iOS 26 Makes Managing Your Boarding Pass Easier, If You Fly United

iOS 26 adds a few interesting features to the Wallet app. Some of the most exciting functions include Order Tracking, which uses Apple Intelligence to find emails sent by merchants or delivery carriers to show your full order details, order progress, notifications, and more. Then there's Digital ID, which will let Americans create an ID with their passports to use at TSA checkpoints, and an updated boarding passes experience that makes travel easier.

This updated boarding passes experience, which brings travelers more access to timely and relevant information about their flights and airports, as well as quick access to airline app features, is finally rolling out to iPhone users as long as they're flying United Airlines. While United is the first to add support for this feature, Air Canada, American Airlines, Delta, JetBlue, Jetstar, Lufthansa, Qantas, Southwest, and Virgin Australia are also planning to support this functionality in the future. However, there's a trick to enjoy United's new experience in the iOS 26 Wallet app.

As spotted by 9to5Mac's anonymous tipster, to get the Live Activity, users must enable it through the Wallet app. What's interesting about this feature is that when users share the boarding pass' Live Activity with someone else, they have all the information, other than the boarding group and seat information.

With the new boarding pass experience, United flyers can have other useful experiences, such as how to navigate the airport, track the luggage using the Find My app, in addition to sharing their flight information with other people.

Since Apple promoted this feature with Delta, it's possible that the flight company might be the next to add this feature. The Wallet app is one of the most important apps on the iPhone, especially while traveling. This year, Apple even allows users to add their real card information, protecting it with the Secure Enclave.