Bar code on arrival cards meaning?

[ChristianPFC]

I always thought the bar code (and letters/numbers below to be readable by man) are just a numbering without any meaning, like bank notes are numbered/lettered to make each unique. But recently a friend said the first letters indicate which country your flight/bus/boat/car is coming from. That would require some effort to give the Egypt Air flight arrival cards with a code for "coming from Egypt", and so on.

 

Now it gets interesting: I once got two arrival cards, and now fill them out at home (at the convenience of my desk, not on the airplane or at the tables provided at immigration). That means I use the arrival card I got on a flight from Moscow when I arrive from Cairo, and the card from Cairo I use to enter over land from Myanmar, and the card from Myanmar I use when I fly to Bangkok from Taipei... which must give someone in immigration department a big headache, provided they analyze all the data!

[ubonjoe]

The bar code only has the number of the TM6 card on it.

 Edit: The letters before the number mean nothing other than the series of the card numbers since they are only 4 or 5 numbers long. By using the letters in front they can have a almost infinite amount of different numbers.

On the newest cards the TM6 card number is only shown under the bar code.

 

[Guest]

One can install barcode reader to a mobile phone and see what information that bar code gives out.

For example this https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.qrcode&rdid=app.qrcode

 

[NanLaew]

40 minutes ago, oilinki said:

One can install barcode reader to a mobile phone and see what information that bar code gives out.

For example this https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.qrcode&rdid=app.qrcode

 

Only if the reader is configured to match the scanned data with a reference data set. For example, if you scan your TM6 bar code at a 7-eleven check out, it will come up item not found or similar 'fault' with a beep. Or you can try and get the IO to scan the barcode on the wrapper on your water bottle.

 

It's fun, try it!