Boarding Pass Parser SDK for IATA BCBP Barcodes

Mandatory items

Airlines must fill these in on every pass.

• Once per pass: format code, number of legs encoded, passenger name and electronic ticket indicator
• For each leg: booking reference (PNR), from and to airport, operating carrier, flight number, date of flight, compartment code, seat number, check-in sequence number and passenger status

The compartment code is the cabin, not the fare class. The passenger name field is short, so long names are cut off.

Conditional and optional items

Airlines add these when their systems hold the data.

• Once per pass: version number, passenger description, source of check-in and of boarding pass issuance, date of issue, document type, issuing airline and baggage tag numbers
• For each leg: ticket number, selectee indicator, international documentation verification, marketing carrier, frequent flyer airline and number, free baggage allowance and fast track
• Airline individual use, for example a frequent flyer tier
• Security data: an optional digital signature that lets a third party check the barcode was not changed

Dates without a year

The date of flight is a day of the year, from 001 to 366, and the date of issue adds only the last digit of the year (6001 is 1 January 2016). The parser returns the raw value together with a resolved Year and the ReferenceYear it used. Check the year against the scan date for passes issued near the turn of the year.

Spotting duplicate passes

The date of flight, operating carrier, flight number, check-in sequence number and departure airport identify a boarding pass without storing personal data. Use them as a key when you need to spot a pass scanned twice.

Parsed content

• formattedJSON: the parsed data as a JSON string
• formattedText: the parsed data as key/value pairs
• Passenger, flight, journey and other available boarding pass fields
• Baggage-related fields and the variable and security sections

Both are stored in result.extra. See extra metadata in results for how to read extras.

Field names in the parsed JSON

• Always: Standard ("IATA-BCBP"), Success, Licensed, FormatCode, NumberOfLegs, PassengerName (Last, First, Raw), ElectronicTicketIndicator, ReferenceYear and the Legs array
• Each leg: OperatingCarrierPnrCode, FromCityAirportCode, ToCityAirportCode, OperatingCarrierDesignator, FlightNumber (leading zeros kept), FlightDate (JulianRaw, Year), CompartmentCode, SeatNumber, CheckInSequenceNumber (can be empty) and PassengerStatus
• When present on the pass: Version, PassengerDescription, SourceOfCheckIn, SourceOfBoardingPassIssuance, DateOfIssueOfBoardingPass (Raw, Year, JulianDay), DocumentType, AirlineDesignatorOfBoardingPassIssuer, and per leg AirlineNumericCode, DocumentFormSerialNumber, SelecteeIndicator, MarketingCarrierDesignator, FrequentFlyerAirlineDesignator, FrequentFlyerNumber and AirlineIndividualUse (returned raw)
• TrailingUnparsedData: any trailing data the parser did not interpret

Warnings for imperfect passes

Real boarding passes don't always follow the standard to the character. The parser tolerates small irregularities, such as padding, and keeps the parse diagnostics.

To see them, set the custom option parser_show_warnings to 1 with setCustomOption. Warnings then appear in the Issues array of the formatted JSON when there are any. The default is 0, which leaves the array out. The option applies to the BCBP parser only.

Custom options of the native decoder library

Android

Set the formatting type to BCBP:

bkdView.config.getDecoderConfig().formattingType = Barkoder.FormattingType.BCBP;

Or use the Automatic formatting mode, where BCBP barcodes are recognized and parsed for you.

iOS

Set the decoder formatting to BCBP:

guard let config = barkoderView.config else { return }
guard let decoderConfig = config.decoderConfig else { return }

decoderConfig.formatting = BCBP

What you get

• The data encoded in the barcode, as structured fields
• The header and flight leg data, such as route, flight, date and seat
• Warnings when a pass doesn't follow the format exactly

What you still need to check

• That the pass is genuine. barKoder's docs describe reading the security section, not verifying its signature.
• That it is still active: the passenger is checked in, the seat hasn't changed and the flight is today
• That it belongs to the person showing it, for example by comparing the name with a passport scanned with the MRZ Parser
• That it hasn't been used already, with the duplicate key above