Since the 1950s, E Ticket (or E ticket ride) has referred to an unusually thrilling, interesting, most-interesting, or most-expensive situation. It derives from the tickets used at Disneyland and Walt Disney World theme parks until the early 1980s. Park-goers bought tickets in different denominations, from "A" through "E", with "E" tickets being the most expensive and reserved for the newest, most expensive or popular rides and attractions. Tickets could be purchased individually or in booklets, with the purchased booklets including tickets of each category. A book may contain, for example, a park admission ticket, 1 "A" ticket, 1 "B" ticket, 2 "C" tickets, 3 "D" tickets, and 3 "E" tickets. (See Yesterland for details.) The parks no longer use this method of selling tickets, but the phrase continues to be used.
In the late 1990s, E ticket or e-ticket also began to be used as a shorthand term for electronic ticket. These tickets, usually for an airline flight or entertainment venue, usually do not include any paper version, but exist only in digital form.
