Hold on to the airline boarding pass
Every week on “The Frommer Travel Show” (which may or may not be carried by a radio station in your vicinity), my daughter and I interview various travewl experts on their inventory of travel tactics. And frequently we learn about transportation secrets of which we had never before heard.
Would you believe, for instance, that the lowly boarding pass, which most of us discard after entering an airplane, is occasionally claimed to have continuing value? That’s the advice given by a number of travel experts.
The internet is full of recommendations that you guard your boarding pass, primarily because the bar code on it is alleged to have personal information that might be of use to a thief. Wiser experts deny this. They state, quite vigorously, that a bar code contains information only with respect to the flight for which it has been issued.
Other internet recommendations claim that the pass will come in handy if you bill the airlines for damages resulting from cancelled or tardy flights. Again, several other experts point out, quite validly, that you can easily prove through other methods that you were on a flight that was cancelled for improper reasons or delayed. You do not need to display a previous boarding pass for this purpose.
So is there a use for a previous boarding pass? One that requires that you hold onto it? Several travel commentators have pointed out that a handful of airlines have recently created an occasional marketing prize for persons who submit a previous boarding pass.
Thus, one expert has claimed that Alaska Airlines will sometimes give a discounted ticket to people wise enough to hold onto their previous Alaska Airlines boarding pass.
Alitalia claims that it will occasionally give free entrance to Italian wineries or museums to persons who have been careful to hold onto their previous Alitalia boarding pass and submit it to them.
If you’re an ultra cost-conscious traveller who will guard and not discard a boarding pass, you might occasionally score a small reward. Go to the airline’s website and insert the words “boarding pass.”
Arthur Frommer is the pioneering founder of the Frommer’s Travel Guide book series. He co-hosts the radio program, The Travel Show, with his travel correspondent daughter Pauline Frommer. Find more destinations online and read Arthur Frommer’s blog at frommers.com.