You’re about to hop on a flight to some exotic destination and you want to tell someone. Or a lot of people. Hey, we get it – we’re in the business of helping make travel happen. But If you’ve ever thought about posting an image of your boarding pass on social media, think again… especially if it’s a premium class ticket worth thousands.
Michael Provis’ ticket wasn’t for a pricey business class trip, but the Jetstar customer recently found out the hard way why you shouldn’t share imagery of your boarding pass online.
On his way from Newcastle to the Gold Coast for a holiday, Provis posted a video on TikTok (to 300,000 followers) that showed his boarding pass.
Little did he know that a single detail on the document – his booking reference number – was all that would be required (as well as his name obviously) for someone to alter his booking – and of course, someone did, costing him $200.
“I see a lot of people doing what I (did),” he says in a video he posted after the event.
“Because I make videos and I enjoy vlogging and things like that, I made a video of me travelling from Newcastle to the Gold Coast. Part of that video was me showing the camera my boarding pass – now, this is where I stuffed up.
“I see so many people, when they’re travelling, taking photos and videos of their boarding pass, with their passport because they’re excited about their holiday, and they want to share their experience with everyone.”
Three days after sharing the imagery, Provis tried to change his return flight to Newcastle to a day later, but when he spoke to Jetstar, he was told that he didn’t have a return flight booked as it had been cancelled since posting the video.
“I told the operator that I hadn’t cancelled my flight because I actually needed it to get home, funnily enough. She then responded with, ‘Mr Provis, you have been online, you have spoken to someone in the chat section of our website, and you informed them you wanted to cancel your flight’,” he explains in the video post-event.
Jetstar staff told Provis “he must have” cancelled his flight as he was the only person who knew his booking reference.
“This is a reminder not to share personal information on social media such as your booking reference number,” a Jetstar spokesperson told 7NEWS.
While Provis took “full responsibility” for the error, he was surprised at how easily it had occurred.
But other airlines also operate in the same way, with Qantas, Virgin Australia, Air New Zealand, Emirates, Singapore Airlines and British Airways among those that only require that detail to make amendments to bookings.
“Make sure, if you’re travelling, you cover your booking reference number if it’s on your boarding pass because this could happen to you,” Provis said.
