Passenger Lives in Airport Lounges for 18 Days
Jeff Edwards September 21, 2016
An unemployed man who is clearly a fan of free drinks and cellophane-wrapped snacks forged passes to hop from airline lounge to airline lounge, not leaving the airport for nearly 3 weeks.
Unemployed business consultant Raejali Buntut was enjoying the amenities in the business class lounge at Singapore Changi Airport (SIN) so much that he slept right through the boarding call for his flight home to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KUL). That’s when inspiration struck for the 32-year-old Malaysian traveler.
According to a report in The Singapore Straight Times, Buntut decided to spend the next 18 days relocating from one airline club lounge to another. The industrious passenger reportedly altered images of entry passes on his mobile device in order to bluff his way past the front desk of nearly a dozen lounges in several terminals at the airport.
The enterprising flyer used a laptop to forge lounge passes from Citibank as well as fake mobile boarding passes from Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines. Using the counterfeit passes and boarding passes, Buntut was able to access two separate Dnata Lounges, three different Sats Premier Lounges, two Ambassador Transit Lounge locations, a Plaza Premium Lounge and the Green Market Lounge. Some days, he would visit as many as three different clubs in various terminals at the airport.
All told, Buntut used more than 30 forged passes allowing him to enjoy free continental breakfasts, complimentary cocktails and other assorted amenities everyday from August 21 until September 7. Unfortunately for the pampered stowaway, his good fortune eventually ended when an attendant became suspicious of his all-too-frequent repeat visits to the same airline club in a span of just a few days and alerted police.
Buntut was soon given access to another facility with slightly less glamorous menu choices. He was sentenced to two weeks in jail after pleading guilty to three counts of forgery avoiding a possible sentence of more than four years in prison.
[Photo: Erick Prince]
It reminds me of that other guy from Germany or Austria, who purchased a fully flexible business class ticket and kept dining at Lufthansa's lounges for over a year, each time changing the departure date after his visit... Lufthansa refunded his ticket after a year or so, and only when attempted this the second time he was prosecuted.
What's the big deal here? This is nothing. There was a guy who lived in the terminal in Paris for over a year. They even made a movie about it.
I do 30 hours in SIN. 18 to 20 in HKG. But this guy went too far, obviously.
@Weero: I think there's a reason why he didn't forge SG pass for the SG gold lounge. They are really meticulous in their checks there whereas I think these contract lounges require less information. Just show your pass and go.
@Amanuensis: Ouch. I'm sure he could have gone on longer if it wasn't Singapore. Singaporeans are alert to their environment and a recent government campaign, SG Secure, urges citizens to be aware of suspicious activity. We're also a society that is really cautious against terrorism being such a small country.