One of the nicest things about the modern age is the ability to have a mobile boarding pass. You can go from your house to the door of the aircraft having only interacted with airport security along the way.

Each mobile boarding pass has information relevant to you as a passenger, which is quite obvious. More subtle are the markers that tell airline employees about you.

Mobile Boarding Pass Colours

It is reasonable to expect that the boarding pass of an airline would look the same for all passengers, especially if you don’t fly often. However, airlines have used colours for years to highlight premium passengers over the rest, something which continues today.

The two colours used by American Airlines clearly show who is in first class and who is not. Also included is frequent flyer status, which is oddly missing from the light blue version.

Low fare carriers use colours as well. In the example above, Ryanair use white passes for those without priority boarding and dark blue ones for those who have it.

At Qantas, white boarding passes are issued for those without Qantas Frequent Flyer status. Colours are used for members, starting with red for their bronze entry level status.

What Else Is Included?

You’ll note that I have removed the QR code from the mobile boarding pass images. Anyone reading these will be able to find out your full name and the booking reference number, so be careful when sharing these online.

Otherwise, they will always contain your name, flight number, the date and your seat. Some contain frequent flyer information, some seem to miss it. Layouts are similar, but there are differences as you can see above.

Overall Thoughts

The mobile boarding pass is increasingly common, though you can still get a paper version. Technology is moving quickly though. In the not too distant future, facial recognition may take over from everything, making for an even more seamless experience.

Do you keep your mobile boarding passes or are you someone who deletes them? Have you seen any that vary a lot from the ones above or are they all pretty similar? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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