how to print my British Airways ticket

[colincostello 180]

I have just booked a ticket with British Airways but cannot see how to print my ticket off.  Am I missing something?I hope it is not all smart phone stuff otherwise I will be staying n Berlin for Christmas. I have a number of some sort, but it does not look enough.

Anx ideas?

 

[colincostello 180]

Apparently I have an e ticket; whatever that is. 

[Acton 1,535]

Do you have a printer?

[PandaMunich 16,570]

41 minutes ago, colincostello said:

Apparently I have an e ticket; whatever that is. 

E-tickets do not get printed, paper tickets have been discontinued since 2008: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_ticket

 

But when it comes to your boarding pass, that will have to be printed (since you do not have a smartphone on which to show the matrix code of the boarding card as a file at the airport), either by printing it on your printer at home or by using the printer included with the check-in kiosk at the airport: https://www.britishairways.com/en-de/information/checking-in-and-boarding/checking-in

[MadAxeMurderer 6,214]

You turn up at the checkin desk or machine with your passport. They scan it getting your name, date of birth etc. And almost by magic find your ticket in the system.

The first 10 times I was scared they wouldn't find my ticket, and I had a full electronic trail ready to argue.

 

Now I don't bother with the electronic trail but am always ready to argue.

[keith2011 2,573]

 

3 hours ago, colincostello said:

I have just booked a ticket with British Airways but cannot see how to print my ticket off.  Am I missing something?I hope it is not all smart phone stuff otherwise I will be staying n Berlin for Christmas. I have a number of some sort, but it does not look enough.

Anx ideas?

 

If you feel more comfortable with something printed you should have received an email with the itinerary and booking number, just print that. It will be more than sufficient in the event something goes wrong but the chances are nobody will want to see it!

[LeonG 14,796]

You can print the email with the booking number. If you don't want to check in online, you can do it at the airport, either on one of their fancy machines or at the counter.  With the email with the booking number, you shouldn't have a problem.

 

If you want to check in online to save a little time not having to do it at the airport, you can do it 24 hrs. before your flight.  You would go to the website of the airline, put in your booking reference number and name.  They find your booking and you add your passport number, phone, email, shoe size and whatever else they want to know.  You may pick your seat, usually for a extra charge these days.  Then you'll get a boarding card, either displayed on the website that you can download/print or it will be sent to you per email for you to download/print.

 

[HH_Sailor 3,532]

8 hours ago, LeonG said:

You can print the email with the booking number. If you don't want to check in online, you can do it at the airport, either on one of their fancy machines or at the counter.  With the email with the booking number, you shouldn't have a problem.

 

If you want to check in online to save a little time not having to do it at the airport, you can do it 24 hrs. before your flight.  You would go to the website of the airline, put in your booking reference number and name.  They find your booking and you add your passport number, phone, email, shoe size and whatever else they want to know.  You may pick your seat, usually for a extra charge these days.  Then you'll get a boarding card, either displayed on the website that you can download/print or it will be sent to you per email for you to download/print.

 

 

Exactly!

 

You're lucky you're with BA.

Some of the others (eg Ryanair) actually charge if you haven't already checked in, and can prove it.

 

Follow @LeonG advice and wait until 24hrs before flight time. Check-in will then be allowed.

[Dembo 493]

Having experienced waiting until I got to the airport to check in and then discovering KLM had given my seat away, I would now always check in online at the first possible moment.

[BethAnnBitt 2,906]

6 minutes ago, Dembo said:

Having experienced waiting until I got to the airport to check in and then discovering KLM had given my seat away, I would now always check in online at the first possible moment.

I always check in online as soon as I get the email that I can, and then I go to the ticket counter and get my boarding pass from a human being upon arrival at the airport.  If I can check in at the kiosk I sometimes do that instead.  

[keith2011 2,573]

When you buy the cheapest ticket (on LH at least) they invariably assign you a crap seat and it costs extra if you want to select another yourself so I never bother to print it but go to the check-in desk at the airport, if I have baggage, and tell them I am not too mobile at my age and ask if there is an aisle  seat nearer the front available, when I have no baggage I do the same at the departure gate desk, it usually works.

[colincostello 180]

Thanks for all this excelent advice. It has put my mind at rest. I was hoping for the EasyJet method whereby you fill in a few details and then they send you a PDF containing your ticket.  I print this off before going to the airport asI feel much more comfortable with this, rather than waiting until I get to the airport .

So here is what I intend to do

1. Add my passanger details fairly soon

2. Check in within 24 hours of departure as I am not allowed to check in sooner.

3 Say a quick prayer and get to the airport in plenty of time to print off the boarding pass.

How does that sound?

 

[colincostello 180]

I remember flying with Airlingus a while ago and they had a similar set up,  I arrived with plenty of time to spare which was just as well as the machines would not print my boarding pass and I had to queue up in the baggage queue and get my boarding pass printed there. 

[LeonG 14,796]

47 minutes ago, keith2011 said:

When you buy the cheapest ticket (on LH at least) they invariably assign you a crap seat and it costs extra if you want to select another yourself so I never bother to print it but go to the check-in desk at the airport, if I have baggage, and tell them I am not too mobile at my age and ask if there is an aisle  seat nearer the front available, when I have no baggage I do the same at the departure gate desk, it usually works.

 

Yes, it would usually work.  If there are plenty of seats available, you can talk to the flight attendant about sitting anywhere you want once you are on the plane.  My last flight, I paid extra for a bit more leg room in the exit row, but all the other people sitting there were not assigned those seats but camped in the exit row after talking to the flight attendant about being allowed to sit there if nobody else showed up.  Then there is also the chance of the flight being overbooked in case you need to be checked in asap to get any seat, see below:

 

3 hours ago, Dembo said:

Having experienced waiting until I got to the airport to check in and then discovering KLM had given my seat away, I would now always check in online at the first possible moment.

 

 

 

21 minutes ago, colincostello said:

3 Say a quick prayer and get to the airport in plenty of time to print off the boarding pass.

How does that sound?

 

You can also print it out at home and don't have to be there in plenty of time, just enough to get through security.

 

 

[colincostello 180]

I do not have a printer , interner access or a TV at home , but I can use the library to print out the boarding pass before I travel to the airport. This would make me feel a lt better. I really do no.t like going to the airport without a boarding pass already in my hand.

Especially when I remember the British Airways terminal 5 opening fiasco of a few years ago.

But the boarding pass issued at the airport is a solid chunk of material , rather than the flimy A4 from the printer.

[keith2011 2,573]

21 minutes ago, LeonG said:

Yes, it would usually work.  If there are plenty of seats available, you can talk to the flight attendant about sitting anywhere you want once you are on the plane.  My last flight, I paid extra for a bit more leg room in the exit row, but all the other people sitting there were not assigned those seats but camped in the exit row after talking to the flight attendant about being allowed to sit there if nobody else showed up.  Then there is also the chance of the flight being overbooked in case you need to be checked in asap to get any seat, see below:

 

As mentioned, you are assigned a seat and have the option of  printing the boarding pass yourself, so regardless of whether it is possible to improve the seat location you are on the plane. I think the days of empty flights are gone on the last 6 I have taken, all to the UK and back (2x BA 4 x LH), all were full and the original flight booked has been cancelled on at least 3 occasions and rebooked at a later time on the same day, looks like they are optimising to save money if some flights are not full! As long as you get to the airport in good time there seems to be an opportunity to get a better seat even at the departure gate desk in my experience anyway.

[colincostello 180]

Honestly , as long as I am on the plane , I do not care about what seat I have.

[PandaMunich 16,570]

58 minutes ago, colincostello said:

But the boarding pass issued at the airport is a solid chunk of material , rather than the flimsy A4 from the printer.

That doesn't matter, since you no longer have to need feed the boarding pass through a slot in a boarding gate machine to board, like back in the time when everybody had these airport issued boarding passes.

 

Now, people mostly have the boarding pass on their smartphone, so they had to change things, the only thing that matters is that the scanner "sees" the matrix code on the boarding pass:

 

In your case, you will just press the matrix code printed on your self-printed flimsy A4 boarding pass to the glass of the boarding pass scanner and the boarding gate will open so that you can get on the plane:

[LeonG 14,796]

1 hour ago, colincostello said:

But the boarding pass issued at the airport is a solid chunk of material , rather than the flimy A4 from the printer.

 

You can have it printed at the library for just in case and then print it again at the airport if you like.  But like Panda said, you just need to scan in the code so as long as you don't fold the paper where the code is, the flimsy paper should be fine.

 

 

1 hour ago, keith2011 said:

As long as you get to the airport in good time there seems to be an opportunity to get a better seat even at the departure gate desk in my experience anyway.

 

In my experience, the gate desk doesn't open until you start boarding and this is the first I've heard that they can re-assign seating.  Maybe I'll try it next time.  Of course this is not what the airlines want.  They want you to pay extra for the good seats ;)

[fraufruit 41,940]

2 hours ago, LeonG said:

If there are plenty of seats available, you can talk to the flight attendant about sitting anywhere you want once you are on the plane. 

 

I change seats without asking after the last person gets on. Have done for years. Get a whole row quite often if not a full flight.

 

Have also gotten re-assigned at the gate many times even after I have a reserved seat. The agent will move me to a seat without a neighbor when I ask nicely. Again, if not a full flight.