Where digital meets travel + lifestyle … A collection of can’t-miss news from this week. Sign up to get the TURNER Weekly Download in your inbox every Friday.
Coming Soon: The Selfie Boarding Pass
Maybe you’ve used an electronic boarding pass on your smartphone to get through the gate at the airport.
But soon, you may not even need that. Say hello to Selfie Boarding. JetBlue plans to be the first airline to connect with U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) systems for biometric facial recognition at the gate. According to
Travel + Leisure, “passengers who opt in to the biometric ID process won’t have to present a paper or electronic boarding pass. Instead, they can step up to the camera and take a photo.” The new biometric self-boarding process is being introduced this month on flights from Boston’s Logan International Airport to Aruba’s Queen Beatrix International Airport.
Microchipped
Facial recognition as ID is one thing. But how about a microchip? According to the Express,
Sweden is testing microchip implants in the human body to be used when traveling. The chip would be inserted into your hand and could be used to pay for train tickets in lieu of paper tickets. Weird, right? But more than 100 travelers have already signed up for the process, suggesting that a microchip in your hand is preferable to a lost train ticket.
The Greatest Airport on Earth
Most of us want to get out of the airport as quickly as possible. But could an airport be a destination in and of itself? Maybe. Travel site Air Help has declared Singapore’s Changi International “
the best airport in the world.” Why is it so amazing? The airport, which serves 59 million passengers every year, scores high in on-time performance. But it’s the extras that push Changi to the next level – the eco-friendly Terminal 3, with lush flora and hundreds of fluttering butterflies; the rooftop pool; the 24-hour cinema; the Hello Kitty café. And the airport is even planning an amusement park-style attraction for 2019.
Hyping the Hyperloop
But who needs airports, anyway? If billionaire tech visionary Elon Musk has his way, we’ll all be traveling by Hyperloop in the future.
What the heck is Hyperloop? It’s an eco-friendly custom electric motor that accelerates and decelerates a levitated pod through a low-pressure tube. The vehicle will glide silently for miles with no turbulence. And it’s fast.
Really fast. The Hyperloop travels at speeds of roughly 700 mph, meaning you could get from Washington D.C. to New York City in just 20 minutes. Sounds like science fiction to us – but
Hyperloop tech is already being tested in the Netherlands.
Fresh From The Spin Kitchen
Weekly Moment of Zen
From the cruel tricks department: this guy makes stickers that look like power outlets –
and strategically places them in airports.