Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 899.
Purchasing and using an e-ticket.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 899.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpod.com.
Become a member of ESL Podcast by going to our website.
This episode is a story about about using an electronic ticket to travel.
Let's get started.
I thought I would save time by purchasing my airline ticket online and checking in at the airport with my e-ticket.
I went on to the McHugh Air website and selected my flights.
The screen then prompted me to pay with a credit card.
After I typed in my payment information...
I got a confirmation receipt with my ticket number and my itinerary.
I printed out a copy of my e-ticket, and I was ready to go.
Easy.
But when I got to the airport, it was a different story.
I went up to a self-serve kiosk and swiped my credit card to bring up my account.
The computer said that it couldn't find my account.
I flagged down an employee and she didn't have any better luck suggesting I stand in line at the check-in counter.
I got in the long line and 45 minutes later the employee helped me check in and gave me my boarding pass.
When I asked her what the problem was, she said she didn't know and it was probably just a glitch in their computer system.
Well, the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry, especially if technology is involved.
Our story begins by me saying I thought I would save time by purchasing my airline ticket online.
To save time means to do something more quickly so that it won't take as much time.
I decided I would save time by purchasing, buying, my airline ticket online on the internet.
And checking in at the airport with my e-ticket.
To check in is a two-word phrasal verb meaning usually to present yourself at an event or at a location to register for something.
When we use it in terms of airline travel, we mean to go to the airport and to tell the airline yes, I'm here, I want to get on the airplane.
You have to check in before you're allowed to go on to an airplane.
I said I was going to check in at the airport with my e-ticket.
E-ticket stands for electronic ticket.
It's a ticket that most airlines in the United States now use.
It's not a paper ticket that they send you like they used to many years ago.
I still remember those days.
Instead, they just send you an email or they take you to a Web site.
Now, you can print out your email, but that's not exactly the same as a paper ticket.
An e-ticket is something that's done electronically, and most tickets nowadays are e-tickets.
I say that I went onto the McHugh Air website.
To go onto a website means to visit a website, to go to that URL, that address, on your web browser on your computer or your phone.
I went onto the McHugh Air website and selected or picked, chose my flights.
A screen is anything on an electronic device that is used to display something, to look at something.
A screen could also be something that's on a wall that you show a movie on.
In talking about computers, though, the screen is a thing you're looking at.
It could be a separate monitor from your main part of your computer or it could be, for example, on a smartphone such as an iPhone.
It could be the part of the phone that you look at, that the information is displayed on.
In our story, screen really means the same as the page that was on the screen.
The screen prompted me to pay with a credit card.
To prompt P-R-O-M-P-T.
Someone means to tell them they should do a certain action, to give them an indication that they should do something, to request that they do something.
So the website is prompting me, is asking me, if you will, to pay with a credit card.
After I typed in my payment information my name, my credit card number and so forth I got a confirmation receipt with my ticket number and my itinerary.
A confirmation receipt is an electronic, in this case document that shows that you have paid for something.
You can print it out and show someone, say, look, I paid for this.
I have a confirmation receipt.
A receipt in general is any piece of paper or email that indicates that you have purchased something.
Confirmation is used here because we're talking about making an airline reservation.
When you make a reservation, when you say yes, I want to fly on this day, at this time, the airline says back to you yes okay, you can do that.
They give you a confirmation of your reservation.
I say that I got a confirmation receipt with my ticket number and my itinerary.
Your ticket number is a number that is on your ticket that is used to identify that ticket, and that ticket only.
Every ticket has its own ticket number.
Itinerary means your travel plans.
An itinerary is a list of all the important in this case, airline flights that you are going to take.
Your complete itinerary might include the airline flights flights you're going to take, the hotels you're going to stay at, the tours that you may take.
All that could be part of your itinerary.
Sometimes people use the word itinerary to mean their travel schedule, everything they will be doing when they are traveling.
Next, I say I printed out a copy of my e-ticket and I was ready to go.
To print out means to make a paper copy of your electronic ticket.
This, of course, is kind of funny, because the idea is that you would be saving paper, not using paper, by having an electronic ticket.
But the truth is, most of us know that computers don't always work the way they should, and so we print out a copy.
So we have proof that we did something, what we said we did in this case, that we purchased a ticket.
I say that when I got to the airport it was a different story, meaning things did not go the way I planned them to go.
I say I went up to a self-service kiosk and swiped my credit card to bring up my account.
Lots of vocabulary in that sentence.
Let's take a look.
I went up to means I walked up to.
I walked in the direction of and then stopped in front of something.
You could go up to a person or you could go up to, in this case, an object.
The object that the person is going up to is walking up to is a self-serve kiosk.
Self-serve means there isn't anyone there to help you.
You are doing everything yourself.
You are serving or helping yourself.
A kiosk K-I-O-S-K In American English usually refers to a computer where people can go and get information or buy things without anyone helping them.
In other countries and other languages, kiosk means something a little different.
But when we talk about a self-serve kiosk, we're talking about a computer or a machine that you can go and do things on.
To swipe S-W-I-P-E means to move something very quickly, especially a credit card or any other sort of bank card, through a machine that reads the electronic information on the card.
When you go to a store there'll often be a little machine and you use that machine to put your credit card information into the electronic system of the store.
You do that by moving the credit card very quickly through the machine.
The verb we use specifically for that action is swipe.
So I swiped my credit card to bring up my account.
To bring up is a two-word phrasal verb that has a couple of different meanings.
Here it means to retrieve or get information from a computer and have it be displayed on the computer screen.
To bring up can also mean to raise a child, to be a parent and or a friend who helps a child grow up.
But here it means simply to get information from the computer so you can see it.
The computer, however, said that it couldn't find my account.
My account here would be my information.
I then flagged down an employee.
To flag F-L-A-G down is a two-word phrasal verb meaning flag, usually to wave your hand in the air in order to get someone's attention, to get them to come over and help you.
We can flag down an employee at an airport and ask them to help us.
That's what I'm doing in the story.
You could also flag down someone else who you want to help you in some public space.
You may flag down a police officer if you have a problem and you need his help or her help.
I flagged down an employee, but she didn't have any better luck, meaning she wasn't able to find the information either.
So she suggested that I stand in line at the check-in counter.
To stand in line means to go and to wait for someone to help you.
The check-in counter is the place, usually a very large desk at an airport where employees will help you check in.
It's different than the self-service kiosk where you're supposed to check in yourself.
The check-in counter is the place where they have real live human beings that will help you.
I got in the long line and 45 minutes later the employee helped me check in and gave me my boarding pass.
A boarding pass is usually a small piece of paper that you're given, that you have to give to the airline employee in order to get on the actual plane.
So you hold it, you keep it with you.
It also proves that you are going to go on an airplane and is your only way typically to get past the airport security.
Now, in most American airports you can't go up into where the people are getting on airplanes unless you have a boarding pass, unless you are actually traveling.
You could just go up to any airport and go through the security and sit and wait for someone to leave or for someone to arrive.
Nowadays, you can't do that.
You have to have a boarding pass to get past security.
I asked the person what the problem was, why the, And I was told it was just a glitch in their computer system.
A glitch.
G-L-I-T-C-H is a technical problem, usually a small problem related to the way the computer is working.
It's not working correctly.
It's an error.
This is an old expression.
That means, even when we plan things very carefully, sometimes things happen and our plan does not work out.
Our plan is not successful.
The best laid plans would be the plans that are prepared the best.
Even if we prepare good plans, they often go awry.
To go awry, A-W-R-Y, means to go wrong.
There's a famous book in English called Of Mice and Men.
You can learn about that in our learning guide.
Now let's listen to the story, this time at a normal speed.
I thought I would save time by purchasing my airline ticket online and checking in at the airport with my e-ticket.
I went onto the McHugh Air website and selected my flights.
The screen then prompted me to pay with a credit card.
After I typed in my payment information, I got a confirmation receipt with my ticket number and my itinerary.
I printed out a copy of my e-ticket, and I was ready to go.
Easy.
But when I got to the airport, it was a different story.
I went up to a self-serve kiosk and swiped my credit card to bring up my account.
The computer said that it couldn't find my account.
I flagged down an employee and she didn't have any better luck suggesting I stand in line at the check-in counter.
I got in the long line and 45 minutes later an employee helped me check in and gave me my boarding pass.
When I asked her what the problem was, she said she didn't know and it was probably just a glitch in their computer system.
Well, the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry, especially if technology is involved.
You can go on to our website and print out the wonderful scripts by our wonderful script writer, Dr Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2013 by the Center for Educational Development.
