Cellphone could be boarding pass, too

— -- Continental Airlines passengers in Houston will be able to board flights using just a cellphone or personal-digital assistant instead of a regular boarding pass in a three-month test program launched Tuesday at Bush Intercontinental Airport. The program could expand to airlines and airports nationwide.

The two-dimensional bar code, a jumble of squares and rectangles, stores the passenger's name and flight information. A TSA screener will confirm the bar code's authenticity with a handheld scanner. Passengers still need to show photo identification. The electronic boarding pass also works at airport gates.

If a passenger's cellphone or mobile device loses power, the passenger can get a paper boarding pass from a kiosk or a Continental agent.

Houston-based Continental, the USA's No. 4 airline, has been working on the new feature for years to increase the efficiency, eliminate paperwork and make travel easier, says Mark Bergsrud, a Continental executive.

It has some limits. For instance, only passengers traveling alone can use the electronic pass. Continental is trying to upgrade the technology so that it can accommodate multiple passengers traveling together, Bergsrud says.

TSA official Mel Carraway says the electronic pass allows screeners to better detect fraudulent boarding passes.

Continental will be the first airline in the USA to try cellphone boarding passes. Air Canada has been offering paperless boarding since September to customers who check in using a cellphone or PDA. It's also available in a couple of other countries.