At airports, I’ve always waited in line to get a printed boarding pass. Time for a change I guess.

Apparently I can check online and print my boarding pass as a pdf at home or even download the airline’s app and get a qr code to print the boarding pass at a kiosk inside the airport. Do I need an active internet connection at the airport to use the kiosk? I wont have internet there.

My airline explains they can send a pdf copy of the boarding pass to my email address. Is it really not a problem to print my boarding pass on regular office paper and not on cardboard airlines use?

If I download the airline’s app to get the qr code to print the boarding card at the kiosk, will the airline spam me with ads I don’t want?

Can I both print the boarding pass at home AND get the qr code to print the boarding pass at the kiosk?

Apparently there is something called ‘receive boarding pass by sms’. How does this work?

  • @Sequentialsilence
    link
    59 months ago

    I do a lot of traveling in the United States, this may vary depending on where you are.

    I haven’t used a physical boarding pass in almost 9 years. Airlines want you to use a digital boarding pass as it costs them less money and is more secure, so you actually get less sales pitches with the digital boarding pass. It’s literally here’s your flight information, here’s your QR code, we’ll only text you if something changes, like the gate changed, or there was delay. Printing a pass is obsolete these days. As for offline use. You add it to your phone’s wallet, and most airports in the US have free WiFi, so you’re covered there as well if you didn’t save the image, or have no cell service.

    The only time I got spam was when I signed up for airline miles and then I simply opted out and those stopped as well.

    Go QR code all the way, no chance of it getting lost.