My Delta Experience With iPhone Boarding Pass

In a previous post I said I would attempt to use my iPhone as a Delta boarding pass. Well this week I traveled and here's what happened at Hartsfield airport in Atlanta (where I live.) The summary of it is that it's not ready to go, at least with Delta, in Atlanta.

First problem I encountered was when I went through the first round of security. That's where they look at your license, then look at you, then look at your boarding pass... When I came up to the security dude I pulled up my pass on my iPhone and asked if he would take it. He said, "How would I check it?" The procedure is that they mark your boarding pass with a permanent marker. Presumably, at the second round of security (the partial strip), and at the gate they check to see if your pass has "the mark."

By the time I was boarding at the gate I had given up, although I did notice that they were scanning barcodes by placing them under a scanner that was elevated by an "arm." So, if we could work out the checked pass it could surely be scanned at the gate.

Maybe this marking of the boarding pass could be avoided if you use Clear. Clear is a company that has a contract with the feds to do pre-screening so that when you go to the airport you don't have to wait in the long security line. All you do is go straight to Clear's entry, present your Clear card, and do a fingerprint or iris scan. Then you're on your way. Jerry and KJ both have an account and love it. Clear explains how it works on their website. KJ tells me that with Clear you bypass the first security dude altogether -- the one that marks your boarding pass.

You can check which airports have a Clear lane on their website as well.

So if you use Clear (when it arrives soon in Atlanta), you might be able to use your iPhone as a boarding pass, at Delta, at Hartsfield in Atlanta.

[update 10.1.2008: Local Atlanta news reported today that Clear stations opened today at Atlanta Hartsfield Airport.]

Of course I'll try it and let you know.

-Forsyth