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If you’re going to be catching a Continental Airlines flight out of Boston anytime soon, you’ll have a chance to test their new electronic boarding pass system. Any passenger with an Internet enabled cell phone or PDA will now be able to receive their boarding pass via an email with a link to a special web page that will display an encrypted bar code. The code reveals their name and flight info when scanned at the TSA check point and boarding gate. The agents doing the scanning are forbidden to actually touch passenger’s devices, fearing liability issues if they are damaged or broken.

“We don’t want to drop it,” said Kevin Anzalone, a TSA supervisor at Logan. “Next thing you know is we’re discussing how to replace it, and it’s $600 or $700.”

The test began in Houston last November, expanded to Reagan Washington National Airport and will soon be brought to Newark International Airport as well. For now it is only available for passengers leaving for domestic location and traveling with a solo reservation.

“It saves customers the step of stopping by a ticket counter to pick up a boarding pass or printing it out at home,” said Jared Miller, Continental’s director of customer self-service marketing programs.

Around 600 passengers a day are using the electronic boarding pass system in Houston. The TSA and Continental will be evaluating how the program does at the four current airports before making the decision whether to expanding it further.

Read [Boston.com]

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