Travel Collectables: Flight Stubs / Boarding Passes

Travel Collectables: Flight Stubs / Boarding Passes – this one completed my travels to all 7 continents, I try to keep them.

Some people will call me a “hoarder”, some will say I keep ridiculous things and others will just realise that the little physical memories you have from your travels are worth keeping. You simply won’t be there again, so these little keepsakes are a constant physical reminder of my journeys. Every country I go to (and sometimes each city/region) I fill a plastic poly pocket/flimsy with all the things I want to keep from my time there. This normally includes maps, notes, receipts, coins, stamps, banknotes etc. One thing I haven’t thrown out for years is my flight stubs! Yes, I keep my used flight stubs and boarding passes, even if the ink dries up and disappears…

A boarding pass I wanted to keep – that time I flew from Beijing, China to Pyongyang in North Korea.

I keep them and I’m not ashamed to say I enjoy collecting them and hanging onto them. I’ve been on well over 500 flights in my life, but obviously in the early travel days I wasn’t keeping them all.

Travel collectables – flight stub from Beijing to Pyongyang.

These days I collect them and will get a scrapbook or folder at some point to put them all in.

A flight stub from one of my many flights in China – this one to Guangzhou.

Here are a few of my favourite flight stubs:

– Buenos Aires to Ushuaia in 2010 (just before I did Antarctica)
– Paris to Belfast in 2007 (my flight back to see family after a 4 continent backpacking stint)
– Sao Paulo to Johannesburg in 2011 (the day I officially had visited all 7 continents)
– Kuala Lumpur to Sydney in 2009 (arrival in the land down under)
– Bejing to Pyongyang in 2013 (heading to North Korea)

One of my rare ones – leaving Paramaribo on Suriname Airways for Belem in Brazil.

My next flight will be from Shiraz (Iran) to Dubai (United Arab Emirates) and I’m looking forward to another flight stub for my collection. Safe travels!