Most travelers treat boarding passes like movie ticket stubs – once the show’s over, straight into the trash they go. But here’s something that might surprise you: that innocent-looking piece of paper contains enough personal information to make your life seriously complicated if it falls into the wrong hands. Security experts warn that carelessly discarding boarding passes is like handing strangers a detailed roadmap to your personal information, travel habits, and even your financial accounts.
Your boarding pass contains way more information than expected
That small piece of paper or digital ticket holds a treasure trove of personal details that most people never think twice about. Beyond your name and flight information, boarding passes contain your frequent flyer account number, booking reference code, and sometimes even partial credit card numbers used for the purchase. The barcode alone stores information about your check-in sequence, special assistance needs, and whether you’re traveling with unaccompanied minors.
What makes this particularly dangerous is that booking codes often function as temporary passwords for airline systems. Security experts Karsten Nohl and Nemanja Nikodijevic explain that airlines treat these codes like password equivalents but then print them on everything you receive. This means anyone who finds your discarded boarding pass essentially has a key to access your travel information and potentially manipulate your future bookings.
Scammers can easily scan barcodes with simple apps
The biggest misconception travelers have is thinking those barcodes can only be read by official airport scanners. In reality, anyone with a smartphone and a basic barcode scanning app can extract all the encoded information within seconds. These apps are freely available and require no special technical knowledge to operate. The two-dimensional barcodes and QR codes on boarding passes can hold enormous amounts of data, all accessible to anyone willing to point their phone camera at your discarded ticket.
Cybersecurity expert Brian Krebs warns that barcode information can reveal details about future travel plans, frequent flyer accounts, and personal preferences. Once scammers have this data, they can piece together a comprehensive profile of your travel habits and personal information. The process takes mere minutes, and most victims never realize their information has been compromised until something goes wrong with their accounts or future bookings.
Criminals can hijack your frequent flyer accounts
Frequent flyer accounts represent years of accumulated miles and elite status benefits, making them attractive targets for cybercriminals. With just the information from a discarded boarding pass, scammers can often access these accounts, change passwords, and steal hard-earned rewards points. They might even use your account information to book flights for themselves or sell your miles on black market websites.
Airlines typically allocate only about 7% of their IT budgets to cybersecurity, according to Arkose Labs research. This leaves frequent flyer accounts particularly vulnerable to attacks. The combination of outdated security systems, limited cybersecurity resources, and the rise in travel-related fraud creates a perfect storm for account takeovers. Many travelers don’t regularly monitor their frequent flyer accounts, meaning theft can go undetected for months.
Posted boarding pass photos create social media risks
Social media platforms have become hunting grounds for scammers looking to exploit boarding pass information. When travelers post photos of their boarding passes to share travel excitement, they’re unknowingly providing criminals with direct access to their personal data. These posts often include enough barcode visibility for scammers to extract booking information, frequent flyer details, and travel patterns.
The danger multiplies because social media profiles typically contain answers to common security questions. Scammers can easily find information about family members, pets, birthplaces, and other details used for account verification. Security experts warn that combining boarding pass data with social media information gives criminals everything they need for identity theft or account takeovers. Even partial barcode visibility in photos can provide enough information for malicious purposes.
Identity theft becomes easier with travel documents
Boarding passes serve as puzzle pieces in larger identity theft schemes. The personal information they contain, combined with data from other sources, helps criminals build comprehensive profiles for fraudulent activities. They might use your name, travel patterns, and associated account information to create fake identities or access existing accounts across various platforms.
Security expert Dave Lewis demonstrates how easily personal information can be gathered from travel documents and luggage tags. By combining boarding pass information with simple online searches, criminals can often determine where victims work, live, and spend their time. This information becomes valuable for sophisticated scams that appear legitimate because they contain accurate personal details. The process requires minimal technical skill but can have devastating consequences for victims.
Phone scams become more convincing with flight data
Armed with information from boarding passes, scammers can create highly convincing phone scams that appear to come from legitimate airlines or travel companies. They’ll call using details from your recent flights, making their pitch seem authentic and urgent. These calls often involve requests for additional verification information, payment details, or account access under the guise of resolving flight issues or processing refunds.
Reddit users frequently report scams where callers pose as airline representatives, using accurate flight information to establish credibility before requesting sensitive data. Scammers target travelers shortly after flights, when the experience is fresh and victims are more likely to believe the calls are legitimate follow-ups. These sophisticated social engineering attacks often succeed because they contain just enough real information to seem trustworthy while requesting additional details for fraudulent purposes.
Digital boarding passes offer better security features
Electronic boarding passes stored on smartphones provide significantly better security than their paper counterparts. They’re protected by device passcodes, biometric authentication, and encryption that makes them much harder to duplicate or tamper with. Many digital passes include time-sensitive QR codes that expire after use and cryptographic signatures that verify authenticity.
Airlines can quickly revoke and reissue digital passes if security is compromised, something impossible with paper tickets. Digital passes are linked in real-time to airline databases, ensuring information accuracy and making fraudulent boarding attempts more difficult. However, travelers should still be cautious about screenshots or photos of digital passes, as these can be just as vulnerable as paper copies when shared or improperly stored.
Paper shredding is the safest disposal method
When it’s time to dispose of paper boarding passes, treat them like any other sensitive document containing personal information. Simple paper shredders completely destroy the barcodes and printed information, making the documents unusable for criminal purposes. Cross-cut shredders work better than strip-cut models because they create smaller, harder-to-reconstruct pieces.
If shredding isn’t available, thoroughly marking over barcodes with permanent markers or tearing passes into very small pieces provides some protection. Security experts recommend making boarding passes completely unreadable before disposal, whether through shredding, burning, or other destruction methods. For digital passes, delete them from devices and cloud storage after travel is complete, and avoid keeping screenshots unless absolutely necessary for record-keeping purposes.
Keep boarding passes private until safe disposal
From the moment boarding passes are issued until proper disposal, keeping them covered and secure prevents “shoulder surfing” attacks where criminals collect information by observing documents in public spaces. Only display boarding passes when required by security or airline personnel, and immediately put them away afterward. Avoid leaving them visible on restaurant tables, in seat-back pockets, or anywhere others might photograph or scan them.
Solo travelers should be especially vigilant about boarding pass security since they don’t have travel companions to help monitor their documents. Keep passes in closed wallets or phone cases rather than loose in pockets where they might be visible or fall out. Remember that even brief exposure in public spaces can provide enough time for criminals to photograph barcodes or note important information for later use.
Your boarding pass might seem like harmless paper once your flight lands, but it’s actually a gateway to your personal information that deserves the same careful handling as credit cards or bank statements. Taking a few extra seconds to properly dispose of these documents can save you from months of dealing with identity theft, compromised accounts, or fraudulent charges down the road.
