Why You Shouldn’t Post Your Boarding Pass on Social Media

If you have Facebook friends like I do then you will occasionally see friends posting their boarding pass before a flight, which is okay to do, I guess… However, please keep in mind the repercussions that may come with doing so.

Your boarding pass has two important fields. The first is your ticket number and the second is your record locator. Someone having either of those numbers can result in a serious inconvenience to your travel plans and could possibly leave you stranded somewhere. If you have an ex on your friends list or someone who is just not a nice person they can easily call the airline, provide them with your personal information and either the record locator or ticket number and either change or cancel your flight.

In addition to that, dependent upon the airline you are flying, someone can pull up your flight information online by visiting the airlines website and will be able to view the following:

• Billing address information;
• Date of birth;
• Frequent flyer number (I would hide this from my boarding pass too);
• Elite status;
• Origination and destination location;
• Class of travel; and much more!

About a year or two ago someone reported a guy to the authorities and told them that the individual had a weapon and was boarding a plane – though this was a false accusation by the guys ex-girl friend’s new boyfriend he was still arrested and detained for a few hours. Eventually they charged him with previous offenses (drug use/traffic violations) instead of what he was originally accused of.

The bottom line is, you can post your boarding pass but PLEASE try to make sure your airline ticket number, record locator and any other identifiable information is blurred out or removed from the picture. Your Facebook profile already includes enough personal information such as your full name, date of birth and sometimes even address and phone number. Sure we all care that you are traveling to somewhere cool but be aware of the dangers that loom when you post your boarding pass.

Below I have posted some old boarding passes of mine which no longer have any use to me. Any relevant information for current and future use has been omitted for security purposes.

Feel free to leave your comments and concerns in the comment section below, we do read them!