Worth it?
News broke that two female students, aged 19 and 16, were arrested on 30 April under the Protected Areas and Protected Places Act. And their offence? They bought boarding passes with no intention of actually departing to their supposed destinations, instead they used the air tickets to get into the transit area in hopes of meeting a South Korean celebrity. The punishment for this offence is a fine of S$1,000, a jail term of two years, or both.
How Much Is Too Much?
Now, this might seem like a one-off event, where a couple of fans got overly zealous. But records show that the Singapore Police Force have arrested a total of 36 people for misusing boarding passes in just 2017 alone – and we’re only four months into the year.
While not all cases are due to the potential thrill of meeting a famous idol – other circumstances include misusing the boarding pass to send someone off, which is well-intended but misconstrued, and another happened when someone was trying to make a false Goods and Services Tax (GST) claim in the area. As such, this case poses an interesting question about the lengths individuals would go to meet a celebrity.
Local fan clubs have spoken out against such behaviour, with a TODAY report from 2015 on a similar case having presidents of various clubs across Singapore saying that “usually, [they] just send [the celebrities] off at the departure gates,” adding that they would advise members from entering the transit area.
Although it is doubtful that the two students knew that it was against the law to use their boarding passes in that manner, it still speaks volumes that they would spend money on airfare they aren’t intending on using just for a chance to meet a celebrity. Granted, a plane ticket to a nearby destination can be comparatively much cheaper than a concert ticket, but there has to be a better opportunity than trying to track down a celebrity in a crowded public airport. Should this just be chalked up to youthful teenage vigour, or would you, too, risk arrest to meet your favourite celebrity?