iPhone-carrying Australian travellers have finally got a reason to look at that little Passbook icon on their iOS 6 device, with national airline Qantas today announcing support for Passbook-enabled mobile checkins.
To activate the Passbook functionality, users simply check in using their mobile phone as per normal, then select the "Add to Passbook" button when it appears on compatible devices.
The boarding pass that downloads to Passbook will be colour coded to match the user's frequent flyer status.
More features to come
According to Australian Business Traveller, a Qantas spokesperson also indicated that the airline is looking to expand the Passbook functionality, adding live updates to the boarding pass.
It expects these updates to be in place by January 2013.
Qantas isn't the first airline to offer Passbook boarding passes in Australia - Virgin Australia introduced the feature shortly after the launch of iOS 6.
However, the addition of Qantas to the Passbook support list adds some much needed legitimacy to the platform. Especially in Australia, there has been a severe lack of Passbook support from Australian companies.
Hopefully, having a major player like Qantas on board could kick start uptake of the Passbook ecosystem for other ticketing services, delivering on Apple's promised ecosystem.
Via: AusBT
