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Any tips on removing FF number from PDF receipt

Any tips on removing FF number from PDF receipt

Old Jan 20, 2020, 10:26 pm
  #16  
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Originally Posted by Gig103
I'd hesitate at editing. We've been instructed to black out PII since outsourcing our travel from in-house to Concur. The manual way is to print, Sharpie, and photo/scan. I'm personally okay with a screenshot of the BP with a similarly obvious redaction over the data.
What personal data is on the boarding pass that isn't needed for reimbursement, such as your name, and that matters after the trip (the PNR doesn't nor does the ticket number as even if a credit is attached to it, the funds would be nontransferrable)? I see only the last four digits of my FF number, PreCheck, my elite tier, and the fact that I preordered a meal (indicated as special meal requested, so not accurate). I guess it could become sensitive if someone had requested disability accommodations, but surely the employer would already know that.
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Old Jan 20, 2020, 10:59 pm
  #17  
 
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Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
What personal data is on the boarding pass that isn't needed for reimbursement, such as your name, and that matters after the trip (the PNR doesn't nor does the ticket number as even if a credit is attached to it, the funds would be nontransferrable)? I see only the last four digits of my FF number, PreCheck, my elite tier, and the fact that I preordered a meal (indicated as special meal requested, so not accurate). I guess it could become sensitive if someone had requested disability accommodations, but surely the employer would already know that.
On BP's just the FF# for me, but my HHonors profile lists my personal address and phone number.
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Old Jan 20, 2020, 11:05 pm
  #18  
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My boarding passes just have the last four digits of my DL FF number.
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Old Jan 20, 2020, 11:14 pm
  #19  
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With boarding passes, y’all are missing the biggest part — the barcode. From the barcode you can glean the SkyMiles number. Thus, that has to be removed or scrambled.

why a BP is useful for reimbursement is another story. You could SDC or change the ticket five million ways after checkin and submit the original Bp and old receipt for reimbursement. This is all a hoax.
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Old Jan 20, 2020, 11:18 pm
  #20  
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Originally Posted by A321neo
With boarding passes, y’all are missing the biggest part — the barcode. From the barcode you can glean the SkyMiles number. Thus, that has to be removed or scrambled.

why a BP is useful for reimbursement is another story. You could SDC or change the ticket five million ways after checkin and submit the original Bp and old receipt for reimbursement. This is all a hoax.
Of course, but my employer still requires it.
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Old Jan 20, 2020, 11:29 pm
  #21  
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Originally Posted by film_girl
Gotcha. Well, you could automate the saving as new file part really easily. As far as the other goes, assuming the receipts all have the same layout, you could use Automator's Watermark PDF Quick Action and modify it so that it’s applying a black box at full opacity to a specific offset location. And then in that same workflow automate the save-as/export behavior.
thanks for the tip--I'll look into it
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Old Jan 20, 2020, 11:55 pm
  #22  
 
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Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
This works if the ticket isn't reissued for any reason. However, if the ticket is reissued, I would personally be nervous about submitting a receipt for reimbursement that isn't the ticket that was actually flown. If boarding passes are also required, note that the ticket number appears on the boarding pass and could lead to questions if it's not the same ticket number that's shown on the receipt.
You are lucky you are flying tickets where the ticket number on your boarding pass matches what you booked. Tickets get reissued all the time! Minor SKCH? New ticket. Same day flight change? New ticket. IRROPs? New ticket. I’ve even had the remaining coupons on a ticket reissued by a different airline.

Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
Isn't anyone here nervous about submitting an "edited" receipt? I'd cover the number with a black market and then xerox it or even cut out the part of the piece of paper with my FF number before I'd edit or submit something with funky looking fonts.
I don’t think it’s editing more so as redacting irrelevant personal information. No reason for a FQTV number to be shown. I also frequently redact my home address that prints on hotel folios.

Originally Posted by A321neo
With boarding passes, y’all are missing the biggest part — the barcode. From the barcode you can glean the SkyMiles number. Thus, that has to be removed or scrambled.

why a BP is useful for reimbursement is another story. You could SDC or change the ticket five million ways after checkin and submit the original Bp and old receipt for reimbursement. This is all a hoax.
Fully agree! Lots of data in the barcode including full FQTV. People should also be more careful with tossing out old BP or leaving them on planes. I’ve found countless ones and now I have your FQTV and your name. If I was a bad person I could do a lot with that.

Companies that require BP submission are stuck in the dark ages in my opinion as it provides very little value. But I know there are a lot out there still.
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Old Jan 21, 2020, 1:59 am
  #23  
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For editing PDF files, I've used Inkscape which has a bit of a learning curve but very very powerful once you get the hang of it (and it's free). Remove or edit out text or just add boxes to cover up information.

Of course what you do with it (and how ethical or legal it is) is up to you.
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Old Jan 21, 2020, 2:05 am
  #24  
 
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Why would a FFN be worth protecting? They are usually just consecutive numbers and many orders of magnitude easier to guess than a (properly chosen) password. And usually, you can use a user name or email address as an alternative to the FFN, both of which are typically trivial to guess or social engineer as well.
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Old Jan 21, 2020, 4:47 am
  #25  
 
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Originally Posted by rucksack
Do you use Chrome? You could simply right click on your frequent flyer number on the ‘view receipt’ page, select ‘Inspect’ and then either delete or replace the number with X’s. Then just print to a PDF.

Otherwise, you could buy Acrobat Pro to edit/redact PDFs — you might find the functionality useful for other things too.
This is the correct answer.
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Old Jan 21, 2020, 6:16 am
  #26  
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Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
Isn't anyone here nervous about submitting an "edited" receipt? I'd cover the number with a black market and then xerox it or even cut out the part of the piece of paper with my FF number before I'd edit or submit something with funky looking fonts.
This.

I would be certain to redact and have the redaction clear. E.g. blacked out or otherwise noted. Even though the intent here is admirable, in an audit these things can go terribly wrong, all depending on the client.
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Old Jan 21, 2020, 6:25 am
  #27  
 
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Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
Of course, but my employer still requires it.
Wait- your employer requires your boarding pass for reimbursement? Do you contract or are you fill time staff?
Do THEY know these things are digital nowadays?
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Old Jan 21, 2020, 6:46 am
  #28  
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Yep.

Nope, apparently.
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Old Jan 21, 2020, 7:54 am
  #29  
 
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Originally Posted by Collierkr
Wait- your employer requires your boarding pass for reimbursement? Do you contract or are you fill time staff?
Do THEY know these things are digital nowadays?
Still required here, full-time, academia.....[I don't travel a TON for work and I'm pretty good about remembering to save the BPs, but I also try to save as a pdf when I check-in too - those are accepted. Yes, we all acknowledge they're worthless, but still required....] There's been talk of a new travel & reimbursement system coming up, so we'll see.....
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Old Jan 21, 2020, 8:11 am
  #30  
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Originally Posted by Hoyaheel
Still required here, full-time, academia.....[I don't travel a TON for work and I'm pretty good about remembering to save the BPs, but I also try to save as a pdf when I check-in too - those are accepted. Yes, we all acknowledge they're worthless, but still required....] There's been talk of a new travel & reimbursement system coming up, so we'll see.....
So that means you can't submit for reimbursement until after you fly? Are you always buying more expensive close-in tickets? If you buy a ticket 3 months in advance, you have to float your employee the money until you take the flight and can submit a boarding pass? This makes no sense...

I really don't understand the point of requiring a boarding pass. It does NOT prove that you took the flight.
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