What would you do for love? Swim the seven seas? Hike the Great Wall of China? Buy a ticket for a flight you have no intention of boarding so you can hang out with your wife in Changi Airport’s transit area?
If you went with Option C, we need to talk.
Turns out, that is totally illegal, something a 27-year-old Singaporean man found out the hard way on Sunday when police arrested him as he was trying to get a couple extra hours of face time with his lady love.
Police revealed in a Facebook post last night that the man had scored his boarding pass with no intention of departing Singapore, so he could enter the airport’s transit area, which is against the law under the Infrastructure Protection Act.
And if you’re wondering why police made a point of highlighting this arrest, it might have something to do with the fact that they’ve already busted 33 people for misusing boarding passes this year alone.
For obvious reasons, the transit area is considered a restricted area, which means the unnamed man arrested in this case could face a fine of up to S$20,000 (about US$14,400) or jailed for up to two years, police said.
Others who have made headlines doing the same thing in previous years include two K-pop fans who allegedly used their boarding passes to catch South Korean hip-hop heartthrob Simon Dominic in the flesh.
And then there was a woman who was charged in court in March for allegedly using her boarding pass last year to claim tax refunds, The Straits Times reported.
Not hanging out in the transit area illegally? Your friendly Coconuts crew, though we absolutely dream of the day we have enough expendable income to blow on plane tickets we have no intention of using.
Related story:
Arrested: 2 teens who allegedly misused boarding passes in Changi Airport just to meet a K-pop star
