Mike FriedmanIt’s back, as we bring the the interesting and the bizarre in the world of travel. This week in travel, we have airport security silliness both at home and abroad, as well as the reason that you can’t win a stuffed animal with those claw games. Here are your weekly TWIT notes.
Man Gets Arrested at Singapore Airport For Buying A Plane Ticket
At the beginning of the ‘Veronica Mars’ movie, Logan is portrayed as a romantic hero when he buys a $49 airplane ticket to get through security and meet Veronica at her gate. At Singapore’s Changi Airport, he would have been arrested.
Far be it from me to call any country’s policies crazy, but this policy is crazy, as a man was arrested for buying a plane ticket just to walk his wife to the gate. His transgression carries a potential penalty of S$20,000 or up to two years of being forced to fly out of La Guardia in prison.
With a movie theater (or “theatre,” in Singapore), butterfly garden and amusement park inside, Singapore’s Changi is one of the most celebrated in the world. Just make sure you pay attention to all of the signs.
And as for Logan, he wouldn’t get credit for “the best $49 [he] ever spent” if Veronica knew that Southwest doesn’t have any change fees. It’s something that every Marshmallow should know.
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TSA: “Hold My Coke” – This Week In Travel
Singapore Changi: “We’re doing the strangest thing that any airport security has ever done.”
TSA: “Hold My Beer”
Or, in this case, “hold my Coke,” as the TSA was forced to reverse course and allow Orlando passengers to carry on a popular souvenir: A stylized Coke bottle from the new Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge theme park. Fortunately, this is Orlando, and the Mouse holds sway over everyone, even the TSA. Now, passengers simply have to take their Coke bottles out of their bag to prove that they’re not a hand grenade.
The TSA and Star Wars do have a history together. On multiple occasions, the TSA has confiscated lightsabers because, um, well, I don’t know. And while they now have a note on their website that lightsabers are allowed because they are not actually real, it’s kind of sad that it has gone this far.
Hat tip: View from the Wing
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Your Favorite Carnival Game Is Probably Rigged
Mall of America in Minneapolis-St. Paul Photo Credit: Michael Friedman
We call my daughter “the carny whisperer.” Everyone has their own superpower, and hers is winning those ridiculous games that you see at the state fair. Her room is a veritable menagerie of stuffed animals gathered at carnival booths from around the country.
If you’re not my daughter, chances are that you aren’t so lucky at these games. Why? Because they’re fixed, of course. The fact that they aren’t as easy as they look shouldn’t come as a surprise, but I found this piece about the games pretty interesting. Who knew that there is actually a “secret shopper” who goes to carnivals and makes sure that the folks there are running an honest scam? Not me.
