Individual assinment of leveraging information technology for business advantage - Essay Example

Less time is wasted with e-tickets for both consumers and producers. E-tickets save many ticket-issuing steps and thus the process speed is faster for every passenger. Airlines not only save paper ticket costs but also operating costs. Travel agents also save time by skipping the process of printing paper tickets for the consumers. Consumers, on the other hand, spend less time waiting in line for check-ins. One only needs to provide a photo ID at the airport to get the boarding pass directly, without any busy paper work.

Alternatively, and more efficiently, one can simply do advance check in online at home and print the boarding pass on the day of travel. For business people on tight schedules, this would be extremely convenient. They would no longer have to worry about having not enough time to wait in long lines to do check-in. Also, with unusual yet unpreventable circumstances such as airline strikes, airlines and travellers are better off with interlining e-tickets: no more delayed flights or significant loss of profit during strikes (e-ticketing n.d para 2). It also does away with the fear of one’s ticket being lost or stolen.

Like paper ticketing, e-ticketing is a way of documenting a sale, both for the passenger and for the airline. But rather than paper, the e-ticket uses a database to track the sale and use of tickets – and the database is stored and updated by the validating airline. All subsequent ticket transactions – including refunds, exchanges, check-in, void and settlement – involve this holding database. Those airlines not adapting to e-ticketing by the end of 2007 risk a number of serious disadvantages.

They will not be able to sell through key third-party e-commerce providers (such as Expedia and Travelocity), they will be at a competitive disadvantage as a result of the continued high costs associated with paper tickets and settlement, and they will be more exposed to paper ticket fraud (The Smart Route to