Tips And Advice

Stop Posting Your Boarding Pass on Social Media

January 7, 2016

You probably must have read some articles that were viral on social media advising not to share your boarding passes on the Internet, because it might hurt you. I never planned to write this article, but a couple of hours ago I was on Facebook, checking out photos tagged by travelers at Ibrahim Nasir International Airport and honestly, it was shocking.

It’s that time of the year when the entire world is going through a busy travel movement, thousands of passengers get away for Christmas and the New Year to different parts of the globe, and even though we’re already a few days into 2016, there are still many travelers yet to complete their vacation and travel back home. Chances are, you have traveled somewhere and actually overshared your excitement on social media before your plane took off, Did you?

Here is the most common scenario: You get to the airport, complete the check-in process and collect your boarding pass at the check-in counter, and now you’re all excited about flying on vacation, probably to some place new. You want to brag about it, so you take a photo of your passport, boarding pass along with the flight details and destination to share it with everyone on your Facebook. If you are posting it online, you should think one more time, because the data on the boarding pass could be used for many nefarious purposes. Here is how and why:

ekb_pass

A lot of travel websites and blogs write about the bar code or QR code printed on boarding passes, I will not cover the same in my post. But, when you share your boarding pass that includes your full name, booking reference and ticket number on social media, someone can potentially alter your travel itinerary since almost all airline websites have a “Manage booking” option that allows altering or retrieving more information.

I can’t tell you who that jealous friend you have on your Facebook or Instagram. But, sure that person can call up the local airline passenger sales or ticketing office and verify all validation requirements to ask for an alteration to the itinerary, the airline reservations or telesales staff will ask for the contact number on the original reservation, name of passenger(s), passport number and booking reference before he or she proceeds with the alteration. Lets say your jealous Facebook friend is smart and intelligent, he or she cancels your original return date and flight while you’re still on vacation and re-booked a seat for a later date, he or she might be required to pay a small change fee, maybe $30.00 or $50.00 USD. I have read about people paying much more to harm and hurt people.

The availability of such data could potentially lead to much serious problems, such as identity theft. Don’t blame the airline, they are protecting your information. What’s happening is you are instagraming or posting your boarding pass on social media.

Your boarding pass can actually get you in a lot of trouble, even after you complete your trip, should it land in the hands of the wrong person. Lets say you’re on vacation and just arrived your hotel room at the new destination, you drop your boarding pass stub under your bed, couple of days later you move to a different hotel in the same city or destination. Room service fails cleaning and removing you boarding pass stub, a serious crime takes place in the hotel room you stayed earlier, police investigation finds your boarding pass, and you become the prime suspect of a serious crime abroad while on vacation. How bad can it get, right?

Go check the number of boarding passes travelers have posted at different airport check-ins on Facebook. You can find yours and delete it, and share this article with your friends and tell them to Stop Posting Boarding Passes on Social Media.

Disclaimer: All the contents in this article are only for informational purposes. I will not be liable for any misuse by readers from the information provided in this article. The contents of this article, except for comments, are my opinions and not intended to malign, harm, hurt or encourage harming anybody or individual. As a reader, you are free to disagree with anything written on this article, and you can voice your opinion by leaving a comment in the below comment box.

You Might Also Like

15 Comments

  • Reply Shifa January 7, 2016 at 3:53 pm

    It so true..And great article

  • Reply ferrthun January 7, 2016 at 9:28 pm

    Informative. Many of us are succumbed to the tech driven world, unknowingly letting strangers misuse our own identity and whatnot.

    • Reply ahmed ijaz January 7, 2016 at 9:33 pm

      We also must learn and understand before it’s too late, safe better than sorry. It’s sad our local media don’t tell us these small things rather than telling us the number of passengers traveled during holiday season.

  • Reply xau shan January 7, 2016 at 10:41 pm

    Superb artical.. we all must be aware of these simple things that can ruin our happiness.. I have seen many people posting their boarding pass on social media hope all of you got a informative and important information.. make sure you don’t repeat it again..

  • Reply Fa January 7, 2016 at 11:00 pm

    Loved the article. N its quite nice to see your article getting a good number of shares, likes n views. We need more of articles like this to educate our youth for a better tomorrow. Hats off to you!

  • Reply Muaz January 8, 2016 at 2:58 am

    Thanks for the writer, about the awareness. I am 100 percent agree on this article and no one should post any such kind of personal data on this technological world.

  • Reply IBRAHIM RASHEED January 8, 2016 at 3:25 am

    You are right! I have been a frequent flyer with Singapore Airlines for 7 years, the ticket number printed on the boarding pass is enough to login to the itinerary from the airline website’s manage booking area and collect additional details including reference number and even telephone contact number, and the local representative office in Male’ actually does change the itinerary once you provide these details. I am not blaming the airline, but we must be careful when uploading travel related content over the internet.

  • Reply Rushdha January 8, 2016 at 12:50 pm

    True and Very informative..
    We do all bad without a knowledge…
    Thank you for bringing this to notice.

  • Reply Abdul Azeez Yoosuf January 8, 2016 at 2:18 pm

    Great article! . Great information shared. Thanks a lot. Friends, beware of wots happening around. Be cautious of what could happen.
    Thamks writer.

  • Reply Hassan January 8, 2016 at 2:46 pm

    No more photoes of boarding pass!!
    Thanks for the information. ?

  • Reply Carlo January 10, 2016 at 1:06 am

    What’s Happening i’m new to this, I stumbled upon this I’ve found It positively useful and it has helped me out loads. I hope to contribute & aid other users like its aided me. Great job.

  • Reply tvr January 12, 2016 at 5:31 pm

    But boarding passes don’t have booking reference numbers.

    • Reply betty January 13, 2016 at 1:32 am

      true. but some airlines you only need ticket number/ref to log on

  • Reply muhammad January 12, 2016 at 11:33 pm

    wudnt it be better if we do not post any of our personal information over social media…good article.

  • Reply Fira January 13, 2016 at 1:36 pm

    Things everyone should avoid

  • Leave a Reply to betty Cancel Reply

    Powered by themekiller.com anime4online.com animextoon.com apk4phone.com tengag.com moviekillers.com