Uhhh… Maybe She’s New?

I used to fly from Toronto to Europe on business multiple times per year. When electronic boarding passes first came into use, I was slow on the uptake, and I generally printed my pass when checking in online. After a few colleagues extolled the benefits of the electronic version, I tried it out on a few trips while keeping a paper copy in my laptop bag just in case.

The first time I went solo with just my electronic pass, I was flying from Toronto Pearson to Amsterdam Schiphol, a flight I had taken several dozen times by now. As usual, I only had a carry-on bag, so I was able to skip the baggage check and proceed directly to security.

Before entering security, you have to show your passport and electronic pass — Check #1. Before you get in line for one of the security stations, the passport and pass are checked again — Check #2. I had no issues at either checkpoint. From there, my journey to the gate for my flight was about ten minutes.

At the last set of doors before the departure lounge itself, there was another “security” staffer performing the same document check as the ones I had just sailed through. This is where it got interesting.

I joined the short line to get through this last check, and when my turn came, I showed my passport and the electronic boarding pass on my phone.

[Security] looked over my passport.

Security: “And your boarding pass, please.”

I gestured to the phone in my hand.

Me: “Right here.”

Security: “That’s not a valid pass, sir. You need to go back to check-in and get your boarding pass.”

Me: “Pardon? This is an electronic pass issued by the airline. It is a valid boarding pass.”

Security: “You can’t use that. I said you need to back to check-in and print your boarding pass.”

Me: “You can’t be serious. This is an electronic boarding pass. I’ve used these on multiple occasions. I proceeded through security with this pass and it is valid. Are you trying to tell me I have to go all the way back out to print a paper copy and return through security— “

Security: *Interrupting me* “I am not letting you through without a valid boarding pass. NEXT!”

I’ll dispense with the rest of my attempted dialogue with this individual as she simply refused to acknowledge my existence. Not sure what to do, I walked back to the end of the X-ray stations and flagged down one of the agents who looked like he might be a supervisor and explained my predicament.

Supervisor: “No, she is wrong. You have a valid pass. Go back and—”

Me: “Excuse me, but she refused to deal with me, and I am not going back by myself unless someone corrects her. I cannot be the only person going through here with an electronic pass.”

Supervisor: “Okay, don’t worry. I’ll go with you and sort it out.”

We quickly walked to the last checkpoint and up to the security troll. As soon as she saw me with the supervisor:

Security: *To the supervisor* “Yeah, he doesn’t have a valid boarding pass. I can’t let him through.”

Supervisor: *To me* “Go ahead, sir. Sorry for the inconvenience. Have a good flight.”

I dodged through the door to the lounge as the security troll began arguing, very forcefully, that I still didn’t have a valid pass and had to have a proper printed pass, etc. After a few paces, I turned around to watch the two of them in what looked like a rather heated dialogue; all the while the lineup to pass the checkpoint was growing quickly. After a minute or so, with neither appearing to back down, I just turned and headed to my flight.

Toronto Pearson is Canada’s largest and busiest airport, handling hundreds of flights per day. It was utterly incomprehensible to me that any security agent with basic training could not know that electronic boarding passes were widely in use by then. How else would I have made it to your checkpoint if it wasn’t valid?!