TSA begins test of “cell phone boarding passes” at Houston

The Transportation Security Administration has started a three-month pilot test program at Houston Bush Intercontinental Airport that will let passengers through security and onto aircraft without a paper boarding pass. Instead, they will check in by displaying a security-encrypted bar code on the screen of their cell phone, PDA or other mobile device. Continental Airlines is working with the TSA on the pilot program, which will be limited to Continental passengers at IAH. When participating passengers check in online for their flight, the airline will send the encrypted car code to their mobile device or cell phone; at the airport, TSA officials will use a handheld scanner to read it. The encrypted code actually looks like a scrambled version of a tiny checkerboard pattern rather than a traditional bar code of parallel lines. TSA reportedly believes the so-called “paperless boarding passes” will provide more security than paper ones, noting that it has seen a number of fraudulent paper boarding passes.