Nope…I don’t see any paper boarding pass around do you? How eco-chic is that….

Imagine this. The airport industry is saving $500 million a year by not printing any more paper boarding passes….and ooohhh, that’s a lot of savings in trees! Now imagine this. The system is much safer than it’s paper counterpart, complete with encryption codes approved by the Transportation Security Administration. You just check in with your personal electronic device or cel phone. So no worries about so called “terrorists” getting through. This actually makes it harder for any funny stuff, since any tampering with the system shows up immediately and fake boarding passes are easier to detect. What am I talking about? Here’s the skinny…

In real time (like right now) many airlines (i.e. Air Canada, Japan Airlines, Scandinavian Airlines and Spanair) have adopted the electronic pass system (that I just described above) and it’s working perfectly.

According to the NY Times, “The Transportation Security Administration has been working with Continental Airlines since December to test electronic boarding passes, which for now can be used only for nonstop domestic flights out of the Houston hub of Continental.” That is until it is finally approved…That’s pretty rock-n-roll eco. I’m seriously inspired!

And as the NY Times reported, “The technology being tested by Continental uses a two-dimensional encrypted bar code, which is much tougher to copy than the one-dimensional bar code used by many airlines for boarding passes printed online. And that is a major reason the T.S.A. is expected to embrace the technology.”

Hmmm….makes me like the airline industry just a bit more….Pretty eco-conscious. Imagine the influence it will have on the rest of us…Getting on board will have new eco-chic meaning…