Airline travel is stressful enough without having to remember paper boarding passes. You’re already dealing with taking off your shoes; juggling your wallet, ID, and laptop; and some security agent giving you the stink eye. If you have an iPhone, obtaining your boarding pass will be one less item on your to-do list when you arrive at the airport.
Apple’s Wallet app (iOS 8 or higher) lets you store boarding passes in addition to credit, debit, prepaid cards, store cards, rewards cards, and more. Apple Wallet via iPhone or iPod touch makes it easy to present your boarding pass without having to check your pocket 20 times. You can receive your boarding pass a number of ways, including your email or Messages app, via your browser, or with your airline’s mobile app. Here’s how to add a boarding pass to Apple Wallet.
Note: Nearly 70 airports worldwide accept boarding passes via Apple Wallet, so make sure the airports you use support this mobile feature.
If you get your pass via email, text message or browser
Once you check in to your flight — using either the Safari or Chrome browser — the airline can send you a boarding pass via email. Apple Mail users get the extra convenience of having the program recognize the boarding pass and automatically add it to your Apple Wallet. Just in case that does not happen, you still have the option of adding the boarding pass to your Wallet manually.
- Open the email attachment at the bottom of the email.
- Tap the Add to Apple Wallet button and tap Add.
Some boarding passes appear automatically based on your device’s location or the time. For example, when you arrive at the airport, your boarding pass may show up as a notification on your iPhone screen. From there, just tap the Add to Apple Wallet button to store it.
If you use the airline’s app
If you’re the nervous type who wants to make sure you’re not entirely relying on iOS to do its job, download your airline’s proprietary app and use it to check in to your flight. While not all airlines have a dedicated app, most high-profile ones — United, Delta, Southwest, American, JetBlue, Hawaiian, Virgin Atlantic, and numerous international airlines — do have apps to help you plan and track your travel. After you check in, look for a button with the Apple Wallet icon to store your boarding pass.
- Create or log into your account.
- Input your confirmation code.
- Observe your boarding pass or an invite to check in to your flight so you can access it.
- View your app’s interface to find the Add to Apple Wallet button and tap it, and then tap Add.
Once you’ve got the boarding pass into Apple Wallet, you just need to launch the app and present it to airline personnel. For multiple boarding passes, save each mobile boarding pass individually for flight check-in.
Now that your boarding pass is sorted, check out the best travel gadgets and the best travel apps to get the most from your trip.
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