Ned's airline boarding pass FAQ

The basic boarding pass is important

boarding passesWithout obtaining a readable boarding pass, air travelers can’t proceed through airport security checkpoints nor board their flights from their departure gates. These days, boarding passes are printed or electronic. They can often be printed at home or retrieved electronically before arriving at the airport, but not always.
The airline boarding pass FAQ below answers the questions I’m most often asked by air travelers.
Check into your flight online as early as possible and try not to delay getting your boarding pass:
Check-in time is used by many airlines as a tie-breaker for upgrades and issuing tickets to stand-by passengers. Passengers without seat assignments may be able to get an assigned seat with early check-in. Airlines may also use check-in times to help them choose who gets involuntarily bumped from their flights.
If the airline permits it, get your boarding pass immediately at the end of the online check-in process. Don’t delay, if at all possible. Later on, something may happen to prevent you from getting your boarding pass online. If you have no boarding pass and you’re very late to the airport, some airlines won’t let you get one once boarding begins, causing you to miss your flight.
Make sure your boarding pass is correct and complete, whether printed, emailed or in your airline app:
It’s happened to me when the airline emailed my electronic boarding pass. When I received it on my smartphone, I noticed the barcode would not fully form on the screen. The boarding pass was useless. I contacted the airline who told me I could print a new one at the airport. In case problems occurred, I left for the airport early. Fortunately, I printed my boarding pass with no problems at ticketing, but it did take 15 minutes in line to do so.
Had I not checked my electronic boarding pass when received and didn’t know I couldn’t use it, I might have not have arrived at the airport early. I would have gone straight to TSA check-in, only to be sent back to ticketing. That might have caused me to miss my flight.
If using an electronic boarding pass, make sure your smartphone is fully charged:
Electronic boarding passes are great. They’re easy to use and eliminate the need for a printer. Of course, if your smartphone is out of power when you get to the airport, they’re worthless, so make sure your smartphone has plenty of power.
Be sure your smartphone can readably display your electronic boarding pass:
Unfortunately, as a fellow traveler found last year, an electronic boarding pass can’t be read if the traveler’s smartphone screen is cracked. It obscures the barcode. A TSA agent sent him back to ticketing to get a printed boarding pass. The lines were long that day. I don’t know if he made his flight.
Click here to subscribeAt TSA and your departure gate, be prepared to show your electronic boarding pass offline and even if your email and airline apps fail:
Sometimes smartphone apps don’t work properly. Sometimes airport security checkpoints and departure gates have poor or non-existent Internet connections. To be safe, I back up my electronic boarding pass with a screen shot of it.
As soon as I have my boarding pass available in my smartphone, I open it and take a screenshot of it. It’s easy to do that in both Android phones and iPhones. I’ve never been unable to show off a photo on my smartphone. The screen shot’s quality is good enough to use as a boarding pass.
Don’t post a photo of your boarding pass online, or discard it in a public location, especially while away from home:
There have been articles overstating the information which can be gleaned from boarding passes, such as financial information. Even without that data, however, access to your boarding pass with barcode can reveal your full name, confirmation code, frequent flier number and flight information. That can be used to reveal your overall travel plans and possibly reset your airline account. To me, it’s critical to understand that if you post your boarding pass as you travel, you’re letting potential thieves know you’re away from home and how long you’ll be away. It will let them know how much time they have to “clean you out.” Please remember that it’s easy for hackers to quickly obtain many if not most people’s home addresses online.
Over the long term, to protect your identity, it’s best to publicly reveal as little personal information about yourself as possible. Not showing your boarding passes publicly and waiting to throw away printed ones until you’re home, should be part of that strategy. Once home, I shred my printed boarding passes, after I’m sure I’ve gotten my frequent flier miles for the flights.
Enter your Trusted Traveler (Global Entry or TSA Precheck) in the right slot in your airline profile:
If you want to get TSA PreCheck approval on your boarding pass, make sure you enter your membership number as a “Known Traveler Number,” not a “Redress Number.”
While this FAQ might not answer every airline boarding pass question you have, following it can help you avoid problems when traveling by air.
(Image: A380 Boarding Pass, Copyright © 2008 Karl Baron)

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