For most of us, the airport is just the first stop on the way to a relaxing vacation—not the vacation destination itself. But one man recently embarked upon a luxurious 18-day vacation without ever leaving Singapore’s Changi Airport, Atlas Obscura reports.
A former business developer, Raejali Buntut was returning to Malaysia after a trip abroad when he overslept in the Changi Airport lounge and missed his flight home. Instead of booking a new flight, Buntut inexplicably spent 18 days—from August 21 to September 7—living in the airport. For more than two weeks Buntut bounced from transit lounge to transit lounge, using his computer to forge boarding passes for different airlines. Buntut, who is apparently savvy in both forgery and Photoshop, added his name, fake flight numbers, and fake destinations onto mobile boarding pass images he found online, according to The Straits Times.
But like all vacations, Buntut’s airport adventure eventually came to an end: An airport lounge employee finally noticed that Buntut had entered the lounge for the fourth time in just 10 days—a highly improbable event for even the most frequent flyers—and Buntut was arrested. It’s still unclear why he decided to spend weeks living in the airport instead of returning home, though it should be noted Changi Airport has no shortage of amenities. It has been dubbed both the “World’s Best Airport” and “The Best Airport For Leisure Amenities” by Skytrax and provides travelers with everything from shops and video games to a butterfly garden, and even a swimming pool with a Jacuzzi.
[h/t Atlas Obscura]
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September 22, 2016 – 10:30am