Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
If you know me, you know that I love traveling, I enjoy visiting fun places, and I try to be as organized about all of this as I can. That’s why I use the wonderful Wanderlog to plan my trips, but since I don’t pay for the app’s premium sub, I have to manage my reservation documents separately. That’s why every trip gets a folder in Google Drive, and in there go all the PDF files for hotels, museums, expos, concerts, events, and other bookings I’ve planned during that trip.
That was until a few months ago, though. Google Wallet’s custom passes changed this for me. I was curious about it, then I saw my colleague Joe wax poetic about adding new reservations and passes into Wallet, and I decided to try it for myself on a couple of trips. The result was an unmitigated success and has become my favorite way of keeping reservations handy while traveling.
Why Google Wallet passes are better than PDF reservation docs
Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
During my trip to Budapest, I’d booked several fun activities: a visit to the Flippermúzeum, a day at the Széchenyi Thermal Bath, a tour of the Unicum factory, and a modern circus/dance show by Recirquel. Usually, all of these would live as PDFs in my Google Drive folder, and I’d have to dig in to find them or pin that folder on my homescreen.
Original PDF reservation Choosing a pass type Adding as a screenshot to Wallet Digitized pass with all info
The ability to transform them into a digital pass in Wallet, though, elevates them and makes them more convenient and versatile than a simple PDF document, especially while traveling. I just open Wallet, tap Add to Wallet > Everything else, and then upload an image/screenshot or take a photo of my reservation, choose the pass type, and make any necessary edits before saving the digitized version.
In my experience, Google Wallet does an excellent job of extracting all the essential information from any screenshot/photo and making details more legible. Even passes in foreign languages don’t cause any problem, but crucially, there’s no more squinting and spanning across a large A4-sized PDF to double-check the start time of my Unicum tour or find my Paradisum seat and section in the theatre. All essential information is clearly organized across one screen on my phone.
Original ticket with a specific barcode Different barcode in the digitized Wallet pass
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