AKDan

I was trying to write an academic paper for school, and up pops a survey invite from AS. Since I wasn't feeling the schoolwork, I decided it was a good distraction. Pretty basic, but the end of the survey asked a lot of questions regarding the paper boarding pass. FYI, the survey did not ask or indicate any of these questions were confidential.

One of the interesting series of questions was what a pass must have printed on it - with options like MP number, confirmation, boarding time, ticket number, etc. Now, I always get a paper boarding pass, but mainly in case of a computer outage to prove that I am on the flight without hitting a website, etc. I use apps and other electronic info to look at flight info.

It got me thinking, does anyone really need the paper boarding pass to show very much information? I don't really trust the gate etc. for any of my connections as it may have changed, I don't need to know my MP number, I don't really need my status or e-ticket number - I basically just use it as a backup and toss it when the miles post. I am not sure there is a way to "make it better."

dgreen12

I'd like to have scheduled arrival time for my flights appear on the boarding pass so that I can remind myself of the layover timeframe without having to pull out the printed itinerary (or pay for wifi while on the airplane).

I've always been surprised that non-FF program participants don't have a short ad appear for the FF program in the allocated space for the FF number on a paper boarding pass. Where ****555 MVP appears, the airline could easily print "Join Mileage Plan Today" (or something like that).

beckoa

Wirelessly posted (beckoa's BB: Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9810; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.11+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.1.0.694 Mobile Safari/534.11+)

Note @ viewing itins with gogo on AS metal...alaskaair.com access is free (can be a challenge to load so check out m.alaskaair.com if timing out.

dave1013

Maybe someone can clarify this for me. If your BP shows you as a Board Room member (which the paper version does) - do you still have to show your card upon entry? By reflex, I do. But do I really need to?

BearX220

I need a paper BP to serve as full post-flight documentation in case of MP posting problems, work expense reimbursement problems, etc. And although I have the app I always print a paper backup because I am sure my Android will freeze or die right when I get to the gate scanner.

Westcoaster

I haven't shown my card at an AS Board Room in a long time when flying AS. I just give them my BP that shows Board Room membership and photo ID.

Westcoaster

Thank you! It's annoying to be behind someone holding up the line because their phone isn't playing nice. Having a paper backup is a courtesy to others as well as a stress reliever for you.

IsleOfMan

I believe at-least AA is experimenting with smaller/truncated paper boarding passes at some locations (about the size of a square post-it note). I believe I saw it at MIA a couple of weeks ago. I haven't seen one up-close, but there was at-lease a bar-code along with flight/boarding time, flight number, boarding zone, and I would assume status level for priority lines and the like. I would have no problem with a truncated paper boarding pass like this as long as I can retrieve itinerary/receipt and the like after the fact online. I use mobile BP exclusively unless I foresee some reason the MP posting might go awry (IRROPS re-booking, mainly)