Boarding an airplane could soon become a lot simpler: as simple as using a self-checkout at a grocery store or hamming it up in the photo booth at a wedding.
Travel + Leisure reports that JetBlue, together with U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), is rolling out a self-boarding system with biometric facial-recognition that will let you board a plane without having to show any type of boarding pass.
All you have to do is snap a selfie, and the screen above the camera will let you know when you're all clear to board.
The camera will send your mug shot to CBP, which will match it to photos of you that are already in its database. The system will also verify your flight details.
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For now, this self-boarding process is being introduced only for flights from Boston's Logan International Airport to Aruba's Queen Beatrix International Airport, and it starts in June.
But "selfie boarding," notes T + L, is part of a larger initiative by airlines to adopt self-service technologies. It's not limited to self-boarding: Some airports are already implementing self-bag-drop services and Automated Passport Control kiosks at Customs. Delta's recently introduced bag-drop service, for example, uses the same type of biometric facial-recognition technology.
"Self-boarding eliminates boarding-pass scanning and manual passport checks," Joanna Geraghty, JetBlue's executive vice president of customer experience, told T + L. "Just look into the camera and you’re on your way."