According to a USAToday report, a virtual video projection called Carla .... not Glinda the Good Witch ... now greets and gives messages and information in Boston’s Logan International Airport. The three-dimensional image won’t wave a magic wand, but speaks in friendly tones in English, French and Spanish. However, although she may look like a real human of the right size and depth, she is just a recorded hologram and won’t answer questions.

There’s a similar virtual guide now at the Washington Dulles Airport, with the name of Paige. According to news reports, New York City's three major airports are expected to get their vitual guides sometime this summer. If the experiment works, passengers at other airports can soon expect to meet similar hologram advisers.

Among the messages the virtual guides offer are how to prepare for security inspection, location of flight gates, schedule changes, airport exits, taxi, bus and other services. She won’t tell passengers to click their heels and say, “There’s no place like home.”

So far, the virtual guides are not involved in security check-ins. However, with ever-improving technology, could it be possible passengers may soon experience virtual groping from grinning hologram agents?

According to USAToday, airlines are considering adding yet another nickel-and-dime cost to their already ever-increasing fees for baggage, carry-ons and other formerly free services.

You can already pay an extra $10 to $25 to board flights early on some airlines before the mobs of coach-seat peasants. Soon, passengers may be able to pay a similar extra fee to get off their flights first after landing.

When the new fee goes into effect, you lowly coach flyers will be able to see their first-class sneers close up as they strut by to exit before you.

To some passengers, it seems like just another way to make going through airport security even more unpleasant. TSA is now random testing water containers and other drinks purchased in the airport. The original regulation was that any containers taken into the airport by passengers had to be tested or tossed away. 

The new rule includes all containers, including those purchased at airport concession stands and restaurants on the way to security areas. To many passengers, it may seem that the next security-tighening step at airport check-ins will be for TSA agents to hand out those little bottles you usually get for liquid-testing when visiting your doctor.

According to USAToday, beginning soon, luxury line Silversea Cruises will not allow smoking in cabins and other areas of their ships. They will continue to permit smokers to light up cigars, pipes and cigarettes in their insulated Connoisser’s Corner and certain designated open deck areas.

Several other cruise lines have already placed restrictions on smoking. With the industry trend to encourage more young families to sail together, including infants, it can be expected that the smoking bans will spread.