April Fools

Recap: April Fool’s pranks from airports and airlines

Fun Stuff

In case you missed these, here are some of the April Fool’s pranks cooked up by airports and airlines this year. If I missed one your favorites, please let me know and I’ll try to add it.

Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airpot has some great amenities, so it may not have seemed odd to tell travelers that an aircraft viewing area – with a pool – would soon open:

Here’s how the airport described what was in store.

“The space – located near Terminal 2-Humphrey – will bring aviation enthusiasts even closer to the action, while having access to amenities like rentable floaties, private changing rooms, an old-fashioned concessions stand and a full-service bar. While open to anyone interested in a unique experience, we expect travelers with longer layovers will choose to enjoy some pool time as well, and get a taste of Minnesota summers.”

Admission will be a very reasonable $15 a day. Drinks, treats and floaty rentals are additional. If the pool is successful, the airport plans to install a larger pool near Terminal 1-Lindbergh in 2019.”

At Orlando International Airport, this already very real-looking sculpture by artist Duane Hanson seemed to come alive on April 1 and re-located to various spots around the terminal:

Denver International Airport, which has dogs – and one cat – in its Canine Airport Therapy Squad (CATS), shared (fake) news about adding Norbert the turtle to the team:

Not to be outdone, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport posted a photo of its new airport therapy animal, Aquino the Chameleon,

Southwest announced it own version of Alexa:

Emirates shared news of a transparent lounge coming to its 777x planes, starting in 2020:

Virgin Australia announced in-flight spin classes:

Hong Kong Airlines posted this fun news about its newest in-flight amenity:

Jetstar Airways promised on-board karaoke:

Thomas Cook showed off its newest aircraft:

And Swoop Airlines, the low budget carrier from Canada’s WestJet, let travelers know that it  planned to charge travelers by the minute for time spent in the airplane lavs. Toilet paper?  That will be an extra charge.

 

https://youtu.be/giIdoB2sd7Q

Westjet & others celebrate April Fools’ Day

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In the spirit of the April Fools’ Day holiday, yesterday Virgin America shared its “new” logo.

https://youtu.be/vGCUp_FduKc

Today, WestJet and others join the fun with RALFH – a replacement for airplane food carts:

Cheapflights brings up Hipster Air , an airline “for those who badly want to be in the know – but who don’t want others to know it. It guarantees that no airline will try so hard to not look like it is trying so hard.”

Hipster air

And Seattle’s Museum of Flight once again rolls out a unique April Fools exhibit. This year – it’s the Sopwith Camel airplane flown by World War I flying ace, Snoopy.

Museum of Flight snoopy

“The famous aircraft has never been seen in public, and until recently, historians have believed it among the thousands of fighter aircraft lost forever in combat over France nearly one hundred years ago,” the museum said in a statement that refers to the aircraft as “one of the greatest finds of the century.”

More fun to follow…

Travel tidbits for April 1

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So much “news” today – April 1 …

WetJet has introduced Smart Seats – which let you take a seat in the airport and board the plane in that same seat..

Richard Branson announced that the Virgin Group’s U.S. operations will be moving to Branson, Missouri

There’s a report out of Florida that the Transportation Security Administration is testing a new program to help seniors make their way through airport security. The program is dubbed “Moses.”

“Unlike PreCheck, TSA-MOSES requires no pre-registration. Travelers 65 or older should look for a large wooden cane with a curved handle near checkpoints, signifying a MOSES representative is available to guide them through security.”

And – finally – Denver International Airport has revealed all the details about the long whispered-about bunker underneath the airport grounds.

DIA BUNKER

More April 1 news to come…

Area 51 items at the Museum of Flight – maybe

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Area 51 warning sign

Area 51 Warning Sign –

Seattle’s Museum of Flight, which brought us an exhibit of Wonder Woman’s invisible plane just about this time last year, has cooked up another special exhibit set to open on April 1.

Due to the heavily redacted press release, it’s difficult to tell exactly what will be on display, but it appears that some never-before-seen items relating to Area 51 just might be on view.

Or not.

Museum of Flight Area 51

More April Fools’ Day hijinks from airlines

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In addition to early arrivals from Virgin Atlantic (glass-bottomed planes) and WestJet (all-animals welcome; no carriers needed), these April Fools antics from airlines are making the rounds:

Delta Air Lines has a new double-decker arm rest available for those in the middle seat.

Double decker Delta Arm rest

Virgin America has a new Main Canine Select class offering intriguing perks, such as in-flight fire-hydrants designed by Frank Gehry.

Virgin America hydrants

VIRGIN AMERICA PETS

And JetBlue has announced three new – unusual – destinations.

TSA confirms: space aliens visit airports

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One of my mother’s favorite sayings was “It could happen.” Not an otherwise woo-woo person, she’d say that whenever the topic of aliens came up, wait a beat and then change the subject.

So she would have been very interested to read the story about aliens and airports that I wrote for my USATODAY.com At the Airport column a while back.

Crop circle at Indiana's Huntington Airport, courtesy Travis McQueen

 

And she would have been VERY interested in reading the post on the TSA Blog yesterday. The one about TSA Space Alien Detection Officers (ADOs).

Alien being screened. Courtesy TSA

 

According to Blogger Bob (a real person or an …alien?):

….New intelligence suggests that space aliens with invisibility cloaks have been going through our checkpoints for years. We know they’ve been observing flight operations at some of our busiest airports, but we had no idea they were coming in.

It’s not entirely clear what their intentions are, but they need to be screened just like anybody else. We don’t mind space aliens visiting our airports. In fact we think it’s kind of cool. However, they need to go through security just like everybody else…

Whatever their motivation is, rest assured that  a new layer of security has been developed that will allow us to detect and screen these unique passengers. This new layer is our TSA Alien Detection Officer (ADO). ADOs are an elite new type of officer who has undergone unique training to use specially developed detection tools. You may have already seen some of these tools in use at airports and just not known what they were.

 

Yes, it was an April Fools’ Day joke. But you know what my mom would say. “It could happen.”