Always Print Your Boarding Pass

Your boarding pass is – literally – your ticket to ride. You can’t get on the plane without it, starting with checking a bag and getting through security.

So why would you take the chance of depending on your phone’s battery life or the airline’s app system?

Airline boarding pass sample_ecoxplorer.com — Photo: Delta

Printed boarding passes have been around since the very first days of air travel.

Originally, they were hand-written.

In the 1990s, when more of us had access to email, computers and printers at home or at work, we got the ability to print our our own boarding passes. Nearly everybody did, and it shortened airport check-in lines considerably.

For the last decade or so, we have been able to check in online 24 hours ahead of our flight and either print out your boarding pass or add it to our airline’s app on your phone or to a mobile wallet.

I always opt for printing. Always. When I can do that at home or at work, I do. When I can’t, I opt for the prompt that lets me get a printed pass at the airport. For me, a printed boarding pass is not negotiable.

I never use a mobile boarding pass. Never. Here’s why –

hand holding cellphone_EvelynKanter — Photo: AARP

Your Phone Could Go Dead

Simply, a piece of paper in your hand is more reliable than a mobile pass. Period.

A piece of paper doesn’t have a battery that can go dead, when your flight is delayed for many hours and all the outlets at the airport are in use by others.

Keeping your phone open while you are threading through TSA or one of the “preferred” lines also drains your battery.

More than once I have been delayed behind somebody who either can’t find their mobile boarding pass or there is something wrong with it.

That doesn’t happen with a paper boarding pass, whether it is at TSA or the boarding gate.

Airport Wi-Fi Doesn’t Work

Let’s face it, airport wi-fi can be slow and imperfect, maybe even not work at all.

That is the case especially at small airports, especially outside the USA. And some airports overseas charge for wi-fi.

You won’t be alone. You’ll be in the company of all the others who didn’t opt for a plain, old-fashioned printed boarding pass.

I nearly missed a tight connection recently because the person in front of me had a wi-fi problem with a mobile pass.

I have no idea what happens to those people – whether they can board their flights or not – because my piece of paper gets me to the departure gate.

The Airline’s App Doesn’t Work

This is more likely to happen out of the USA than within the USA. But can happen anywhere.

If you need to be rebooked for whatever reason, a paper boarding pass is faster and more reliable than the mobile pass you can not access because the system is down or the airport wi-fi isn’t working or whatever.

It’s the difference between instant access and as much as 20 minutes for an agent to look up your information and track down your missing boarding pass.

Which could be the difference between getting booked on the next flight or getting bumped to a flight that doesn’t leave until the next day and missing your cruise, your sister’s wedding or your grandson’s graduation.

airline boarding pass marked with SSSS_ecoxplorer.com — Photo courtesy Wheelchair Travel

What SSSS on Your Boardng Pass Means

SSSS on a boarding pass stands for Secondary Security Screening Selection, meaning you were flagged for additional screening by the TSA. This can involve a thorough check of your carry-on luggage, a pat-down, additional questioning or all three, which may cause delays.

Although it is often random, reasons for being selected can include such suspicious travel patterns as a last-minute ticket purchase, one-way tickets, or cash payments.

It’s a good reason to have TSA Pre-Check or Global Entry.

Recently, I nearly missed an international flight home because I could not print out my boarding pass at my hotel, and the airline’s mobile app refused to bring up my ticket confirmation number or return flight, only the outbound I had taken ten days before.

I had to drag around my baggage to find a customer service agent, who directed me to a counter practically at the other end of the airport for somebody to look up my flight and check me in. Then I had to trudge all the way back to check my bags. Not fun.

What should have been a seamless check-in turned out to be an exhausting 30-minute hassle. And I was simply too frazzled to think of digging out my paper ticket from my arriving flight with the important ticketing information, and the airline service agent didn’t think to ask me for it.

It Has Your Ticket Number On It

Your printed boarding pass often has more information than the mobile version, including the actual ticket number, which you may need to file a claim with the airline for a refund, or with your travel insurance company or credit card for reimbursement for a delayed or cancelled flight.

Lessons Learned

I always write down my airline ticket information on a piece of paper tucked safely in my billfold when I’m traveling domestically and in my Passport cover when I’m traveling internationally – just in case.

ecoXplorer Evelyn Kanter is an award-winning journalist with 25+ years of experience as a newspaper and magazine writer, radio & TV news producer & reporter, and author of guidebooks and smartphone apps – all focusing on travel, automotive, the environment and your rights as a consumer.