Letter on the back of BPs
Jun 21, 2005 | 8:04 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2001
Posts: 1,722
Letter on the back of BPs
I was really bored, so I decided to go through my old boarding passes. I noticed something odd on the back of the majority of my BPs. In the upper left corner of the magnetic strip there is a tiny letter. In about 70 BPs, I have the letters A through E, while a few BPs have no letter printed. Does anyone know the purpose of these letters?
Jun 21, 2005 | 9:31 pm
#2
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Denver, CO, USA
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Oh, you have a ways to go. Once you collect BPs with one of each letter, A-Z, you can turn them in for instant UGS status for life.
OK, I'm kidding.
OK, I'm kidding.
Jun 22, 2005 | 10:42 am
#3
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Melbourne, Vic., Australia.
Programs: QF Platinum One (LTG), UA Plat IHG Plat
Posts: 5,836
I think they're codes relating to the print runs or something to do with the printing.
Interestingly I just looked at the back of a few QF passes I have handy. One of them has: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W.
Another one starts a E...
Actually now I come to think of it it reminds me of a previous life when I worked in the production/printing area of a major daily newspaper. Anyway they used to print various letter codes (eg: A , B etc) each time they changed the plates .. or rather, as a version control. So the first set of papers printed would be an A, then if they changed something, edited something, added a late sports score, updated an article(whatever), the next run might have a B on it and so on. That way you could tell which version you had (I think some papers use series of stars, and/or print stuff like "FINAL"). It was basically a version control system.
The other reason to do it may simply to be as a test of the letter rendering of the print process. I dunno. I'm not a printer. I'm sure it's got something to do with it though
(a new way to learn the alphabet when bored on long flights? )
Interestingly I just looked at the back of a few QF passes I have handy. One of them has: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W.
Another one starts a E...
Actually now I come to think of it it reminds me of a previous life when I worked in the production/printing area of a major daily newspaper. Anyway they used to print various letter codes (eg: A , B etc) each time they changed the plates .. or rather, as a version control. So the first set of papers printed would be an A, then if they changed something, edited something, added a late sports score, updated an article(whatever), the next run might have a B on it and so on. That way you could tell which version you had (I think some papers use series of stars, and/or print stuff like "FINAL"). It was basically a version control system.
The other reason to do it may simply to be as a test of the letter rendering of the print process. I dunno. I'm not a printer. I'm sure it's got something to do with it though
(a new way to learn the alphabet when bored on long flights? )
Last edited by RichardMEL; Jun 22, 2005 at 10:46 am
Jun 22, 2005 | 11:03 am
#4
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Orange County, CA
Programs: UA 2MM Lifetime Plat, Marriott Lifetime Titanium
Posts: 1,686
Originally Posted by LGA_UAL
I was really bored, so I decided to go through my old boarding passes.
Jun 22, 2005 | 11:17 am
#5
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Chicago 'burbs
Programs: UA 2P, HHonors Diamond, Hertz Gold
Posts: 874
I'm just amazed that someone actually SAVED boarding passes from the 70's and still had them (let alone saved enough to perform some analysis on letter codes on the back 
)
)
Jun 22, 2005 | 11:58 am
#7
Join Date: May 2004
Location: SFO sometimes
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Posts: 1,635
Originally Posted by gof
I'm just amazed that someone actually SAVED boarding passes from the 70's and still had them
Jun 22, 2005 | 1:03 pm
#8
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Texas, U.S.A.
Posts: 19,523
uhh i'm pretty sure the OP said he had ABOUT 70 bp's, not FROM the 70's
Problem is with many of them having been printed thermally...they're fading away to nothing!
Gonna have to hire some kid to go through and make photocopies before they are all gone. Although I don't know why I should even bother anymore. Seemed like a good idea at the time to save them.