Said It Here

How to get a real rigid boarding pass instead of thermal paper

Airlines now issue digital passes or print tickets on cheap thermal paper at self-service kiosks, making it difficult to collect traditional heavy stock ticket stubs for travel journals. Travelers wanting physical souvenirs can rarely find out in advance which airports or desks still offer them.

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

  1. 1
    Going to the check-in counter or desk to request a printed version
  2. 2
    Buying custom stock paper to design and make your own replica boarding passes

In their words

Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.

r/travel3 people · September 2026

I keep my ticket stubs from lesser traveled/will never be able to go again countries as souvenirs. I keep them in a little travel journal.source ↗

SnoopThereItIs88 · r/travel · 2 upvotes

I have not had a heavy stock paper boarding pass in several years now, at least not for a U.S. airline. I'm sure it's still possible in some airports, but I don't know how you could know that in advance.source ↗

whywires · r/travel · 2 upvotes

Is it possible to get real rigid boarding pass still?source ↗

So far, I only get digital or cheap paper version through self-service check-in.source ↗

Nic727 · r/travel · 1 upvotes

Where this came up

People with this problem also raised