That must be new, since the Touchless symbol does not appear on any printed BP, which is different from TSA PRE.

BTW, on my last flight, I used my app boarding pass. Was looking at the boarding pass QR code 1 second before advancing to the scanner. Put my cell phone on the reader and.... nothing. Tilted my phone to observe, and somehow, the app had reverted to the home screen. Boomer moment? Perhaps. Everyone had to wait an extra 7 seconds for me to call up again my e-boarding pass.

The printed boarding pass never reverts to a different screen.

Let's see, in the years since 2019 I've been asked by immigration to see boarding passes 4 times that pop to mind. I am sure there were other times:

• entering China when I had had to go to HKG for an unplanned overnight trip and I did not show up as having departed PVG the day before
• exiting BRU when the immigration agent could not find the current entrance stamp in my passport and I could not find it either. To save time I showed my BP and the agent accepted that
• exiting UIO and flying via PTY and EWR to Europe, the immigration agent asked to see my itinerary and would not take my phone and asked for my "paper" itinerary or BPs
• entering MYJ with an APEC card the immigration agent said she needed to see the printed BP and made some note on it for Customs

I am on automatic mode when traveling. I know where every item is in my carry-on and I always print BPs on each trip and put them in the same place. I remove them when the trip is done. Usually don't need them but when you do, you are so glad you have them. And you don't need to rely on a phone or internet connection wherever you travel.

And most efficient. I've never delayed anyone behind me when boarding with a physical BP. However, I've been delayed at boarding by people searching their phone for an internet connection or having difficulty retrieving their BPs.

For a flight this past Monday (2nd Feb 2026) I printed my boarding pass the day before. It contained the touchless logo on the print-at-home
I printed it at the kiosk while getting my baggage tag - TSA Pre and Premier Access logos only, no touchless logo (despite it appearing on the mobile BP and the print-at-home BP).

Used the mobile BP to get in the touchless line and then my face to clear security without issues.

Point of reference.

The 'print boarding pass' option is now right after the final check in question on all kiosks I have used at EWR A.

I definitely get the sense that UA has heard the feedback. I'm sure they'll try again in a couple of years, but for now they're clearly backing down from the all-mobile BP experience.

Just checked in via the website for my flight tomorrow. Option to print boarding pass at home never appeared. Only the send text message to view mobile BP option.

Stupidity.

I don't know that I'm that optimistic -- though EWR found a new kind of stupid: I stopped by the 1K check-in just to get my BP (it was a same day trip so no bag to check) and besides the kiosk only registering about 1 in every 6 touches when it finally printed the boarding pass (after sending me a pointless text message, of course) -- it printed on the back side of the counter and I had to wait for one of the UGE (UGX?) reps to hand it to me... I don't mind the human touch (I prefer when an agent handles check-in end-to-end...feels more civilized) but it seemed like a "Can we make this process any stupider or more convoluted?" moment.

Like if an employee is going to have to be involved in the transaction anyway, why can't they just handle all of the steps of printing the boarding pass?

That has happened to me too. Try logging out of the site, then log back in, and start the check-in process again. You should then see the option to print the boarding pass.

I can add a load to the list you have come up with. In my experience, there are many jurisdictions NOT accepting digital boarding passes than accepting them. A number of clients and tax authorities overseas require boarding passes as proof of flights were actually flown.

Yes, I have also experience more delays at the gate when passengers trying to locate their digital boarding passes. Worse, the whole family's digital boarding passes are in one iPhone.

I prefer paper boarding passes myself, but... do they think that the Boarding Pass Police will come to your house and seize your boarding pass if you no-show for a flight? Or check in and then cancel?

It's silly enough that airlines do it for the purpose of frequent flyer credit, but to have a client or tax authority rely on it is just bonkers. The only exception I can think of would be at airports where the physical boarding passes are stamped by authorities -- usually immigration -- on the way out. Even then, it's not actual proof that you flew, but once you've gone through immigration it's not easy to back out.

Maybe the kiosk ran out of paper, so it reroutes to the receipt printer on the counter as backup?

I worked for a company where they required the BP as part of expense submission process. And yes, agreeing that it's a useless control.

And weirdly, I had enough IRROP incidents to the point where I'm used to un-exiting the country (and have relevant markings in my passport to prove it ).

I can try it next time but just added silliness on the part of United.

I did the website feedback and gave them low marks for it. And I think I will start doing it on after flight surveys as well.
Maybe if enough of us do that it gets on an NPS / voice of the customer report.

While it is possible, I could discern no place on the front of the kiosks for anything (boarding pass or bag tag) to print out -- these are not the very large totems that have been surging like a plague through UA airports but a little miniature counter top thing that's not too dissimilar in width from the old kiosks

At BOS, LGA and EWR, the kiosks print BPs. But, I was at PBI recently and the kiosks only printed to behind the counter. I had to wait for the one agent to finish tagging a bunch of bags before he would slide 24 inches down and hand me the BP. Rolleyes.