AA Adds To Airport Security Documents

American Airlines this week revised its guidelines on documents travelers must hold in order to traverse airport security. AA added to a standard list of four documents that most major airlines are saying travelers can choose from: a boarding pass; paper ticket; printed itinerary confirming an electronic ticket, including ticket number; or a receipt for an electronic ticket, including ticket number. In a message to travelers on its Web site, AA said it would also accept a "boarding pass verification" or "airline/airport issued entrance document."

"Those words mean nothing to me," said Cheryl Hutchinson, corporate travel manager with American Management Systems in Fairfax, Va., echoing the ongoing concern among buyers about confusion emanating from the carriers on airport documentation (BTN, Oct. 8). AA's communications department did not respond immediately to multiple inquiries from Business Travel News, but a source in the airline's sales department clarified the statements, saying "boarding pass verification" is for people on a waitlist who do not have a seat assignment, while "entrance documents" are for non-ticketed passengers who have a legitimate reason to enter the gate area, such as a child passenger's parent or an elderly passenger's assistant. Both types of documents are obtained at ticket counters at the front of the terminals.

"The airlines need to offer clear, crisp messages that don't make you pause," Hutchinson said. "People shouldn't need to pause and try to figure out what the rules are. That's when they revert back to security blankets like paper tickets, which means the business the airlines are getting is costing them, their clients and their partners more to process."