ALWAYS Hold on to your boarding cards

I was booked on a Ryanair flight (Bristol to Knock)which was cancelled at the last minute (150 people had already booked in and were waiting to board the plane).
I was on the return journey home to Ireland and was travelling with my husband and 2 small children. Needless to say Ryanair were not any help but that is not my issue here.
In order to get home that day I had to book another flight with a different airline and from a different airport. This cost me approx €1400 as I had to hire a car and get to Gatwick and pay £250 per person single.(WE had to get home).
I claimed on our travel insurance and LUCKILY I had kept our outbound boarding cards( A4 printout with bit torn off the bottom when boarding in Knock ). Our insurance would not have paid out if I didn't have this proof that we had traveled on the 1st leg of this journey.

I am writing this post because recently I travelled to Stansted from Shannon on Ryanair and they were taking boarding cards off the passenger after they left the plane at a security desk. I insisted on keeping mine and they were ok about it.

So, ALWAYS hold on to your boarding card, just in case something goes wrong.

I always wondered why they took your 'boarding card'. Anybody know why?

I always wondered why they took your 'boarding card'. Anybody know why?

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Probably 'Security'

MANTO said:

I always wondered why they took your 'boarding card'. Anybody know why?

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In stanstead i always taught you had choice of going down aisle with boarding card and get through faster or go to passport que which could be longer

Always taught reason was once irish boarding card treat same as passport when entering standstead and put though arrivals faster. more for fasttracking

Same in Gatwick. When you get to the passport check, there is a separate lane on the far right for flights arriving from the the UK, Cannel Islands and Ireland. You hand them your boarding pass and off you go. Needless to say, the "security" of this is laughable. A passport is tricky to forge. A Ryanair boarding pass is not .

As for the OP's post: I tend to keep the PDF file so that I can reprint the boarding pass as many times as I want to. If, after a flight, I need another copy of the boarding pass, I can still print that.

Dexysgirl said:

Our insurance would not have paid out if I didn't have this proof that we had traveled on the 1st leg of this journey.

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This isn't proof you travelled though, it's only proof that you printed your boarding pass?

The flight attendant circles the flight number with pen as you board the plane. This proves you boarded.
Hold on to it. It is the only proof you have if you need to claim on your travel insurance that a carrier left you stranded abroad. (especially if you booked independently )
The carrier will give you a letter that the flight was cancelled , but you need to prove that is was the return leg of the journey.This is where you need your outbound boarding card.

Dexysgirl said:

The flight attendant circles the flight number with pen as you board the plane. This proves you boarded. ...

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I'm not doubting the events you describe, nor am I disputing the validity of your claim, but I'm incredulous that some bureaucrat in an insurance company accepts this as proof of anything. The airlines and the travelling public seem to have moved on from the check-in produced, logoed boarding pass with a pre-allocated seat number, but insurance comapny processes seem stuck in pre-budget-carrier dark ages.

Its good to know and thanks for the info, but it beggars belief that a home-printed A4 page with a bit torn off and a few chicken scratches on it constitutes "supportive documentation".

Dexysgirl said:

The flight attendant circles the flight number with pen as you board the plane.

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With standard boarding passes this is normal procedure, yes. With online check-in, I usually end up with a boarding pass on which nothing has been written or circled by the flight attendants. But as long as the insurance company is happy with a torn piece of paper, let them be .

By surrendering your boarding card at Stansted , you are allowed enter the UK without having to go through UK Border Agency passport control and enter as a passenger moving freely between the two countries as the agreement allows.

Dexysgirl said:

The flight attendant circles the flight number with pen as you board the plane. This proves you boarded.
Hold on to it. It is the only proof you have if you need to claim on your travel insurance that a carrier left you stranded abroad. (especially if you booked independently )
The carrier will give you a letter that the flight was cancelled , but you need to prove that is was the return leg of the journey.This is where you need your outbound boarding card.

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Are you serious? This constitutes prove of journey. I would have thought if need be you could get something from Ryanair (for a fee of course) that says you were on the passenger list for 1st flight.