How to Make a Pretend Airplane Boarding Pass as a Gift

Add excitement to your gift with a make-believe boarding pass.

Buying a friend or a loved one an airplane ticket for their birthday or during the holidays can serve as a particularly thoughtful gift for someone special. Yet it's difficult to make an airplane ticket look as exciting as a big box wrapped up in shiny paper under the tree and handing over a black-and-white paper itinerary is decidedly unfestive. An easy and creative solution is to give your friend or loved one a homemade, pretend airplane boarding pass and hand this over as a gift, before adding the actual itinerary. You will be sure pique everyone's interest in the room.

Things You'll Need

• Color printer
• Internet access
• Windows Paint
• Microsoft Office clip art

Instructions

Making Pretend Airplane Boarding Passes at Home

1. Open your computer's Paint program, if you use Windows, or Paintbrush in the case of Mac users. Using the rectangular drawing tool, create a rectangle with a thin black border.

2. Divide the rectangle vertically into two uneven sections, with the area on the right covering only one third of the total space. The smaller section represents the portion of the boarding pass that airline officials usually detach at the departure gates.

3. Type the passenger's name in both the large and small sections of the boarding pass, using exactly the same font and format in both. If you are using Paint, choose the "Courier New" font and type in all capital letters. Always type the passenger's family name first, followed by a forward slash and then her given name. Type the name in the center of the larger section and repeat near the bottom of the smaller portion of the boarding pass.

4. Add your make-believe airline's code and flight number, as well as the date and time of departure to both sections of the boarding pass, underneath the passenger's name. The airline code should be comprised of two letters and the flight number includes three digits.

5. Create a logo for your airline and a make-believe airline name to add to the upper left had corner of both sections of your boarding pass. Try to choose two colors for your airline logo, or consider searching for clip art images in Microsoft Word. You can paste these into a Paint document.

6. Print your boarding pass using a color printer.

Tips & Warnings

• Make your boarding pass look more authentic by placing it in envelopes provided by many major airports. Airport envelopes protect boarding passes and often include vital information on facilities, terminal maps and security information. Visit the check-in counters or kiosks at your local airport to see if these are available.

• Do not use an existing airline's official logo on your pretend boarding pass. Not only is it illegal to use a registered trademark, but using a counterfeit boarding pass to gain entry to an airport's secure departure area is a criminal offense. If your friend's pretend boarding pass gets lost and falls into the wrong hands, make sure that everybody realizes that your arts-and-crafts creation was just for fun.

References

• Timoni: A Practical Boarding Pass Re-Design