Printed Documents Verses Electronic

[mmbrad02]

So I know we live in an electronic age, but I was curious - Do you handle all your reservations, airlines, etc with your phone, or do you print them all and take hard copies as well? I was about to try to sit down and print everything... from trip insurance, cruise documents, park documents, hotel reservations, park tickets, airline documents... but in all honestly it's a bit overwhelming and I don't know the last time I referenced a hard copy of anything on a vacation.

I tend to like a hard copy but is it really necessary?

 

[jessicag13]

i definitely like to keep a hard-copy of everything- i generally prefer electronic for efficiency & saving paper, but when i'm traveling, i like to plan for the worst case scenario and always keep printed confirmations of everything. also, i tend to get flustered or tired after long travel days, and being able to pull out hard copies to reference is much easier than struggling to find a signal and/or the right emails to pull up.

 

[MillauFr]

Not necessary. I haven't needed either electronic or paper copies of reservations in the last few years for hotels, cruises, airlines.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

So I know we live in an electronic age, but I was curious - Do you handle all your reservations, airlines, etc with your phone, or do you print them all and take hard copies as well? I was about to try to sit down and print everything... from trip insurance, cruise documents, park documents, hotel reservations, park tickets, airline documents... but in all honestly it's a bit overwhelming and I don't know the last time I referenced a hard copy of anything on a vacation.

I tend to like a hard copy but is it really necessary?

I always have a hard copy of reservations. It's just more comfortable for me to have them. I don't rely on my phone always working.

Now, I don't print every single page of stuff. Trip insurance I just print the summary page, and insurance card. And only the actual reservation confirmation page. Not all the rules, whys & wherefores.

 

[Happy99]

i definitely like to keep a hard-copy of everything- i generally prefer electronic for efficiency & saving paper, but when i'm traveling, i like to plan for the worst case scenario and always keep printed confirmations of everything. also, i tend to get flustered or tired after long travel days, and being able to pull out hard copies to reference is much easier than struggling to find a signal and/or the right emails to pull up.

I agree - you don't always have service, depending on where you are traveling and having hard copies in an emergency, for me, is easier. Or as it happened to my husband one year, lose your phone in the airport. Lost and Found at airport had it but we were on a cruise and couldn't pick it up until we returned. Also if there are any issues you can pull out your confirmation and show the details. Just the details you actually need are fine to print out, don't need all pages.

 

[michelleandbrett]

I usually just take a screen shot on my phone of all the documents incase I don't have service.

 

[Happy99]

I usually just take a screen shot on my phone of all the documents incase I don't have service.

Yep but as I noted above, my husband dropped his phone in the airport one year before boarding a cruise and we didn't have it back until we got back to the airport. Luckily I had mine but I rather have the printed copies and not need them then stressing because I can't get to them if needed.

 

[Husker Mike]

I try to have printed documents that have the basics, especially when traveling out of the country, because you never know what kind of technical difficulties you might come across.

 

[Firstof3]

I keep a small folder with a hardcopy of all important documents, things like reservation conformations, maps (if I am using a rental car to get from spot to spot). I also try to organize it into the order I will possibly need it. Don't have to use it all the time, but comes in handy typically at least once every vacation.

 

[Calantha]

I am very much a digital person, but I hate scrolling through emails, especially if you're in a hotel line (or any line with a lot of equally cranky people behind you) and something is wrong with the reservation. So, I still make a hard copy of everything (but just the key information page of each).

 

[hnthomps]

Nope. Haven't in years. I take screenshots of everything and share it with my husband. Between our two phones and two ipads, something will be working.

 

[DCSWO]

Electronic. I will create a note in my cloud and on my devices with all the pertinent info for all travel related reservations - flight, hotel, cruise, etc. with reservation numbers and details. I put all reservation emails in a folder for that particular trip. Low odds that my phone, iPad and my wife’s phone would all stop working. Most rental car businesses and hotels I use don’t even give paper receipts any more - all electronic. DCL doesn’t send the paper cruise docs - just a sign of the times.

 

[FigmentSpark]

Yeah, I have hard copies of everything, but it's tucked away only for emergencies.

 

[BartmanLA]

Most airlines offer a single page printed copy of your reservations, most hotels do the same thing, I always bring hard copies on any trip we take, especially on a cruise, I have a Disney Vacation Club folio/notepad that they all fit in very nicely. So I can pull it out and find any of the documents needed right away. Better to be safe with hard copies than have confusion about a electronic version that might not be available if you don't have cell service or even worse your phone battery dies or the phone is lost.

 

[Marc D]

We keep everything in TripIt, plus the specific apps for hotels, DCL, etc. Between our two phones and two iPads, the risk that we would not be able to access a required information in the off chance the person we are talking to can’t find a reservation in our name is minimal at best. We haven’t printed anything in ages. We don’t even own a printer anymore.

 

[Ralph&Pam]

We keep everything in TripIt, plus the specific apps for hotels, DCL, etc. Between our two phones and two iPads, the risk that we would not be able to access a required information in the off chance the person we are talking to can’t find a reservation in our name is minimal at best. We haven’t printed anything in ages. We don’t even own a printer anymore.

We do much the same. TripIt is great. In addition to the app itself, I use it to create a PDF of the itinerary and download it to my iPad and iPhone. That way, I can access the information even if I cannot get a decent connection.

 

[StarSeven7]

I use TripIt too! It's a great way to organize all of your travel reservations in one spot! And most of the time I find I never even need to reference a reservation number because most places just pull it up by your last name. The only time I seem to use a reservation number is for my flights! And the only thing I print out anymore is my boarding passes and even those I often just do on my phone (I tend to print them when traveling with our kids though because it's more complicated having to access multiple boarding passes from one phone!)

 

[MillauFr]

Has anyone had a reservation on an airline or hotel where they couldn't find you reservation? I have never had this happen to me. However, I'm not sure how having a paper copy of you confirmation would help you?

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Has anyone had a reservation on an airline or hotel where they couldn't find you reservation? I have never had this happen to me. However, I'm not sure how having a paper copy of you confirmation would help you?

Can't recall right off hand about an airline reservation, but we've had hotel (and RV park) reservations (with paid deposits) not found when we got there.

Also, DCL didn't have transfers on the DCL bus to our resort (also paid for) on one of our cruises. In fact, they didn't even have any transfers noted for the resort at all.

Also, an excursion on our river cruise, our name was not on the list. I had a confirmation in hand (pre-paid again).

Having the confirmation in hand got us what we were supposed to have.

 

[MillauFr]

Having the confirmation in hand got us what we were supposed to have.

If just having an official looking piece of paper could get you into a hotel room, on a bus, or on an airplane wouldn't people just generate fake confirmation papers?