Ticket reservations can be made and paid for on-line, using the Internet. Ticketless travel is becoming commonplace, as some airlines offer fliers the option of booking flights without tickets, just as they might book and confirm a hotel room by phone. The traveler gets a confirmation number, shows a picture identification at the boarding gate and receives a boarding pass. British Airways has a machine at Heathrow Airport that accepts standard credit cards for self-booking flights. There are systems which not only book travel via wireless technology but also notify travelers in advance if their flight has been delayed or canceled.
Similar systems allow travelers to book and confirm hotel rooms over the Internet.
The Internet has been used to auction airline seats to the highest bidder. One industry analyst, Julius Maldutis of Salomon Brothers, has predicted that the airlines' growing use of the Internet would produce the third revolutionary change in the industry, comparable to the impact of jet aircraft in the late 1950s and early 1970s, and airline deregulation in 1978. As travelers begin to make more of their own reservations electronically, without going through a travel agent, the role of the travel agent will change with more emphasis on advice and planning. There will be a consolidation of travel agencies into large, global companies which will operate quite differently from today. For example, travel agents are likely to become more specialized than today, drawing on a vast fund of data and experience for the traveler contemplating a safari or a scuba diving vacation.