‘I have nothing to show travel insurance’: Person books flight. Then they make a costly mistake. Now they’re issuing a warning

In a perfect world, traveling would be a thing of ease. No headaches, no stress and no complex logistics. It would all be a part of the vacation experience.

Unfortunately, that perfect world does not exist — and as such, travelers can often run into unforeseen problems. One traveler is going viral for sharing a problem with their flight booking. They didn't download their original information as a PDF, which left them with little information to share with travel insurance when their flight got rebooked without prior knowledge.

‘Now I look like a crazy person'

TikTok creator Furball (@intolerant_furball) posted a video about something bizarre they experienced after booking a flight. The video now has more than 762,000 views.

“If you have a flight booked, go into your email receipt, download it as a PDF,” Furball said. “Do that right now.” 

The creator said they learned the hard way about a unique feature of some emails from airlines. Namely, that the contents of such emails are not always set in stone.

“That little itinerary box on your email is apparently done with a dynamic content block, meaning it can update with live information after the email has already been sent,” Furball said. “Do you see where I'm going with this? Our flight information was changed.”

Furball added that not only did they know that the information had changed, but the “manage my trip” section of the email indicated that the flight had been rebooked. There was no lingering evidence of what the email had originally said. That meant there was nothing for the creator to present to the airline when asking for customer service.

“I don't have any of the original flight information because of that dynamic content block, which updated to the new flight information,” the creator said. “So I have nothing to show travel insurance that our flight was changed by a whole 12 hours. I even tried to talk to the airline representatives and the only information that they had available to them in their system was the rebooked flight, not the original booking. So now I look like a crazy person.”

Viewers weigh in: ‘This should be illegal'

Viewers in the creator's comment section were surprised by the situation. Many said it's why they “screenshot the [minute] everything is confirmed.” Some worried that even saving emails as PDFs wouldn't be enough to cover insurance or compensation in similar situations.

“Digital gas lighting,” one viewer commented. “Even if you had the PDF they'd say it was modified.”

“I'll never let people make fun of me for bringing printed confirmation of everything on trips again,” another commenter said.

“I take pictures of my laptop screen, like a boomer, specifically because of this,” wrote a third viewer. “That wonky photo is time/datestamped, and it has come in handy more than once.”

One viewer shared they'd experienced something similar with a concert, saying their “seats changed to GA when the venue became a live nation ownership.” Another warned that PDFs may also pose an issue.

“Print. it. hardcopy,” the commenter wrote. “PDFs can also have dynamic content.”

Do airlines really send dynamic emails?

Dynamic content is content that changes according to the data that populates it. Marketing automation platform Emarsys says that “unlike traditional automation and personalization solutions, dynamic content ‘populates' based on when the email is opened – not when it's sent.”

The commenter who warned to print “hardcopy” versions of emails is right about one thing: PDFs can indeed export with interactive elements, such as dynamic content. That means they can be changed without notice.

“A dynamic PDF is the opposite of a static PDF as it can adapt to user input or changes in external data sources,” Atfinity says. “Dynamic PDFs can have interactive elements such as form fields, dropdown menus, clickable buttons, embedded videos, or live data updates.”

It is also true that some airlines send dynamic emails to their customers. Major carriers such as United Airlines and Southwest Airlines use dynamic content to “create a seamless and effective booking experience.”

Buzz News has reached out to Furball via email.

@intolerant_furball Like this is actually insane…and apparently airlines are not required to send you notices when a flight changes if it is over 72 hours before the flight takes place…which is why we NEVER got an email about the change… also the reps said they couldn't even do a search for flights purchased with my name…so as far as they are concerned we only experienced a delay for the flight and not a whole rebooking… #traveltiktok #flightproblems #intolerantfurball #travelnightmare ♬ original sound – Furball