[ChrisH]

The issue here has nothing to do with electronic tickets, and needing to beware of them. The issue is that the agent did not know how to give control of the ticket over to the other airline. The airline I work for, has an entry I have to input, to give a person's e-ticket over to the other airline, so that they have control over it. It sounds like this agent did not know how to send control to the other airline. Obviously you probably did not know better, but next time, if they seem to not know what they are doing, ask for another agent, or a supervisor to do it, or, call reservations, let them know what is going on, and ask them to do it. The entry my airline uses is somewhat long, and even I have to pull out a "cheat sheet", to remember it, half of the time.

Trust me, paper tickets are something that I would avoid, at all costs. I've seem a lot of problems with paper tickets, including people losing them, which isn't good, as those paper tickets are basically money. Without them, you do not fly, period.