Do you need a written paper ticket anymore? This is an older blog post but women still ask us.
Yes you might. Having said that, it can be hard to even get a paper ticket anymore and some airlines only accept electronic tickets. There are important numbers on your written ticket and the receipt/itinerary for an electronic ticket. The easy one is called a PNR and is a record of your actual reservation. Once your reservation is confirmed and paid, you will be sent this number.
The PNR is visible on a ticket and on your reservation
It is 6 characters and numbers intermixed often with a # sign first.
The less understood number is the ticket number which is the long series of numbers you see circled in the image below. Why would you need this ticket number? Here are two examples:
Lesley went to Ethiopia with us. Ethiopian Airlines was a partner airline of her chosen airline and she wanted frequent flier credit for our inter-Ethiopia flights. The boarding passes were not hand written but almost as simple. In order to get credit we had to go back to our rep in country and get them to pull her original reservation to find the ticket number.
If there is ever an error from an airline, you definitely need this number, and it might not be on the boarding pass in remote places in our example. It is on an electronic ticket receipt, but you need to hunt. And if an airline fails to credit your miles, again you need a ticket number and a PNR.
Here is another reason to have a paper ticket if you can get one: Paper tickets are particularly useful if your flight is canceled because of a mechanical or another airline-related problem. If you have a paper ticket, it might be easier to switch to another airline in the same airport.
This is an electronic ticket receipt/itinerary
But the best advice is to have a ticket number and a PNR hand in any written format and carry it with you when you travel.
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