Remember the days of the old, stiff cardboard boarding passes? E-tickets and printable boarding passes have made them a thing of the past, at least in the United States. Now, American Airlines is testing a new way of ticketing: sending your boarding pass to your cell phone. How does it work? A message will be sent to fliers? cell phones. It will include a bar code that will allow users to get through security checkpoints and board the plane. Continental Airlines and Delta Airlines recently ran similar tests. And while it is obvious that some kinks need to be worked out, American thought that the other airlines? tests were successful enough to warrant a foray into the world of mobile phone boarding passes.

There are a few stipulations. The boarding pass will be emailed, so only mobile devices that have internet access will qualify for this trial. The boarding pass must be downloaded and the bar code must be clearly visible on the screen.

The service will first be tested at Chicago O'Hare, LAX and Orange County's John Wayne Airport.

There are worries about security, of course. Could someone fake a boarding pass or hack into the system? Possibly, though it would be in American Airline's best interest to make the downloading process as secure as possible. Also, cell phone boarding passes will be scanned twice, once at a security checkpoint and once at the gate. Paper boarding passes are only scanned at the gate. Mobile phone boarding pass carriers will also have to go through regular security checkpoints and provide ID just like everyone else. The TSA has tested and approved the scanning method.

So far, the limit is one ticket per phone. Groups traveling together cannot use the same phone for more than one ticket. There is no word on whether that will change when testing phase ends.