Paperless Travel

Not too long ago, paperless traveling was a thing only fantasized about in science fiction novels. Alas, the time has traveled forward and we are finally in a truly digital age where no longer do we need physical copies of most things.

As I headed to the airport to attend/present at the ISTE conference in Atlanta, I considered what I actually had any paper copies of regarding my travel plans. Maps? None. Boarding pass? Nope. Directions? Nada. Hotel confirmation? Not necessary. Surely this can’t be. Are we really traveling with NO PAPER COPIES anymore? My mother would be extremely weary of this, as she always told me to bring copies of EVERYTHING! If it were up to her, I would probably be traveling with a photocopy of my birth certificate (am I supposed to be doing that??). But the truth is, as long as I have my phone (well and my ID and credit card), I have everything I need.

I thought to myself, when I was a kid (my elders might scoff at this claim given their significantly different travel experiences trumping mine), I remember having AAA print out what was called a Trip-Tik and we would follow each page, step-by-step, to get to our destination. We would arrange hotel accommodations ahead of time by phone (unless dad — the risk-taker of the family — was in charge) and print out all the information regarding the location of the hotel, our reservation number, etc. Heck, we wouldn’t have even known what restaurants or gas stations were at each exit if it weren’t for those big green signs with all the logos. On a long, boring drive through the middle of nowhere, you’d be surprised how much joy those signs would give to a child on a long, cramped family road trip.

But, as Bob Dylan would say, “Times they are a changin’.” And to be honest, it’s a little nerve-wracking thinking all my information is *fingers crossed* saved somewhere in the cloud and will be accurately still there when I (or the airline, hotel, travel agency) needs it. Beyond that, I’ve become so complacent with this style of travel that I almost always just assume my plans will work out (don’t worry — my fingers are still crossed AND I’m rubbing my lucky rabbit’s foot). Actually, thinking right now as I’m flying over the eastern half of the U.S., I’m questioning if my hotel reservation is confirmed. Maybe I’m more lackadaisical about travel than I should be. But is this system creating just travel irresponsibility? Or is it a truly efficient system with which we should all move forward?

What are the risks of this system? And how frequently do any of them actually even happen? I suppose maybe we forget to check in or confirm a reservation and lose our seat/space. Maybe our phone battery dies just before we need to scan our ticket to board a plane (this is one of my greatest fears — I don’t deal with last minute stress very well; I’m more of an endurance stresser). The database with our travel information could be hacked and our personal information stolen (but this is pretty unavoidable, unless you’re going to a third world country, as the only way to reserve most airline tickets, hotel rooms, and rental cars uses some sort of digital database).

So where does that leave us? I think we all should take a grain of salt from both teams here. We can’t expect our cell phones to be the holy grail of information storage for us. I’m sure everyone has had something happen to their cell phones at some point (lost/dropped in a toilet/crushed by a bicycle tire/etc) — by the way those have ALL happened to me, sadly. So we need to follow mom’s advice and have a back-up plan at the very least. If you don’t feel like printing everything out, don’t. But you need to have a back-up, like finding wifi and looking up reservation info on a computer or having a friend’s number in your bag to call and help you out.

Technology is a wonderful thing and for the most part it has made life so so so so much easier and more efficient. BUT it has also allowed us humans to get a little lazier at some things. So stop being so lazy and cover your butt on this one. You’ll thank your mom in the end, especially when your phone falls into a toilet at the airport.