Electronic Tickets – When do I get my E-Tickets – How do they work?

Pretty much all “tickets” are now electronic tickets (aka e-tickets), with the exception of a few tour operators, cruise lines, and coach tour operators.  The advantage of e-tickets, is that they really are comfort documents to an electronic proof of payment.  You can actually show up at the airport without them, but having them usually makes the check in faster.

For instance, when you travel with most airlines, they have electronic self serve kiosks for checkin.  If you have your “record locator” or file number, or flight number, you can avoid some lineups.  Or, you can check in online before you leave.  Bottom line, if you lose your e-ticket confirmations, it’s no big deal like losing paper tickets.

Some travel suppliers send us e-tickets right away at the time of booking.  Others wait until 28 days or 21 days prior to departure.  Our processes at tripcentral.ca involve a quality control review of all documents before they send them to you.  Typically, we are on top of this process, but during peak winter periods you may get your tickets within 14 days of departure while we check them over.

If you book at the last minute, we place priority by departure date, so you will for sure be emailed your e-tickets.

The biggest question we get after booking is “when will I get my e-tickets”, and we email them as soon as they have been double checked by our documentation department.  Keep your eyes open for them, and be sure to also check your Spam or Junk folders, because sometimes these end up in junk mail if your filters are set to sensitive.

It’s best to print your electronic tickets right away and read them over carefully.  If your printer doesn’t print the date, write the date down.  If we have to re-issue a new set of e-tickets with a schedule change, people can get confused as to which ones are the correct ones.  It’s best to destroy the old ones.  Sometimes people notice things like names not matching their passports after booking.  People have booked friends and family with wrong names (nicknames or middle names).

There’s all kinds of important information you should know in your e-tickets.  Things like airline reconfirmation numbers, arrival and departure numbers, baggage allowance and restrictions, check in information, and limitations of liability (legal boilerplate).