I’ve flown a lot of places. In fact, I travel almost full-time for my job. I’ve been delayed by lightning, snow, and mechanical problems. I’ve made an unscheduled landing in an airport that I did not plan to go to that day. I’ve slept overnight slumped over a suitcase in an airport terminal. I’ve been upgraded to first class, and I’ve been bumped off a flight. So when I tell you I’ve never experienced anything like this airport check-in, I mean it.

St. Louis Lambert International Airport

It is the Year of Our Lord 2025 and I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I flew on a hand-written boarding pass recently!

Here’s what happened.

I was flying Air Canada from St. Louis to London with a layover in Montreal. When I tried to check in on the app, it wouldn’t give me a boarding pass and instructed me to see an agent at the airport. That’s mildly annoying, but certainly not unheard of. I didn’t have bags to check (#carryoncrewforever) but I figured it had to do with Passport checks.

I got to the St. Louis airport a little before the counter opened and waited. When it did open, it turned out the airline’s computer system was completely down. No one could check in. The agents were kind, but clearly overwhelmed. I grabbed a seat, assuming this would be sorted out in 15, maybe 20 minutes.

Waiting…

Two and a half hours later, the line was wrapped through the terminal and passengers were getting understandably anxious. Then came the surprise solution: They started handing out blank boarding cards and pens. Yes, we were going to hand-write our boarding passes.

Let me say that again: I wrote my own boarding pass with a pen.

Here’s what you’re gonna do…

They showed us a sample — flight number, name, destination — and sent us on our way to TSA. I figured security would laugh us right back out. But nope. TSA was already looped in, and they calmly waved us through with our handwritten slips. Apparently this wasn’t their first rodeo either.

I still can’t believe I went through TSA with this.

After another hour of gate waiting (and an eventual computer fix), we were re-issued proper boarding passes, and the flight finally left for Montreal — late, but flying.

You’d think that would be the end of the drama, but no. Because our check-in process in St. Louis hadn’t met all the international standards — especially for those with checked luggage — we weren’t allowed to transfer normally in Montreal. The entire plane had to go down to baggage claim, officially exit through Canadian customs, and then re-enter  the airport to go through security all over again.

Luckily, I had a 5-hour layover built into my itinerary, so I made my connection to London just fine. Others weren’t so fortunate.

There was even time for a little Montreal Airport poutine!

In July 2024, during the massive Crowdstrike outage, some airports in India used handwritten boarding passes to keep things moving while global systems were crashing. That kind of creativity feels wild — but also essential — when you’re trying to get hundreds of passengers from Point A to Point B without a functioning network.

Honestly? As frustrating and surreal as the experience was, I admire the people on the ground who kept things running. I also think it was a weirdly important reminder: Delays and mishaps are a part of travel. And learning to stay calm and adaptable when plans derail is, I think, one of the most valuable takeaways from traveling often.

Made it to Heathrow. Unfortunately, Colin Firth was not waiting at the International Arrivals gate for me. 😭

I deal with anxiety regularly. But I truly believe that the curveballs you encounter when you travel — missed connections, handwritten boarding passes, surprise security re-checks — make you more resilient. You start to trust yourself a little more each time you navigate something unexpected. You realize: I’ve handled worse. I’ll figure this out too.

Would I like to never handwrite a boarding pass again? Absolutely. But do I kind of love that I have this story now? Also yes.

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What’s the strangest airport problem you’ve encountered? Let me know in the comments below!