What’s the deal with duty-free?

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Take an international flight, and the signs are seductive. “Duty-free” beckons you into endless rows of stores with some sense of tax savings and bargain shopping. In the United States, this trims the cost of local import taxes, but in Europe, you also bypass the value added tax (VAT), which can cut the cost by up to 25 percent.

But, it’s not that easy … it’s never that easy.

On your next jaunt to Europe, dropping more than $800 on these discounted goods can result in your having to pay import taxes when you hit your home turf. Generally, you’ll be charged 3 percent on the first $1,000 you spend over the $800 threshold. As the amount purchased increases, so does the tax.

According to an article on CNN, the best deals are on cigarettes and liquor. When it comes to luxury goods, it pays to comparison shop and keep an eye on currency swings.

[Via CNN]

Smoking hurts on Saudi airline

by Tom Johansmeyer on

For a smoker, nothing is more miserable than staring down a long flight without being able to light up. As if air travel isn’t enough of a chore, various regulations and health nuts have taken away our preferred coping mechanism. A Sudanese man fought back … and paid dearly.

According to the Daily Mail, the passenger lit a cigarette on a Saudi Arabian Airlines flight from Qurayyat to Jeddah. The cabin crew repeatedly asked that he put out the coffin nail, and he refused. So, when the plane touched down, he was arrested.

Saying sorry wasn’t enough.

Though he apologized in court and presented evidence that he was in a smoking cessation program, the perp was sentenced to 30 lashes. Hey, the judge wanted to prove a point. And, it could have been worse. Last April, another in-flight smoker was sentenced to 50.

Not only does smoking kill … it hurts like hell.

Though many human rights organizations condemn this form of punishment, it is quite common for a number of offenses, from adultery to being alone with a non-relative of the opposite sex. Some crimes can lead to thousands of lashes, but they are meted out in batches of 50 over a period of months.

What gets you 1,000 lashes? I don’t know, but I suspect a post-coital cig after joining the mile-high club would put you in the running.

[Via Daily Mail]

What strange things have been found on planes?


Reactions to World’s Biggest Smoking Ban: Londoners Fired Up

by Iva Skoch on

London–the alleged smoking and drinking capital of the world by sheer volume of alcohol and cigarettes consumed–put its smoking ban into effect, kicking and screaming, on July 1st. Although other cities, such as New York or Paris, have gone through similar labor pains, London’s is the biggest smoking ban yet: it affects 3.7 million businesses, including 200,000 pubs, bars and restaurants.

So far in the last two weeks, smokers have reluctantly gone outside to smoke, but the government is not stopping there. It is planning to change the law so that, among other things, employers can be fined if they fail to stop workers dropping cigarette butts on the street.

The Independent offers a glimpse into the London smokers’ sentiments by quoting a few “influential” ones:

  • ‘I am appalled at it. They are treating us like children. I’m not a schoolboy. Mr Brown thinks he’s a prefect’. David Hockney, Artist
  • ‘We’re suppressing everyone these days, not allowing adults to make their own minds up’. Antony Worrall Thompson, Chef
  • ‘The alleged danger of so-called second-hand smoke is so phoney it stinks to high heaven’. Joe Jackson, Musician
  • ‘You would have to search the world very hard to find a single government that would say it was abolitionist’. Paul Adams, British American Tobacco
  • ‘Smokers should not be discriminated against simply because they smoke’. Chris Ogden, Tobacco Manufacturers’ Association
  • ‘I’m inventing bike sheds to attach to buildings so it’s somewhere people can go to smoke’. Joanna Lumley, Actress

Hmmm, I am a semi-militant non-smoker myself but I realize that smoking bans do raise important questions about personal liberty in civilized societies. Makes you wonder, what’s next?

Cross-Cultural Smoking Etiquette

by Iva Skoch on

I witnessed an interesting cafe scene in Prague the other day.

Two local girls are sitting in a packed local cafe, drinking coffee and chain smoking. Two Americans at a table next to theirs start eating and politely ask the girls if they could stop smoking while they eat. The girls are visibly annoyed, but they do stop smoking. For the rest of the lunch hour, they talk about being fed up with foreigners who bring their healthy-living, assertive attitudes and impose them on the locals. Why don’t they stay at their smoke-free homes, they said. The American guys were thinking more in terms of “your freedom ends where my freedom begins.”

Mind you, it is virtually impossible to find a smoke free restaurant in Prague and about one half of the adult population smokes. Unlike the US, smoking is still kind of cool here.

Is it OK for a foreigner to ask a local to stop smoking in a place where smoking is allowed? Hmmm, what’s a health-obsessed, smoke-hating American to do?