Don't depend on a photo of a QR code or ticket!

I've noticed a lot of tickets lately for sports, concerts or other events have an option to be downloaded to Google Pay.

Thanks for the warning. You could create a folder in your email for tickets. Or use the Tripit app.

I create a folder in my email with my prepaid tickets and name the folder for easy identification along with the date.

What roubrat and Diane said.

I read Cameron’s post today and laughed at Rick’s “tip” to store a QR code in photos. For the reason you explain but also because i take a lot of photos and trying to find a particular one from months ago among hundreds of photos is extremely time consuming. Keeping it in my general emails is by far quicker and easier than keeping it in photos. Creating a folder in Email is even better, but general Email section works well for me.

Many have different levels of awareness and understanding of how technology works. Save the ticket as a PDF on the phone always and know what folder it is in or just stick to printing a paper copy of the ticket that method has worked longer

For those that do work as a photo, I move them to a folder within my phone photos to find them easily. My airline boarding passes are available in Google Pay.

Thanks for this post! I usually take a photo screenshot of it and store it in my current trip’s iCloud folder. Guess I will be checking through it tomorrow morning!

When I went to the ballet in Dresden, the ticket was in pkpass format. Google Pay doesn't support the format, not surprising since it's Apple, but I used an app called PassAndroid to save and display the ticket.

I guess we need more vendors to begin providing their tickets/passes in pkpass (or another standard) format so that we can store them in apps instead of emails?

I love it when they give me the option of savings codes in Wallet.

Deutsche Bahn in Germany doesn't do that yet (although the tickets are saved in the app and easy to access) but FlixTrain/FlixBus does. BVG in Berlin lets you save U and S-Bahn tickets there. Many hotels offer this now, including Motel One in Germany.

I also give every email that has a reservation or ticket a relevant label (I have gmail); for example, Germany trip 2022, etc.

CWsocial, you are so right to put it in an album in photos, so obvious but my brain forgot that step… 😆

Susan, Keeping up with technology can be a full time job!! She says after just posting a question for my current research for a SIM to use in Turkey.

A few ideas. I do 1 and 2.

Download it as a pdf and keep it in a documents folder or app. One that works offline is best. I use kindle or Apple Books. There are lots of choices.

Save it in a specific email folder (call it “Tickets for 2022 trip to France” or something obvious so you don’t forget!)

Forward the email to your travel partner so it’s in 2 places. Especially good if your travel partner is more organized or tech savvy.

Put an alert on your calendar with a link. If your reservation is timed this is especially handy.

Some tickets will add to your Apple wallet or I presume google phones have a similar thing.

A photo wouldn’t work for me. I take tons of photos so a ticket bought days ago would get buried quickly. You could make a photo folder called “tickets” or something and add it for easier access but other methods take similar amount of steps and always work. Photos don’t, as mentioned here!

Thanks avirosemail!
I noticed a warning to not try a photo recently and wondered.

I had a bad experience at the Vatican Museums last month. The area around the entrance was a dead zone for my phone provider. I knew exactly where the email with the QR code was, but I couldn't access it. After several minutes, the guard took me to a tiny office inside - also in the dead zone - where I had to wait 15-20 minutes for the clerk to finish up with other people. Using my last name he found my reservation on their system and printed it out for me. Once inside the museums, the phone worked fine.

And sometimes paper is your only accepted option. This is an excerpt from an mail from CalMac Ferries in Scotland for an upcoming trip:

...your tickets are attached to this email. The tickets must be printed. They cannot be scanned from mobile devices or laptops. Print on one side of plain A4 paper. As each unique barcode will be scanned, we do not advise printing in economy mode as this may render the barcode unreadable.*

Chani brings up a good point. Saving it offline can be really important. Making it a PDF and saving it is my preferred method. That way as long as you have your phone you have the QR code. If you loose your phone, it’s still in your email or account with the museum so you can re-download it to another device or print it from your hotel or another public computer.

People are going to say this is complicated. But it’s not. It’s just a learning curve. Paper is complicated in that it can be so easily lost or ruined by spills, I hate it when a paper ticket is required for things bought ahead of time. Maybe I’m just clumsy and absent minded. I don’t know, but having everything in one place that takes up no extra room is much easier.

Chiming in - I do what Mira says and save things in “Files” downloaded on my iphone. I haven’t needed to yet, but it’s easy to make an additional folder within Files for a specific country or trip. I immediately duplicate this on my iPad as a back up, so I have necessary tickets available offline in two places. It doesn’t take any longer than printing paper and putting in a folder….. I recently had a 10 minute scare over possibly losing my phone - but it was just the inconvenience and cost. I knew I had all I HAD to have accessible backed up.

There ARE items I want to keep accessible easily as photos, because sometimes that works just fine, and I have an album very simply named Important (lol). These include the copy of my passport and CDC card, insurance card, and certain reservations (for quick offline reference).

Allan, I am feeling the pain with the Calmac ferry tickets…. Just printed one and have several to go. I HATE staying up with pieces of paper for a trip.

this topic is another reminder of the need to update and sort out our usage of mobile phones while traveling in Europe!

In a youtube live event this morning RS guide for France Vero C. showed a restaurant that was already 'complet' for the evening's two dinner seatings and their board listed the SMS address that they required you to send a message to in order to reserve a table -- so if you can't send text messages you're not getting into that restaurant, it seems.

I sometimes forward a photo of a ticket or whatever to the Notes app on my phone and save it with a name that will make it obvious.