What secrets does your boarding pass hold?

Ever wondered what all those mysterious numbers and symbols on your airline boarding pass really mean? Maybe there's some information you don't want the world to know?

The credit card details you used to make the booking, your contact details and passport information if this is an international flight, perhaps.

I'm looking at my Singapore Airlines boarding pass from a recent flight from Singapore to Sydney.

It shows my name, origin and destination, flight number, date and boarding time, seat number and class of travel – economy. There's also a long string of numbers which is my E Ticket Number, and my frequent flyer number.

There is also the barcode. Singapore Airlines uses the industry-standard matrix or 2D barcode known as a PDF417, a complicated-looking scramble etched between vertical gateposts.

Which gives rise to the question, what information does the barcode contain? I snapped an image of the barcode on my boarding pass and used Inlite Research's barcode reader to unscramble the image and what came back was my name, flight number, route, date of the flight, class of travel, and frequent flyer membership number.

Exactly the same information as featured in plain print on my boarding pass.

So what could happen if someone with malicious intent was to get hold of my discarded boarding pass and decode that same information?

Nothing that could credibly be used to hack my current airline booking, reallocate my meagre frequent flyer points, manipulate my bank account, steal my identity nor any of the other horrors that a vivid imagination might construct.

The reason for the barcode on your boarding pass is exactly the same as the reason for the barcode on every item in your shopping trolley. It speeds things up, a quick and easy way to scan your pass at the gate and get you into your seat.