Here's why you should never post your boarding pass on social media
In the age of social, stories and reels there are certain precautions one must take to avoid incurring [...]
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In the age of social media, stories and reels there are certain precautions one must take to avoid running into unpleasant situations. One of these is Posting their airline ticket on social media, at least until the journey was completed.
Of course, everyone wants to let friends and family know that they are on vacation, even more so if you are about to leave for some exotic, faraway destination, but what people often forget, or more trivially don't know, is that there is a plethora of personal data on the ticket that can be crammed in to steal the data of unsuspecting passengers.
How to protect yourself
The first thing to do is, without a doubt, to activate for loyalty programs that provide for it a dual authentication. This way, any attempt to access one's profile will be complicated by the need to get a second verification via app, SMS or other secure mode.
What it says on the card
There is a lot of information on the ticket, some practical and some technical. Some companies include information that also identifies whether it is an award ticket or a regular ticket paid cash. Here is some info and what it means:
- SEQ: identifies the sequential number of people who checked in for that particular flight, so SEQ:001 means you were the first and so on. If you fly Ryanair and have SEQ196 it means that you will be flying on a new 737/8200, or the infamous Max, and that the plane is practically sold out.
- Then there is technical information such as the flight number, the class of ticket, as well as, of course, the date, time, and departure gate. In fact, many companies no longer write the cabin (business, economy...) but by reading the class you can recognize what kind of ticket you have.
- Zone 1/9. This number indicates the boarding priority on board the plane, which varies according to both cabin/class and the level held in the airline's loyalty program.
- SSSS. This is what you never want to read on your boarding pass. Receiving this on your ticket means that you are subjected to a series of additional checks and controls before you can board: it can depend on a great many factors, and there is no pass.
- The NRP, or PNRs depending on the type of ticket. This six-digit alphanumeric code identifies the reservation. There is of course also the Eticket number.
- All the passenger data are there: first name, last name and FF membership number
- Of course there is the seat number on board.
What is the risk of posting (too early) the note
If you know what information is on the ticket you can, edit the image before publishing it making it (almost) impossible to be hacked. However, it is good to remember that until you set foot on the plane you can change your reservation: for all major companies you need 2 or at most 3 pieces of information: PNR and last name, sometimes the first name is also required.
This means that a "witty" friend. might get on the airline's system and assign you a different seat on board. Maybe instead of the window seat for a 12-hour flight, he places you in the middle row seat in the middle of a group of scouts on an award trip.
Even worse, it could cancel the ticket, simply canceling your trip, at the risk of being stranded and denied boarding. It may try to hack into your account and "empty" your miles and points account. In short, unpleasant experiences that can be avoided by NOT posting your ticket on social media before you are comfortably seated in your seat aboard the plane.
Why it is good to keep the ticket and not throw it away
If you are traveling with an embarked suitcase you will surely have attached to your paper ticket the barcode sticker that identifies your luggage. Don't lose it, helps in case of non-delivery to reconstruct what was shipped and details such as weight and number of packages.
WHEREAS, I still try to get paper tickets printed because I am an avid Collector of objects related to my travels. No matter whether it is a physical or virtual ticket, there are various reasons why it is good to keep the ticket for a few days. Sometimes because the ticket gives access to discounts and promotions as in the case of Emirates.
The main reason, however, is to have the points/miles related to the flight taken credited. If the points are not credited, it will be necessary to provide some information, and having the ticket in hand helps the search and simplifies The request for missing points.
In conclusion
I have also happened to post tickets on this site, however, they are always from trips that have been completed for months, in general I always leave key information covered precisely so as not to run into unpleasant surprises. And then I don't throw them away, in case you want to get rid of them instead: my advice is to tear them and not simply crumple them.
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