Oh United Airlines, I know you want to encourage folks to use digital boarding passes, but do you really have to make it so grueling to print a paper boarding pass from an airport kiosk?
How You Can Still Print A Paper Boarding Pass From A United Airlines Airport Kiosk.
United has launched its next-generation interface for its airport kiosks and there is one notable missing option: obtaining a paper boarding pass with ease.
The Chicago-based airline is hardly alone in wanting to reduce the cost of paper boarding passes and direct people to use their mobile phones (Alaksa has also made it tough), but now makes it appear as if printing paper boarding passes is no longer possible. It is…but will require some maneuvering.
I was in O’Hare Airport trying to print out a boarding pass and all I saw were digital options.
I asked a check-in agent to print me a boarding pass and she barked back, “Use the kiosk.” I responded that there was no option. She rolled her eyes and walked over to the machine and quickly pushed a number of buttons to print one out.
Here’s how you do it (I’m borrowing the photos below from Flyertalk user NikoLGA):
1. Pull up your reservation and click on “get digital boarding pass” (the option to print paper boarding pass is gone).
2. At the bottom left, click on “more options”
3. A pop-up box will then allow you to click to print a paper boarding pass
Call me old-fashioned, but I make it a point to obtain a paper boarding pass for three reasons. First, because phones can malfunction or batteries die. Two, to guard against shenanigans like last-minute seat changes or downgrades. Third, in case of crediting issues later, mobile boarding passes expire so I do keep my paper boarding passes in a folder at home until everything credits (That was key, for example, with my recent SAS Million Mile trip around the world).
I find United’s new system unreasonably and unnecessarily complex: let people print paper boarding passes…there are many valid reasons to do so.
But at least now you know how to get one from United’s labyrinth-like airport kiosks.
> Read More: The End Of Paper Boarding Passes
Or you take a screenshot of your mobile boarding pass for any future needs as in your examples other than phone battery dying. To me this is a big nothing burger in a world that is moving 99.9% digital. Kind of surprised someone like you has an issue with it.
I screenshot it as well…
Taking a screen shot is of no help if your phone dies or decides right as your trying to board to install an update. As Matthew rightly points out there are a number of very good reasons to get and retain a paper record.
Many of us still don’t use an iphone, so they need to cooperate & make it easy to print a pass.
Not everyone is beholden to this so called revolution called “digital transformation”, which is really about companies cutting costs rather than benefiting passengers. And have you learned nothing from previous IT outages? There is such a thing as being too reliant on technology.
+1, what really gets me above the illogical path of “get digital boarding pass” then “more options” (with only one option !!!) to be able to print out a boarding pass…… is the apparent lack of trying out out the new interface when in Alpha or Beta version on a typical passenger. Asking a few users “off the street” to try out software before it is released should be standard practice….
I truly believe this is a very deliberate effort to make passengers think it is no longer possible to print out a boarding pass (rather than give them a choice). It certainly fooled me.
Matthew – what stations do you find it easy to just see an agent at Premier and not just get barked back to use a kiosk? It’s my biggest UA pet peeve. I find stations like SFO Intl, LGA, BOS, LAX, etc. are quite good at having an agent check you in the full service way.
EWR and ORD have always given me a hard time.
Agreed. LAX and SFO are great…ORD and EWR are the worst. IAD is okay, thuogh you are sometimes directed to the kiosk.
As your hero would undoubtedly nickname you, Dirtbag Dave Edwards, go away. No one is interested in anything you write, including those rare occasions when you omit your usual vitriol.
Or, like me last week, you have lost your cell phone and still need to fly. Fortunately, I didn’t encounter any difficulty at IAD Tuesday morning in printing a boarding pass from the kiosk.
Not everyone has a smartphone.
@derek … +1 . The Best and Smartest folks do Not have a mobile phone .
Typical ORD United Customer service for premium customers’, she barked “Use the Kiosk!” Never “How can I help?”
Although, I have had a worse “use the kiosk” experience with Delta in “friendly” SLC
Agreed about ORD in general. Some good folks there, but most are miserable (almost giving Newark and JFK combined a run for their money, and make ATL look like choirboys in comparison).
I have probably written this before, but I had the same sort of experience at IAH, where they rudely insisted that I needed to use the kiosk in order to check in for a connection on separate tickets- it obviously couldn’t do it, so they then sent me to the special assistance desk where I wasted a good half hour of my time. The business/*G check in desk wouldn’t open until maybe 5 minutes before the scheduled departure of my flight.
Between that experience and the really poor food on the long-haul J connection, I am definitely not going to be flying UA again in any hurry. I suppose it’s interesting to contrast my experience as a UA premium passenger with how well DL staff treated me when flying with them in Y and with no status showing on the BP (I did use my AZ status to get into the lounge at ATL), although we’re obviously talking a tiny sample.
Hello Matt, you left out a 4th reason:
4) Backup against digital infrastructure breakdown.
The recent Crowdstrike debacle illustrates how unreliable the infrastructure is. Back when (Americans) were building and administrating these networks, they were sometimes clumsy but bulletproof hence why Y2K was such a crisis: Systems built to last 20 years lasted for 40 beyond their expected 2 digit date format.
The 737 Max wouldn’t have been built under William E Boeing’s tenure.
Heck, let’s try number 5:
5) It makes the airport staff’s jobs a lot easier.
I can see it on their faces as I just hand them the paper instead of fiddling with the phone hoping it doesn’t go dark just as they’re trying to see it and need to be unlocked.
Now granted, I read recently about the danger of Bisphenol poison in thermal paper. Yikes!
That said, I think digital passes will become more useful when they are integrated with biometrics. Even so, I try to have paper passes in hand when I’m going to my gate.
They want your data, badly. You can’t even get a digital boarding pass from ua any longer without using their mobile app. For the last couple of months, they’ve denied users the ability to obtain a digital boarding pass when doing web check-in. And now, making it very difficult, rolling eyes agent for the cherry on top, to print a paper boarding pass. All about monetizing data imo. We have to decide if this is worth it, or not.
How? We’re all welcome to email united to let them know we want to make it easier to at least have web check in again for data privacy reasons and make it easier/less unpleasant to print paper boarding passes.
If they want My data , they cannot have it because I do not own a mobile phone .
Addendum:
It’s remarkable that you have to go to menu “digital pass” and then to “option” to select the single option “print boarding pass”.
It begs the question whether this was intentionally confusing or, well, cheap/lousy software menu design. From my experience, it’s likely they had a meeting to decide on the design of the interface and then a later “iteration” added an “option” button with the ONLY option being “print boarding pass”.
It shows a lack of insight to not simply flowchart this out BEORE coding and then this messiness could have been avoided.
This is all deliberate, I think to make people think printing a paper boarding pass is not possible.
Intentionally confusing , of course .
I’m chucking because my wife grudgingly admits she needs me around to deal with these technology snafus. I do this stuff for a living so if I see “options” on a screen, I’m pushing it. There’s other “privileges” I enjoy because I simply explore how these systems work. I shall not discuss THOSE here. 🙂
Logically, if someone is too inept to figure out the Options button, they probably will struggle with loading the pass onto their phone. On flights, I’m tech support to ensure the United app is loaded, they’re all logged in with their individual MileagePlus profiles AND they get through on the local WIFI to be able to enjoy the IFE.
Since you travel often, you should take an informal poll if you’re in steerage class and observe how many people figure out how to load WIFI, the United App, AND a bluetooth headset when they need to use a personal device for IFE.
The correct answer is “All Of The Above.”
Yes, they planned to simply force customers to do what they want (to cut their costs, to capture your data, and because they want to reinforce their dominance and control over you, their mere customer). So in their hubris, they did what they wanted to do to you because A) they don’t give a shit about what you might want, you are just cargo; and B) They could not imagine that anyone might not be able to comply with their imposed vision for your life.
Then people kept showing up without functioning cell phones (or without cell phones at all). This cost them money, which is how it got their attention.
So they grudgingly hacked into their own horribly designed system, crammed in an unexpected “Other” option, which they buried – because it’ll be easier and “cleaner” to eventually remove the buried option when they can find some way to force you do to what they wanted in the first place. Until then, they’ll hide the option from you as best they can.
Very revealing and it speaks volumes of how they regard you, the cattle.
Expect more of this in your future.
It was actually the result of a considered choice to make it difficult to print one, while still letting them insist they aren’t trying to do just that.
Companies spend time and money coming up with these strategies: it’s called a “dark pattern.”
Dark patterns are most frequently used to hide things like cancellation and free options..
Personally, I will never understand what exactly is the benefit of going digital in the form of boarding passes. If traveling internationally, for example, isn’t it easier to have the boarding card in the passport book rather than juggling a passport and a mobile? Not to mention that the universal method worldwide is still paper, and boarding passes may be needed as proof of return ticket when at customs and immigration (I had this happen a couple of times, once at Gatwick, and also at Munich).
And what are the options if systems go down? In many sectors, but more so with airlines, IT infrastructure can be hit and miss, at best. Don’t say we didn’t warn ya, if there’s an IT outage at some point. Innovation is not always a good thing, especially when overused. And in this case, it seems more of a cost cutting operation and digital scavenging exercise, which is about what you can expect from an airline that has little to no imagination, a massive understatement.
@Jay … +1 . Merely another type of scam .
Yeah I hate juggling carry-on + passport + mobile. Slows everything down.
Why is this so hard to understand? It’s brain-dead simple:
It saves them money. That’s the only thing they care about.
I don’t think it’s really cost cutting but rather was pitched that way at a board meeting:
“Ahem! We can PAY for this feature in the app by just requiring people to use it and then we’ll save on kiosk paper and repair costs! We estimate that with a million fliers a day, at 1 cent per printout, it will save $10,000/day or $3 million/year!!!
“So, how much is this feature going to cost?”
“Well, with my cousin who works at Brightly Outsourcers Coding, it’s only $5,000,000!”
The CEO doesn’t have to wait in the lice line that is now 2X as slow due to the serfs spending time to load the passes on their phone and try to scan them in or the check-in agents who spend extra time trying to help senior citizens who can BARELY use a flip phone figure out how to get a pass printed out anyway.
Note that WHATEVER happens, the guy who thought this up will get his huge bonus. I’ve seen projects like this fail SPECTACULARLY before and the guys get their bonuses because NOBODY wants to admit they were a boondoggle.
Thank you very much for posting this. I experienced the same thing two weeks ago with United and I was not happy. For the same reasons you mentioned above I always prefer to have a paper boarding pass on me. I also had to ask an agent for help. While I am an experienced flyer, this type of behavior really irritates me when I think of my elderly parents flying who do not want to do everything on their phones.
Paper ALWAYS works. Digital Passes are still not ready for primetime and toys people use to try and show off tech. Screens blank out, batteries die and other stuff that clogs up the line. Never does paper fail. United can’t fix the stupid in people so they should not stop printing.
I think I must be the only one here, but I am actually more annoyed at the opposite, when airlines (invariably either outside the USA or foreign carriers here) refuse to allow you to use the electronic boarding pass that their systems gave you and say you have to see the agent (I know some airlines claim that they need to see your passport to verify travel documents, but UA’s app does this automatically and obviates the need to ever speak with an agent – I don’t know why this isn’t universal). Similarly, some foreign countries (India and Morocco immediately come to mind) don’t permit electronic boarding passes because government officials see the need to stamp them for no apparent reason.
I shared a story before of a stupid Southwest Airlines gate agent that denied boarding to my kids because their digital boarding passes were on my phone. The kids didn’t have phones at that time so I had them all on mine. According to the moron, everyone had to carry their own boarding passes. I was directed to another location to get their boarding passes printed so they could board. We were the last to board and had to take whatever seats were left empty. No need to say that was the last time I flew that stupid airline.
I’ll always ask for or print my boarding pass for as long as they have it as an option. I like having both digital and paper.
Although it was with Alaska, I have found that having a printed boarding pass does not protect you from seat assignment shenanigans and downgrades. I guess the gate agents prefer you to have a mobile pass because the evidence is gone, but if they move you or downgrade you, the printed boarding pass doesn’t really protect you.
PS In fact I have experienced that when you have evidence that your assigned seat has disappeared or been reassigned, the gate agents can get hostile or aggressive. Perhaps because they have been caught or don’t have good options to offer you. It’s a bad place to find yourself.
Fyi the mobile passes do not disappear. My iphone wallet has passes going back to 2021. Granted, I don’t fly as much as you but it must save the last 100 or so.
Don’t use the kiosks, insist to deal with a real live person. The old fashioned way.
It is getting ridiculous. Now not only do we have to do the agents job of checking one in now they make it hard as hell to get a physical ticket. I’m really tired of being made to do other peoples jobs. I certainly want a paper ticket. I insist. If they don’t charge for face to face communication with a real person that is. Yet.
Matthew,
I had an experience with DL last weekend where the app wouldn’t generate a boarding pass. They would not allow me to get into line at the service desk to get one without scanning a QR code, entering in my information into an online form, and proving I couldn’t get it myself on the app. It isn’t just United. In the new ticket lobby at CLT, AA has a ton of these “bag tag only” machines as well.
I prefer paper boarding pass because my phone is safely stuffed away when I enter the checkpoint.
Alaska is even worse. There’s no option to print a boarding pass at all on the kiosks now.
I always print out boarding passes on international itineraries both directions. I don’t want to land in MIA and go access the lounge to find out my boarding pass has somehow been removed from the AA app. Then the AA app will play the original seat assignment game from 3 days ago before I was upgraded. Customs may ask. You never know. I’ll go digital domestic but use a physical pass for international travel.
Thanks for this explanation – I saw this at DCA and did not have time to play around with the misleading “Get Digital Boarding Pass” option to see what would happen. But you only have to have had your phone die on you one time for you to want to have a paper pass as a backup.
The thin thermal paper they print boarding passes on these days can’t cost THAT much! This would be like a grocery store not offering you a paper receipt. A physical document is just part of the business. On another note barking at customers seems to be a United agent past time. I was flying Polaris to Asia and before I could even reach the check-in counter the agent sternly said “Use the kiosk.” And then went back to their conversation with a coworker. Made me feel real special.
David, if you want to lose sleep, google “Is BPA on Thermal Paper A Health Risk?”
It’s like us Gen-Xers truly have survived Mad Max: playing outside as kids UNSUPERVISED until dark, no helmets while riding bikes, putting mercurochrome on our scratches, LEAD FILLINGS in our teeth!!!
I’m chuckling because CVS notoriously prints out thermal receipts so long that Family Guy Peter used them as scarfs. Nonetheless, I expect the stiff paper that’s used for boarding passes is better quality and costs a bit more. I googled and the cost is between a cent and a nickel and that can certainly add up. I think this may also be why many stores are giving you the option for no receipt if you have an email on file.
I’m a cheapskate and had a heart attack when I saw how much Office Depot wanted for printer paper but Target sold printer paper at a little over a penny a page.
That said, if they really want to eventually go paperless, they ought to consider issuing airtags for baggage which would be returned to the airline after arrival. They REALLY ought to have an airline representative there checking to make sure outsiders don’t steal bags and then picking up each tag to ensure that the bags were delivered.
Apparently I’m in the minority. I actually find it a little embarrassing when I have to board with a paper BP. I cannot think of a time my mobile BP has “malfunctioned” nor have I ever had my battery die.
I flew United yesterday. I used the kiosk and the “print a boarding pass” is right there on the front screen and very easy to see.
It like you just want to complain about United.
It’s getting tiresome. Calling it grueling is an exaggeration
I’m rolling my eyes at your comment. No, I don’t just want to “compalin about United.”
Which airport? Not all kiosk sofrware updates have been pushed.