But why would it matter? A QR code works regardless of the technology used to display it (be that paper, a screen, or a bunch of rubix cubes). What would the benefit of requiring digital boarding passes be? Unless the airline wants to force passengers to use their app so they can sell customer data and sell ads, there’s no real benefit to the actual boarding process.
In China the digital boarding pass QR code changes every 30 seconds preventing screenshots or photos of it from being used. But as they’re currently implemented in the US it’s no different than paper.
The bigger issue is how bad airline apps handle anything even slightly out of the ordinary like itineraries including codeshare segments or just randomly have server problems. I fly 50+ times a year and am able to actually use the digital boarding pass only ~95% of the time.
I always always screenshot my QR code and present that at the gate. If we had rolling codes locked away in a proprietary app, I guarantee boarding will grind to a halt as there always seems to be some sort of access issue whether it be from the servers, user error, connection issues, etc not to mention people often have their hands full of crap which makes clicking through a bunch of app menus difficult.
