Just Print a Paper Copy of Your Boarding Pass
Now I fly at least four times a month and sometimes more. While I always check in for my flights online the day before and install the app on my phone, I also always go to the kiosk when I arrive at the airport to print out my paper boarding pass.
It’s easy for me to get a paper boarding pass. Yes, my boarding pass is in my airline app, but while I’m waiting in line to flash it, I want to check my email on my phone, text a friend, or scroll through Instagram. In fact, I want to do anything but not remove this pass on my phone, which means that somehow somehow it will be impossible to pick up the phone when it’s my turn. Or, better yet, I’ll use my phone too often in flight and won’t get my pass when it’s time to board.
We have a lot of hacks for this, the best IMO is to take a screenshot of your pass, although it certainly won’t help if your phone crashes the moment you need it the most.
With the paper, you can leave your phone at the airport bar and still get on the plane. Just print one and avoid the chance of being that guy (or one of a dozen guys) fiddling with your phone like an idiot while a plane of people line up behind you.
I double this tip when traveling with a large family. Somehow, I always find myself behind a family of 8, where Dad tries (and unsuccessfully) to find a mobile ticket for everyone. Do you know what is easy to find? A neat stack of eight paper tickets in your hand. Sure, have your mobile passes as spare, but use them as spare for paper, not the other way around.
Insider posted a story this week about why you should always print your boarding pass at the airport, which confirmed my move and offered some more compelling reasons for getting this paper ticket.
The author’s main argument for having a printed pass is that it helps to avoid technical difficulties. It could be something like your phone loses its data connection or decides to restart itself when it’s your turn to land, but there could also be things like scanners failing at the airport, and in some airports these scanners initially no. If you have an airport connection that doesn’t support mobile passes, you’ll have to print it out on arrival, which is probably 9000 times more annoying than just getting it before your first flight.
Previously, I was in a situation where the scanners did not work, perhaps only once in 1000 flights, which led to the policy of “paper tickets to the front”.
Insider claims that having a paper pass helped them avoid paying for a seat assignment and get an upgrade. I personally don’t buy any of these statements, at least in terms of paper tickets that provide an edge in any situation.
In particular, I follow the allocation of seats like a hawk in the airline’s mobile application. I always want to sit by the aisle, ideally with an empty middle seat next to me, and I will change my assignment in the app 100 times as I sit at the gate to try and maintain that experience.
A paper ticket won’t help here. Also, the author doesn’t explain how the paper ticket allowed them to get any upgrade, but I can’t imagine how that worked, given how automated and upgrade-based it is these days. It certainly makes it easier to communicate with the agent at the entrance as you can hand them a piece of paper with all your information on it, but I don’t see you getting what you wouldn’t end up with a mobile ticket, because Well.
However, paper tickets are secure, provided you put them in an accessible place and save you (and the people behind you) from having to pull out that mobile ticket or screenshot of your mobile ticket at the exit.