No more paper tickets.. and a question

[ladelfina]

I've been using e-tickets for years and really enjoy the convenience. It looks like as of next year paper tickets will be phased out entirely:

http://beta.cnn.com/2007/TRAVEL/08/31/biztrav.paperless/index.html

With about 400 million tickets issued annually, my question is this:
WHY is every Itinerary/E-ticket at least 2 pages long? And when you print it out you end up cutting stuff off in the middle unless you waste time futzing with your printer settings?

400 million sheets of letter-sized paper (minimum) extra per year is a LOT.

Maybe if they can't fit everything, they could at least break it up so the salient stuff is on page 1, and make better use of the wasted space taken up by the side margin, to say nothing of the useless header stuff. I'm always worried about losing that stapled second sheet.. (oh yeh.. 400 million staples per year, too). Travelocity and Expedia equally guilty.

 

[RunningBum]

Sometimes I don't even print the itinerary, I just copy the reference number, airline and flight number, date, times and phone numbers of the airline or agency. Or do what it takes to get it down to one page, either by just printing the first page and writing in anything important from the second page, or printing two sided, which on my home printer means printing a page at a time, putting the page back in upside down.

 

[ladelfina]

Runningbum, you're right that it can be avoided by the user, but not without extra effort.. I just marvel at the fact that it isn't the norm!! It wouldn't take much brain power to figure out how to get all the important stuff to fit on one page.. I was a graphic designer in a former life. so I know. If it were my client saving 400 million pages I would know about it, and be concerned on their behalf, well-meaning idiot that I am.

Jes' one of those "kicking the can down the road" scenarios...

 

[RunningBum]

I agree, and I should've acknowledged your rant as valid. There's no reason you can't fit a simple itinerary on a single page. It's just been that way so long and I've been working around it so long that I've stopped being annoyed by it.

 

[Meadbh]

The airlines don't care about the waste of paper, because it's the passenger's paper! Maybe they will take a hint from the green movement as it builds steam.

 

[Peaceful_Warrior]

Sometimes I don't even print the itinerary, I just copy the reference number, airline and flight number, date, times and phone numbers of the airline or agency. Or do what it takes to get it down to one page, either by just printing the first page and writing in anything important from the second page, or printing two sided, which on my home printer means printing a page at a time, putting the page back in upside down.

Wow. You guys put a LOT of effort into this 'eticket' thing. I don't print out any details... just show up at the airport, go to the automated kiosk (or attendant if none available), and check in. They give me the printed boarding pass I use to get past security and onto the plane, and then I arrive at my destination.

All this printing and writing stuff down seems weird...

 

[ladelfina]

It's nice to have the itinerary in one place so you can check the flight numbers, purported terminals, and departure times.. I don't commit all that stuff to memory (if I had a memory like that, I'd REALLY be rich!!). I just want that on one page w/my confirmation number. Depends on who you are flying and if it's int'l. or domestic whether you'll be able to check-in on line or at a kiosk. I also use the e-ticket page to write down the airlines' phone numbers (something they COULD add as a nice touch), since traveling overseas it's a good idea to confirm a day or two ahead. I also write down other addresses/numbers.. it's my mini vacation agenda.

 

[Meadbh]

Some airlines will send you a text email if you book online. One simple way to save paper is to copy the information you need from that email to a Word file, edit and format as you choose, and print one page.

 

[TromboneAl]

The airlines don't care about the waste of paper,

Right. Few corporations or governments seem to care about waste of paper or package materials. This was the issue-of-the-week a decade or so ago, but not anymore.

I ordered a few stamps online, and this is what came:



The extra stuff outweighed the stamps by about 100:1.

I requested a replacement for a burned out CFL, and I got a huge box full of styro peanuts and one bulb.

 

[RunningBum]

Wow. You guys put a LOT of effort into this 'eticket' thing. I don't print out any details... just show up at the airport, go to the automated kiosk (or attendant if none available), and check in. They give me the printed boarding pass I use to get past security and onto the plane, and then I arrive at my destination.

All this printing and writing stuff down seems weird...

If everything goes fine, that's all good. But if there's a problem, it's best to have a phone number to call as the lines at the airport can be long. And a record locator can make things go faster.

Plus I've twice gone to the wrong rental car counter, and twice gone to the wrong hotel (once was my boss's fault as he was travelling with me and I trusted him). So now I print the whole air/hotel/car itinerary.

 

[ladelfina]

oooo Al.. don't get me started on the Post Office.. this is a bit off the "travel" topic, but GEEEZ:

My friends and family sometimes send me care packages of (used) English-language books, which are hard-to-find and expensive here. I tell them to use the surface mail "M-bag" service for media (books, CDs, documents) that has a discounted rate which used to work out to only around $1/lb... NOW my sister reports that they have discontinued the surface-mail M-bag and you HAVE to use airmail.. at multiple times the cost.

Shipping stuff by boat uses less fuel than shipping by air.. but who cares!?!? Global warming.. WHAT global warming? Tie this in to the rant about few options for ocean travel just for getting from point A to point B. This needs fixing now. We need options.

 

[bright eyed]

you can save your reservation # in your phone (using the notes or calendar tool) or your pda or your pda phone! =b

i keep the email for my reservation on my bberry...no worries!!!

but i share your annoyance in general w/ a lot email or web receipts...if you print then you get a full page or two and then that straggler page w/ one or two lines on it!

 

[ladelfina]

That's a good thought, bright-eyed, but leading "The Simple Life" in ER I don't have a need for PDAs (actually never did, even when I ran my own business). Travelling internationally, our cell phones stay at home. I wouldn't want to deal with the chargers, and I don't even want to think about what international roaming charges would be IF the things actually worked as advertised.. which, as reported by friends with supposed latest-generation phones.. is far from guaranteed. We just don't need them as we're always staying with friends/family. Thank God they haven't seen fit to yank the pay phones from the airport; if I'm traveling alone, I can call DH in Italy from the States to tell him I've arrived... for 25 cents (thanks to those 10-10-whatever numbers they have on big stickers on the pay phone). If I call my mom from the same phone (in-state "long distance").. it costs a lot more than 25 cents.. go figure!

A lot of news sites, recipe sites, etc. modify the layout when you click their special print button, giving you a new page with less junk. A few commerce sites do the same, and you can get a single-page rec't. Many of them don't, though, including the travel ones.

The times I need a printout, I usually go through the extra step of printing to a PDF, then I open the PDF and see where the page break is and whether I need to print page 2. On the mac, it's always been possible to print at a reduced size, but then you have the right half of the sheet blank, and you need a magnifying glass to read the left-hand side.

--end of rant-- time to put together my Stateside Shopping List.
Happy traveling everyone!

 

[FinallyRetired]

Right. Few corporations or governments seem to care about waste of paper or package materials. This was the issue-of-the-week a decade or so ago, but not anymore.

I ordered a few stamps online, and this is what came:

View attachment 2763

The extra stuff outweighed the stamps by about 100:1.

I requested a replacement for a burned out CFL, and I got a huge box full of styro peanuts and one bulb.

Thyat's nothing, look at this:
Tasty Blog Snack - IPHONE BILL

 

[Fred333]

It is funny because the government is always taking about what they can do for the environment and cutting back on the paper usage would be a great benefit.

 

[CuppaJoe]

I'll never fly again.

 

[samclem]

100% agreement on the wasteful e-ticket printing config. The waste multiplies when I need to send one itinerary with my travel voucher and keep one paper copy for myself.

One general tip: I print almost all this type of stuff at "2 per page" (using "print/Properties/N-UP" in Windows XP). This works for all kinds of things, saves a lot of paper and toner, and is still legible for me (my peepers are still holding up fairly well). Even the bar code on the reduced size copy works in the e-ticket reader (for airlines that use that feature).

 

[ladelfina]

thanks for the tip about the bar code, samclem!

Now if I could get Schwab to stop sending me 'new and improved' 12-page statements in a big envelope instead of the old 2-page one in the regular #10..

On those, too there's a TON of wasted space and a generally poor layout, plus half the "extra" info is stuff that is useless unless you go to their portfolio manager web section and manually enter all your history from day one PLUS all the weird mergers and spin-offs, which they don't calculate for you.

They seem to track some relevant cost-basis transactions there automatically but even since they started this online portfolio performance review I still see things with a basis of N/A despite a recent buy record and no intervening corporate actions.. I tried working with it a few years back but gave up.. but it's now used as the platform for about six pages of "insight" into my portfolio. I sent them some negative feedback about this situation more than once. Also frustrating is how they like to break out all the holdings into little categories.. but half my stuff is, to them, unclassifiable, so there are lots of completely useless pie charts.

 

[sailor]

Now if I could get Schwab to stop sending me 'new and improved' 12-page statements in a big envelope instead of the old 2-page one in the regular #10..

Sign up for their all electronic delivery (unless you really need paper copies).
I'm getting everything in pdf form, except PCRA account, which comes with paper garbage as you described.

 

[ladelfina]

I get both.. belts & suspenders. I like paper statements and, hey.. why should I shell out MY time/money/ink/paper printing my own copies when they give them to me for "free"!

Now if I could only stop the catalog people from sending new ones every month full of the same stuff. Can't they limit it to, say, 4x/year? You can write them and ask them to stop but they don't listen. My mom who forwards my mail seems to think I need them and spends $60/mail shipment. (I ask her to stop, too, but she doesn't listen!!! ) I've been getting catalogs for years from places I have never ordered anything from.. worst offender L.L.Bean.

 

[SecondCor521]

ladelfina and others,

You can also use the "print selection" feature that is available sometimes. Highlight the relevant part of what you want to print, choose File/Print... and then click on "Selection" if it's there. It will print just what you want and nothing else. It's available to me in Windows XP using Firefox.

2Cor521

 

[RunningBum]

Now if I could only stop the catalog people from sending new ones every month full of the same stuff. Can't they limit it to, say, 4x/year? You can write them and ask them to stop but they don't listen. My mom who forwards my mail seems to think I need them and spends $60/mail shipment. (I ask her to stop, too, but she doesn't listen!!! ) I've been getting catalogs for years from places I have never ordered anything from.. worst offender L.L.Bean.

Are you including all the mailing label info? Usually you need to include that to get them to stop, then it works pretty well for me.

Sorry, no advice for your mom.

 

[ladelfina]

Haven't tried it lately, but what I used to do is cut the label out and mail it to them.. I'm sure some just blanket certain zip codes and don't care if you are not the recipient. Someone must have figured it's worth it to them, but it's just on such a vast scale I can't see how it makes sense.

I'm glad you have success, RunningBum.. maybe in recent years they are being more attentive to costs and such? Next time I am in the US, I will sit down with the pile and send out some more letters. Thanks for listening to my rant. It sounds petty but it's just part of a larger conundrum rolling around inside my head about "economic ecology", if you will.