We’re a week away from the beginning of the exciting and/or dreaded Holiday Travel Season. While it’s fun getting to go see family or even more fun getting away from family and going to the beach, there’s something I’ve started to see pop up over and over again: people posting boarding passes to Facebook.

Don’t. do. it.

Airline boarding passes have a TON of personal information on them

I get that you’re excited about your trip, but don’t post a picture of your boarding pass to Facebook!  There are all sorts of personally identifiable bits of information in the average airline boarding pass.  Heck, don’t even post what flight number you’ll be on!  There are jerks in the world who looooove ruining everyone’s good time and can crack their way into your flight itinerary using nothing but your name, the date you’re flying, and your destination.  These jerks can ruin your seat assignments, change the date of departure, and even cancel your flight!

I did a very poorly produced video about this a few years ago (it’s the first video on my YouTube channel) where I show you how easy it is to get into someone’s account with the information from the average boarding pass.  If you’ll excuse the quality you should take a look:

People can steal your concert and event tickets right out from under you

I get that you’re excited about the Adele show but don’t post pictures of your tickets to social media!  If I’m a thief and I know Photoshop, I can take your innocent image on Facebook, copy and paste the barcode onto a new ticket which looks exactly like yours, and sell the ticket to an unsuspecting person over the internet (or at the venue itself).  When they scan their ticket, they get in with your seat.  When you scan your ticket, it could be rejected even though it’s your seat.  This happens more and more often (most recently to some friends at a Texas A&M football game) as more and more people post things like this publicly to Facebook.

What you should do instead

  • Instead of posting the boarding pass, just post a status update or a picture when you arrive at your destination
  • Post pictures of the act or event you’re going to go see instead of the tickets you just purchased
  • Don’t post anything at all until you’re at the event!  It’s the only way to be sure.

Again, just a PSA, hopefully it helps someone!

 

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