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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.“

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As the latest airline to begin offering free in-flight Wi-Fi, Continental has announced their plans to allow passengers to have limited wireless access. The service will be similar to the Jet Blue service and allow passengers to use e-mail or instant messaging. Sadly web browsing and even downloading attachments will not be allowed.

A bit of good news does come with the Continental announcement, after you get board checking your email you will be able to amuse yourself by watching TV. The LiveTV service will offer 36 channels through DirecTV, first class passengers will be able to view for free while the economy-class passengers will have to pay $6.

In-flight Wi-Fi seems to be nearing a necessity as we have seen recent announcements coming from other airlines such as Southwest and Jet Blue. Lets just hope these limited services take note and begin to offer a full experience similar to Virgin and American Airlines.

Via [TechCrunch] Via [CrunchGear]

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