I have traveled a lot this year. Thanks to seemingly endless business travel that has seen me fly over 36,000 miles so far in 2024—with many more trips to come—I’ve spent much of this year walking through airports, eating dinner at Delta Sky Clubs, and trying (and failing) to sleep on overnight flights.
As much as I enjoy traveling, I admit it can be hectic. Thankfully, I’ve had far more good travel days than bad, and I owe a lot of that to my Apple Watch. It’s a great all-around smartwatch, but also a phenomenal travel assistant that I wouldn’t want to fly without.
How to find your boarding pass
What makes the Apple Watch such a great travel companion? It all has to do with a handy feature introduced last year with watchOS 10. If you have a boarding pass saved in Apple Wallet, it will automatically appear in your Smart Stack on the day of your flight. Swipe up on the screen or turn the Digital Crown up, and boom – there’s your boarding pass, just like that.
While this is a small feature, I find it incredibly convenient. It’s not difficult to open the Delta app on my phone to view my boarding pass, but it’s much easier to move the crown on my Apple Watch, tap my boarding pass, and instantly see all of my required travel information. And if you have an Apple Watch Series 9 or an Apple Watch Ultra 2, it’s even easier: Just press your index finger and thumb together to perform the double-tap gesture, and your boarding pass will appear.
All your travel information directly on your wrist
Not only is it dead easy to find your boarding pass on the Apple Watch, but Apple does a great job of displaying boarding pass information on such a tiny display. Boarding passes have been available on the Apple Watch for years, but that doesn’t make them any less useful.
Open your boarding pass and you’ll immediately see your QR code, which you’ll need to scan at the gate to get on your plane. It’s perfectly fine to whip out your phone and open an app to find your boarding pass, but if you hold your wrist over the gate scanner, you’ll get through quicker and it’s almost magical. It’s also much easier if you’re juggling carry-on luggage, food, or other things you’re bringing onto the plane.
Additionally, if you scroll down from the QR code, you’ll see helpful information about your flight – including your boarding time, gate number, boarding zone, and seat number. As someone who has to look at this stuff every five minutes to make sure I’m remembering everything correctly (the joys of an anxious traveler), I can’t tell you how nice it is to have such easy access to all of this.
The Apple Watch is my favorite travel accessory
Traveling in 2024 is a truly seamless experience. High-quality airline apps and digital boarding passes make it easy to stay informed and get to your destination. Traveling with a smartphone is the right way, but traveling with an Apple Watch is the best way.
It may seem silly to put so much emphasis on being able to access your boarding pass and flight information on your smartwatch rather than your smartphone. However, even the smallest conveniences can make a difference during a hectic travel day, and that’s exactly why I love wearing my Apple Watch during these times. It’s also great to see similar features being extended to Wear OS watches – to make travel days easier for as many people as possible.
I have a few big trips coming up to finish off 2024 – including a quick trip to Berlin, a week in Hawaii, and even a stay in New Delhi. For all of these trips (and any other unexpected trips), I’ll be sure to wear an Apple Watch to make those travel days as easy and stress-free as possible. And you should, too, for any trips you have coming up.
