Not to mention that the hard copy always scans flawlessly at the gate. Phone scans, not so much.

Not only does the phone scan not work well, but people often aren't prepared and so the boarding line stalls while people unlock their phone and retrieve the e-ticket.

> Not to mention that the hard copy always scans flawlessly at the gate. Phone scans, not so much.

Not true. Recently I printed a hardcopy of my boarding pass at the airline's kiosk, then found it wouldn't scan at security. Luckily I was able to pull up the barcode on my phone.

Ouch. Perhaps it's a dice roll either way. I guess I just assumed everyone else also had issues with phone tickets, and not with paper. You and your sibling comment have opposite experiences however, so it seems I must retract my statement.

That's the point...always have a backup. You never know which failure mode is gonna find you.

One thing their phone app does is crank the brightness to maximum when you view the boarding pass.

Phone scan works fine. People not knowing how to travel/board a plane is a different issue.