Never mind being a bodyguard to Britney Spears or part of the burgeoning Jolie-Pitt clan, if you want a little attention when you’re out and about, try traveling with the Travelocity Roaming Gnome.

On my flight back to San Francisco yesterday, I had a very special companion in my hand luggage--an 18-inch garden gnome in a pointy red hat, who couldn’t have attracted more glances, stares, and chuckles if he’d tried. Normally, in the face of such blatant public scrutiny, I would have run straight to the restroom to check my teeth for spinach or my shoes for errant spools of toilet paper, wondering why everyone from kids in strollers to 89-year-old grandmothers had executed a double take as I passed. But with the Roaming Gnome tucked under my arm I quickly became accustomed to the attention. The little fellow’s a legend after all. He’s used to being recognized.

And flying with him is not without its privileges. A camera crew filming the security check at Dallas Fort Worth Airport zoomed in on the Gnome as we stood waiting in line. An airline worker asked if she could take a picture of him for her son (and then had to call said son to ask how to operate her camera phone.) A flight attendant, spotting the diminutive VIP tucked under my arm, broke into a grin and ushered us onto the plane to pre-board with the first-class passengers.

Lest you think, however, that the Roaming Gnome isn’t subject to the same security inspections as the rest of us when traveling by air, think again. With the Gnome seat-belted in between us during the rental car ride to the airport, my colleague and I remarked on the fact that his pointy red hat was missing the tiniest sliver of paint at the top. And as we placed him in the grey plastic bin for his ride through the X-ray scanner, it soon became obvious why. Repeated journeys through the machine had taken their toll on the top of his hat, which just touched the top of its roof as he rode through.

Forget all those luggage tags and accumulated air miles—a chipped hat, I think you’ll agree, is the mark of a true frequent traveler.