Why isn’t Apple Wallet smart enough to delete old boarding passes?

by philg

Software is so smart that it will soon be driving us around, recognizing and dodging pedestrians. WIRED and similar cheerleaders for technology assure us that our software pals will also diagnose us based on medical imaging and other tests.

Apple Wallet is an app from one of the world’s leading software companies. Every time I open it there is a boarding pass from a flight that occurred a month or two ago. The software is neither smart enough to delete the pass a month after the flight (and after the location subsystem shows that the flight was actually taken) nor pop up a “would you like to delete these old boarding passes?” offer.

If this is the best that Apple can do, how is it that we can have confidence in the hard problems being solved?

10 thoughts on “Why isn’t Apple Wallet smart enough to delete old boarding passes?”

  1. So you tried to use your Washington DC boarding pass in China & got tear gassed. US has an unusual relationship with China, supporting the PRC because of Trump’s war against them while simultaneously supporting Hong Kong because of jobs.

  2. Because some tickets, mostly arts and sporting events, sometimes offer promotions that are available long after the actual event…and you need to show your ticket.

  3. Oh…and for boarding passes…you may need that to claim mileage that wasn’t credited to your account.

  4. Because business analysts, who write the specifications for most software are usually the most junior person on the team, with no training, at the cheapest possible salary, and they didn’t envision or uncover this particular use case from interviewing the subject matter experts involved.

    What would be nifty is if users were able to submit software feature requests more easily. Seems like a no brainer, but it’s pretty rare.

    • >What would be nifty is if users were able to submit software feature requests more easily.

      Yeah sure. But it’s like the car reservation Seinfeld made. Taking the reservation isn’t the hard part.

    • In my experience BA’s (while generally being unqualified and useless) are 2nd highest paid team member, behind only project managers.

  5. Because the product isn’t really a digital wallet for you, but another way Apple can mine your data for their benefit.

    • Hmmm. This makes no sense.
      They use computers, you know. They can gather the information pretty instantly, no need for it to linger in your device.
      Plus, good companies at gathering data make good products you want to dump your info into, because they’re just so convnient and practical (vide Gmal).

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