Question about E-tickets
 

Are the airlines,Travel agents or whoever we buy our tickets from suppose to issue paper tickets and not E-tickets for flights out of the US?

Often there is an additional charge for paper tickets. In some instances, I believe you can not even get paper tickets. I know, e-tickets make me a little nervous too, especially if there is a delay, change in schedule, airline, etc. <BR><BR>

Very often I have found that when I travel outside the US,I have gotten paper tickets.If the itinerary &quot;qualifies&quot; for an e-ticket,then whoever issues the ticket is supposed to isue an e-ticket.However,once you mix carriers and even when using the same carrier,an e-ticket is not always possible.The airlines seem to prefer e-tickets, until you get to some of the not so well known international carriers.

E-tickets for international travel have been used for years now. The old horror stories are just not true anymore. Most major airlines have an interline agreements, which pretty much takes care of any problems due to cancellations, delays, etc...etc.. If your airline cancels your flight, they could electronically send your ticket to just about any other major airline. All you have to do is to walk over to the other desk and check-in. Obviously you loose any privilages with the new airline, such as preffered seating, upgrades if you had that with your original airline, but that's true with paper tickets as well.<BR>The ones that you still have to worry about just a bit are the budget airlines, since they do not have the same agreements. So if your budget airline cancels, you are stuck with them only, unless you are willing to pay for a new ticket with a different airline. But overall, don't worry. I travel about 75K miles per year domestically and internationally and I have not seen a paper ticket in years. Never had a problem with that part of the trip, but if you want to talk about food, other passengers, security breaches, well that's another story.<BR>Enjoy your trip!

Thanks for the feed back.<BR><BR>On the TV yesterday they were interviewing a Travel expert and he said people should pay the extra for paper tickets with the impending war with Iraq. I did not hear the reason.

s140,<BR>I assume the expert is thinking about a complete shutdown of an airline, meaning chapter 7, while you were in the middle of your trip. That is still a problem with e-tickets. If the airline shuts down completely then there would be nobody there to send your e-ticket to another airline. In case like that a paper ticket would be worth having.

As a matter of course, I will not fly with an e-ticket unless it is on Southwest which doesn't interline with other carriers. Recall the AA pilots' strike a few years back - those with paper tickets were accomodated first and fastest because a paper ticket can be endorsed over to another airline.

wpcx, as AAFrequentFlier stated, the old horror stories associated with e-tickets simply aren't the case any longer. Did you realize that if you lose your paper ticket, you have to purchase a new one and the airline will not refund you until your original flight hasn't been taken? You can't lose an e-ticket.

I love E-tickets. When I had paper tickets, I was constantly afraid of something happening to them.<BR><BR>I fly 8-9 times a year and haven't had a paper ticket in many years.<BR><BR> Keith