Woman reveals why you should always print your boarding pass before flying

A WOMAN has revealed why she always prints her boarding passes before flying – and why you should too.

In the modern age of smartphones, printing plane tickets has become a thing of the past, but there’s a good reason why you should still do it.

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Travel expert Sophie-Claire Hoeller is one person who still prefers a hard paper copy to a digital one,

Although she still insists on checking on online, she said that not only is a paper ticket more reliable, it can also have benefits.

She told Insider: “My phone has died at the airport more times than I can count. The app will crash. The battery will die. The Wi-Fi will fail. The page will time out. I’ll run out of data. The phone will lock itself at the most inopportune moment.

“A paper ticket is just simple, straightforward, and there for you, with all of your travel details in one easy-to-find place.”

As well as stopping her becoming “that awful person holding up everyone else” the manual approach has also presented Sophie-Claire with some opportunities she might not have had otherwise.

She continued: “Talking to a real-life human has helped me avoid seat assignment fees when my husband and I wanted to sit together, get onto a different flight when necessary, and even score the occasional (rare) upgrade.”

Phones can get you into a lot of trouble at airports, with free charging points now causing problems as well.

While accessible USB charging ports in airports and hotels may seem like the perfect answer to a dead device, a government authority has warned travellers against their use.

According to CBS News Boston, the FBI in America has told the public to avoid using public USB ports to charge their mobile phones and other electronic devices.

In a post on Twitter, FBI Denver wrote: “Avoid using free charging stations in airports, hotels or shopping centers [sic].

“Bad actors have figured out ways to use public USB ports to introduce malware and monitoring software onto devices.

“Carry your own charger and USB cord and use an electrical outlet instead.”

The tweet from the FBI describes a scam called “juice jacking” where hackers drain information from your phone while you use a public USB charger. 

The Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office further explained the scam, they said: “Criminals load malware onto charging stations or cables they leave plugged in at the stations so they may infect the phones and other electronic devices of unsuspecting users.

“The malware may lock the device or export data and passwords directly to the scammer.”

Meanwhile, these are the big airport mistakes that could ruin people’s holidays.

And there’s an easy plane ticket mistake that could end up costing you money.

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