I was scrolling through Facebook last week and saw one of my friends post a photo of his Air France boarding pass to Europe. He posted it because the boarding pass was unique in that it was one piece of paper with both of his flights (he was making a connection) instead of each flight on a separate boarding pass as is usually the case. However, he made one huge mistake, which I told him about as soon as I saw his post. RELATED: Should You Keep Your Airline Boarding Pass? Here’s What You Need to Know
His mistake was that his photo showed his full name and flight confirmation number. I have heard horror stories from friends and people on social media about exactly this. People have said that in their excitement, they foolishly posted their boarding pass on social media and that someone took the information, logged into the airline website and canceled their ticket.
I decided to see if it would work myself. I mean, I knew that it would but for the purpose of this story, I wanted to double check. Sure enough, I saw my friend’s return information and I could have easily changed his seat, his flight or canceled it altogether. If I had a lot of money, I would have done something kind instead of nefarious, and purchased him an upgrade since that was available too, but instead I logged out and quickly advised him to take the photo off social media.
He did and fortunately, all of his friends are good people and would never have taken advantage of him, and even more fortunate is that he didn’t post the photo publicly on X or Instagram, where he most likely would have run into problems.
Bottom line: Don’t post a photo of your boarding pass unless you blur out your name, frequent flier number, confirmation code, ticket number and the bar code like I did in the photo below for one of my old tickets.
Interestingly, I was reading some tech newsletters and Kim Komando had a tip in hers about this very subject and more. Kim wrote: “That six-digit code plus your last name gives anyone access to your booking info online (think email, phone number, address), and they can even change or cancel your flight.”
Kim also added to her post about travel scams is that “a trick spreading quickly across the country” is when someone “who’s clearly frazzled asks if they can call a friend on your phone to pick them up because their car won’t start. You unlock your device, hand it over and that person runs away with it.”
Tech expert Rich DeMuro shared a similar advice for keeping your phone safe when asking strangers to take your photo.
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Also, if you dispose of your boarding pass during your trip, be certain to rip it up so no one can change or cancel your return flights!
Always keep your boarding pass!! You may need it to claim for lost luggage, late flights or to make sure miles are registered to your account. Make sure any possible claim against the flight is complete before you dispose of your boarding pass. And then dispose of it the same way you would dispose of any other confidential document.
Posting flight details tells anyone that you are not at home / at work so feel free to B&E (break & enter) your home! Posting “Today in X…” on Facebook does the same thing! Post photos when you return – “Last week on Tuesday we…” Don’t give up your safety or your home for pointless vacation “day of…” photos!
For photos, just use a little camera. I always carry a spare phone with no personal info on it, so if there is an emergency there is no risk other than the phone being stolen.
These two things are cheap and small, too!