Cellphone Boarding Passes Coming to an Airline Near You

The next time you head over to the security line at the airport, you may not have to fish around for your boarding pass in order to get past the TSA agents. Instead, you’ll be able to flash your phone or PDA–if you’re flying American Airlines out of certain airports, anyway. The airline announced today that it was introducing mobile boarding passes for passengers taking domestic flights, which it hopes will not only cut down on paper waste, but also make things a little more speedy and convenient for travelers.

The mobile boarding pass will consist of a two-dimensional barcode that is sent to the phone from AA’s Web site. Put simply, when travelers check in online–either from the desktop or the mobile version of the site–they can opt to have the boarding pass sent to an email address with a link to the boarding pass, presumably on AA’s server. Then, when the traveler reaches a TSA agent before the security gates, he or she can simply show the barcode (along with proper ID, of course) and have it scanned. Using the mobile pass won’t get you bumped to the front of the security line, however.

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