Using digital boarding passes on the iPhone has become common practice for many of us. But after years with no changes to the feature, iOS 26 is about to upgrade Apple Wallet’s boarding passes with several handy new features.
Apple Wallet offers new reasons to use a digital boarding pass in iOS 26
One of the apps getting the most new features in iOS 26 is the Wallet app, which will soon offer more Car Key vehicle brands, AI-powered order tracking, US Passport support, full credit card details, and more.
Another big Wallet change involves travel.
Many of us save our boarding passes for flights inside Apple Wallet, and in iOS 26 those passes will offer three new features.
- Live Activities
- Airport maps
- Luggage tracking with Find My
Live Activities can be an asset on travel days, but only certain airline apps support them—and features will vary from one airline to another.
But in iOS 26, Apple is baking Live Activity support into the Wallet app for boarding passes. This way, you can get a consistent experience no matter how tech-forward (or not) your airline’s app is.
One nice touch with these Live Activities is that they’re easily shareable, so you can send one to a friend or family member who needs to track your flight.
Top comment by Ryan
The boarding passes in the wallet app do not automatically update, even though the option is selected for each and every pass. The wallet passes don’t even show the gate that you are supposed to go to, it’s just blank. The airline app continues to be the best thing to use when traveling. It honestly makes no sense to have a wallet app that is so incredibly unhelpful when it comes to traveling and real-time updates. If iOS 26 does anything, it better fix the pass so that the information (gate, boarding time, etc.) are never blank and automatically update.
Additionally, boarding passes will now show more information when viewing the pass itself.
You’ll find easy access to airport maps, plus the location of your AirTag-equipped luggage and ability to report missing bags.
Overall, these three changes should make your travel experience with iOS 26 just a little more convenient than ever before.
What do you think of the new features coming to boarding passes? Let us know in the comments.
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