Handwritten boarding pass

Old Feb 8, 2016, 11:29 am
  #1  
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Handwritten boarding pass

Never come across this before. My boarding pass for a flight from Lilongwe to Lusaka today was hand written. Completely.

Have had no boarding pass (private) and one where one airline (Ethiopian) was crossed out and replaced with another (Malawian) but this one was completely hand written.

No gate (there are only two) and no seat allocation (19 seats and 9 passengers so sit where you want).

If I knew how to do it I would add a photo.
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Old Feb 8, 2016, 12:18 pm
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This is pretty normal for Lilongwe. I can't remember the last time I flew out of there on any airline and actually got a printed boarding pass. The "system" is always down for some reason.



I remember flying out of Blantyre a few years ago on ET and no boarding pass being issued at all. They simply checked our names off a list as we boarded the aircraft.
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Old Feb 8, 2016, 1:32 pm
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Reminds me of the Good Old Days of commercial aviation.

This is a real airline ticket, passenger name not required.



We did get boarding cards. I'm hiding my face behind mine.



Johan
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Old Feb 8, 2016, 1:46 pm
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I got a handwritten boarding pass a few years ago flying OK from VNO to PRG. The agent couldn't get a bp to print so she took a piece of blank ticket stock and put all the details in the right places and handed it to me. I asked how was I going to get through security -- she told me to have them call her. They did and I passed through. The same agent was working the gate at boarding and she just passed me through.
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Old Feb 8, 2016, 2:00 pm
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Yes thats still the case for some small companies in asia or africa , its very rare but you can still have handwritten BP
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Old Feb 8, 2016, 2:10 pm
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Or else a shiny laminated one with no written or printed personal details whatsoever. Just before boarding the aircraft you give it back to the same agent who gave it to you at check-in, so she can reuse it next time.

Johan
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Old Feb 8, 2016, 4:44 pm
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Had no problem at Lilongwe last year on ET getting a printed boarding pass, but was still an odd experience. Mine printed fine, LLW-ADD and ADD-NRT but my partner's did not print out right although we were in the same PNR, her's printed out LLW-BLZ, BLZ-ADD, and ADD-NRT. The agent kept insisting that it was ok and just stay on the plane in Blantyre, but I refused to accept it for fear that if she didn't pass through the gate in Blantyre then she'd be offloaded from the ADD and NRT flights. Finally someone got it straightened out after 10 mins or so for a proper boarding pass LLW-ADD.
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Old Feb 8, 2016, 7:58 pm
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I've had a handwritten pass for charter flights. They're a legal requirement for certain countries and the companies are often too small to have their own card stock.
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Old Feb 9, 2016, 12:37 am
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Had a handwritten one in Morocco, agent didn't know how to process a Business class seat so just hand wrote it
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Old Feb 9, 2016, 3:00 am
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Cool. So you just write "NDEGE LOUNGE (GOLD)" at the bottom of your pass, and *boom*, instant lounge upgrade!
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Old Feb 9, 2016, 3:10 am
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I got a handwritten boarding pass from NW about ten years ago on a day when their computer system did a complete meltdown at MSP. They were also handwriting baggage tags and giving the carbon to the passenger as a receipt.

I remember the laminated reusable ones and also the system where there was a single seating map with little stickers that were stuck onto boarding passes by a single airport agent to assign seats.

It's been a while since GAs would tear off the stub (roughly one third) of the boarding passes or even since FAs used either the stubs or the paper boarding pass for coat checks in FC. I hated having the remember to demand my boarding pass back when my coat was returned at the end of the flight.
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Old Feb 9, 2016, 4:25 am
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Flew on a WE-operate TG-marketed flight out of MDL a week+ ago. Not only was the BP handwritten but no name. Good thing it may not be good for any *A miles outside the TG FFP.
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Old Feb 9, 2016, 5:03 am
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Originally Posted by jonsg
Cool. So you just write "NDEGE LOUNGE (GOLD)" at the bottom of your pass, and *boom*, instant lounge upgrade!
Having paid to go I to the lounge I am not sure it is even worth wasting the ink on. Terrible lounge.
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Old Feb 10, 2016, 3:28 pm
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It used to be the case that all boarding passes were hand written.
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Old Feb 10, 2016, 10:48 pm
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Originally Posted by Indelaware
It used to be the case that all boarding passes were hand written.
It used to be the case theat.you didn't need a boarding pass...
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