Real Tickets! Are they Necessary? Do you want them or not?

When I first started in Travel, Customers got lovely ticket wallets, especially for Cruise bookings, which were leather with leather luggage labels and Lovely guide books etc.  They made the customers feel special. They loved picking them up and it meant their holiday was nearly here.

These slowly changed to material or Fake Leather wallets which was obviously a bit cheaper. Fake leather gave way to cardboard wallets and card labels with the tickets inside. Then companies stopped sending tickets all together except for a few high end or niche operators. This meant we or the customer had to print out bits of paper and these formed their tickets. Some Tickets are just E-Tickets, so not even a piece of paper.

How do you feel about it all?  Do you embrace the Digital Era?

Or do you just want those paper tickets, so you have tangible evidence of what you have booked?

Even if I check in online and have the airline’s App on my phone I still print off the e-ticket? I can’t help thinking what if my phone malfunctions or gets stolen I would have no ticket?

This is probably not very environmentally friendly, and I realise we should be considering the amount of paper that gets wasted, but there are so many nightmares about digital fraud etc is there any wonder we want peace of mind.

As I specialise in cruise bookings, a lot of my customers although not all, are older. Don’t get me wrong there are lots of Tech Savvy people out there from the older generation, sadly of which I am one, as I am sure my Son would agree.

But anyway, I do spend a fair amount of time filling in cruise personalisers and helping book excursions as it is all done online now, and some people just can’t do it or are scared they will do it wrong. I also have a fair few customers who do not have an email, so tickets have to be printed and posted to them.

Cruise lines do not seem to take this in to consideration and I really feel they should offer customers the choice when they book.

A point in fact, A customer books a World cruise spending upwards of £25000 per person and all they get is a piece of paper as a ticket. They may get sent a booklet with excursions in and luggage labels but wouldn’t you expect to get more for your money?

You may be at the other end of the scale and feel that by doing everything online the cruise lines are making savings to pass on to you, the Customers?

 To me when I book a customer, part of the experience is the Build-up. The anticipation of a fantastic trip.  All that planning, research, decision making, culminating in the trip of a lifetime.

So, when it comes time to get your tickets, you want something real, tangible, exciting, so you feel like you are finally on your way.

I work from Home so don’t get to see my customers face to face but I like to think I give them the same experience. I love to chat and feel by the time I get to the Ticket stage we have become friends.  As I am not handing them tickets I like to go through them all with them and answer any queries they have, and in so give them that same sense of anticipation.

So, I suppose the question is. Are you happy with an E-Ticket and know you are helping the environment, or do you want to be given the choice?

I would love to hear your thoughts?