I have long loved being able to print everything from concert tickets to airline tickets and even postage stamps at home.  Why waste time & resources of printing them on card stock, stuffing them into an envelope and mailing them to me.  What irks me of course is charging me for the privilege to do so.  That however is another blog post.

Now that I have an awesome smart phone, I was finally attending my first arena event with "home printed" tickets.  Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey circus at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia was to be my test event.  I received all 8 of my tickets via PDF mere minutes after purchasing them on-line late last year.

With a PDF reader on my phone, in lieu of an "app" from a ticketing or arena agency, I brought up the tickets, page 1, just mine for now.  I prayed for a "young" guy who would want to do this rather than beg for my paper ticket.  I got him.  I zoomed in on the bar code to match the size of the printed one as best I could.

To my amazement, without hesitation, he attempted to scan my phone.  He tried a second and third time.  He grabbed the phone from my hands and tried a fourth time.  It just wouldn't scan.  Bummer, but at least he tried.  I had the paper copy in my pocket as a back-up and that worked instantly.

Only afterward did I wonder if my "privacy protector" prevented it from working.  When I first bought the Droid, the only hard screen protector available was also a "privacy" version.  I wonder if that scattered the readers light beams enough that it wouldn't read it properly.  I may have to acquire a different screen protector and try this again.

I believe a friend claimed to have flown with his phone as ticket already, although I wonder how he cleared security as they're supposed to mark your ticket noting ID checks being passed.

I just saw this Android App, Show Clix, write-up that does this very thing - concert bar codes on the phone.  I can buy tickets to our local movie theater through the Fandango app on the Droid, but must produce and swipe my credit card at the theater, have the kiosk print paper tickets and receipts, only to walk said paper 20' to be torn in half.  I wish for the day that I can purchase on-line and never have to print tickets.  The "paperless office" is neigh I say, neigh!

Have you had any success using your phone or other smart device as a ticket itself?  If so, I'd love to know what type of phone, software and event you were successful with.