The Stress-Free Hack To Access A Boarding Pass On Your Phone With No Cell Service

Modern travel has embraced the digital age with open arms — and who can complain? From utilizing a series of apps for making travel plans to checking in online to secure the best possible seat on the plane, you can put together an entire vacation without touching a piece of paper, queuing at a travel agent's office, or consulting any third party. Even boarding passes have mostly gone digital, with Emirates kissing goodbye to physical boarding passes. But as convenient as it is to flash your digital pass from your airline's app, it's often only as good as your internet connection. To avoid being at the mercy of faulty WiFi (or phone data), the solution is simple — take a screenshot.

Now, it's always best to just print your boarding pass to avoid having to fiddle with your phone at every checkpoint. But if you find yourself printer-less, or just can't be bothered to print, a screenshot makes for a quick and easy alternative. This trick eliminates dependence on potentially unreliable airline apps when showing your pass. For added convenience, you may even want to make the screenshot of the pass your temporary wallpaper for it to be instantly accessible, nixing the need to scroll through photos of your pup in your gallery to show it to the gate agent. Just make sure that the QR code is big and visible enough so it's easily scannable. One Reddit user advised, "I make the QR code big, and it worked."

The problem with both physical boarding passes and screenshots is that they are essentially static images with no way of notifying you whether your flight is delayed, the plane changed gates, or any other updates you might need on the fly. To stay in the loop with real-time updates, consider stashing your boarding pass to your smartphone's built-in wallet app — Google Wallet for Android users and Apple Wallet for iOS users.

Funnily, with Google Wallet, you also have to take a screenshot of the digital boarding pass if you want to add it to your wallet. Center the QR or barcode, take the screenshot, and click "Add to Wallet" when you see the "Screenshot saved" prompt. iPhone users have it easy, too. Simply look for the "Add to Apple Wallet" button lurking in any email, app, or digital message that contains the pass. This method also works for Google Wallet, except that you have to tap "Add to Google Wallet."

It's worth noting that not all airlines deploy real-time updates even when you've gone digital in your wallet, so it's still better to keep your eyes peeled on those flight information screens scattered around the airport for the very latest. But the good news is whatever you store in your wallet stays there until you choose to delete it. This can be a lifesaver for dredging up past flight details if you've accidentally deleted the email containing them.