JetBlue will be the first major U.S. airline to pilot a system which connects the airline to U.S Customs and Border Patrol. The system is about to make traveling a whole lot easier and less miserable, and it’s almost certain to be a hit with most Millennials while crotchety old men living in the mid-20th century are sure to think this is Big Brother overstepping his boundaries.
JetBlue will give passengers the opportunity to opt into a new biometric system which will eliminate the need to check paper or electronic boarding passes, and passports. The system will store a picture of passengers who opt in, and passengers will step up to a camera which will scan their faces and connect to the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol biometric database. They’re calling this ‘selfie boarding‘.
JetBlue’s already my preferred airline, and it sounds like they’re also the only airline out there actively trying to make flying a less painful process. Here’s how it will work:
JetBlue
This will eventually completely eliminate the need for boarding passes which will expedite travel beyond anything we can imagine right now. JetBlue’s EVP of Customer Service, Joanna Geraghty, says “self-boarding eliminates boarding pass scanning and manual passport checks, just look into the camera and you’re on your way.” This is a future I’m actually pretty stoked for.
I was at an awesome wedding last weekend on the Eastern Shore of Maryland which obviously involved a lot of drinking. During one of the many drunken convos, I had I recall telling people I’d be totally cool with having all of my sensitive data microchipped into my body. We talked about how potentially dangerous it would be to carry all of life’s sensitive data around with us at all times but I’m totally cool with the tradeoff for convenience. The chances that I’m ever drugged and someone cuts a microchip out of my hand and I wake up in a hotel bathtub are nonexistent.
Sure, JetBlue’s selfie system isn’t even close to getting on that level. But I wholeheartedly support the move in that direction, the shift towards finding more convenient ways to travel and perform transactions. Even if that means a picture of my face is kept on a database somewhere (which it already is, many times over, I’m sure).