US Airways Dividend Miles - What does it take to print a boarding pass???

I was scheduled to fly home yesterday on the 4:30pm DCA->BOS shuttle. I arrived at the airport early enough to make the 3:30, so went to the ticket counter outside security and had them move me up - and was handed a boarding pass for 1F (I had been upgraded on the 4:30, and was delighted to still have my upgrade).

Cleared security, bought a paper, bathroom stop - then at the gate just as boarding commenced. I walked up and handed over my pass - BEEP. Curious look from the agent, who asked if I could step aside.

As it turns out, the agent outside security had somehow printed me a boarding pass with a seat assignment, but had NOT moved me to the new flight (!). The gate agent then did so - 15D :td:.

I was not especially upset about losing the upgrade, but was amazed that a BP with a seat assignment for a flight (with my name on it) could be printed without me actually being on the flight - let alone the security ramifications of it!

Happens all the time. I once got through security with an old boarding pass for the same flight two months earlier (pulled the wrong boarding pass out of my carryon). It wasn't caught until the boarding agent scanned it. Then, she just thought that somehow the seat assignment wasn't correct! So, she handwrote the correct seat assignment on the wrong boarding pass!

So much for airport security!

That's a different topic. OP indicated that an actual, valid BP was generated for a flight he/she wasn't even on.

As for "security ramifications" - there aren't any. It would take me about 3 minutes to scan in a BP, Photoshop/Paint the date, flight, etc., to another date, and get through security. It's been done before. The X-ray/magnetometers are what attempts to prevent security problems. Looking at the BP does nothing.

So wait - you got a BP for the earlier flight (with your name on it?) but you were still booked on your original, later flight? Does SHARES suck this much? How is that possible?

But as stated, where's the security risk? Besides the photoshop method which is basically foolproof because TDC's have no clue whether a BP is real or not, you could get a real one as part of a refundable ticket anyway. Just refund it once through security. Wrong forum for this but ID has nothing to do with security. I guarantee you could actually fly on a ticket in my name and earn the miles for me. That's not a security risk as long as you were screened and had no liquids over 100ml that you didn't buy 20 feet inside the sterile area.

So wait - you got a BP for the earlier flight (with your name on it?) but you were still booked on your original, later flight? Does SHARES suck this much? How is that possible?

But as stated, where's the security risk? Besides the photoshop method which is basically foolproof because TDC's have no clue whether a BP is real or not, you could get a real one as part of a refundable ticket anyway. Just refund it once through security. Wrong forum for this but ID has nothing to do with security. I guarantee you could actually fly on a ticket in my name and earn the miles for me. That's not a security risk as long as you were screened and had no liquids over 100ml that you didn't buy 20 feet inside the sterile area.

Yup, I did get the BP exactly as you related it! The gate agent didn't seem to vexed, but I was amazed that the printing process seemed to have nothing to do with the actual flight booking! If the booking s/w allowed that, someone needs a real slap.

My comment about the 'security risk' wasn't meant to really imply that there was one, but you think that the airline res system wouldn't actually *accidentally* create any more weird holes that weren't there already! Obviously, no one could exploit this one since it was operator error of some sort.