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Hey, seasoned international travelers, have a moment to give advice? I’m wondering whether this “provide all your passport details” web form from KLM is worth filling out.
It promises to “speed up the check-in process at the airport.” As a software person, the offer I hear is “make your sensitive data pass through even •more• systems with heaven knows what security characteristics.”
If doing it at the airport is +5 min, I’d prefer that. If that’s asking for a headache, then OK, fine, online.
@inthehands AFAIK, You run the risk of being denied boarding, or getting bumped because you have not provided the info and thus are not yet fully confirmed. Airlines are required to provide passport data along with the passenger manifest. It has been a few years, but I’ve seen people being hassled over this at a US airport, and in France and Germany.
@meltedcheese
OK, that’s good info, thanks. Sounds like a much more concrete risk than “maybe KLM’s web servers get compromised.”
Unsolicited advice: make copies of your passport, driver's license, and put a copy in every piece of luggage.
@inthehands @tuban_muzuru Absolutely a great idea, for multiple reasons.
@tuban_muzuru
Oh, wow, yes. Thank you for that!
I fly in Europe quite a bit (your local rules may differ!).
I like to home-print my boarding pass to avoid queuing at the airport (I now use a digital boarding pass on my phone). As I don't check in any luggage, this saves a lot of time at the airport as I don't need to queue at all to get a pass or check in luggage. I go directly to departure security instead.
To check in at home and get a digital boarding pass I have to provide these details on-line. It's somewhat annoying, but the trade off to avoid queueing time + stress at the airport seems worth it.
FWIW, I keep scans of my security documents (and my family's), along with other ID documents (driving license, medical cards, etc) in Apple Notes. For the threats I believe I face (loss or theft of physical passes, mostly – and not nation state attack or other determined adversary), this feels like a very good approach and means I always have them to hand when needed.