delta’s Web site to get another copy of the electronic boarding pass.

Step 3: If checking bags, drop them off before heading to security checkpoint.

Step 4: Security scans the barcode directly from the phone or BlackBerry.

Step 5: Customers are still required to show a picture ID as part of the security screening process.

Step 6: When it’s time to board, customers proceed to the gate and present an electronic boarding pass to the agent for scanning.

Source: Delta Air Lines