What is it with people/ PAX and lounge food

[Matt_01]

I often wonder if something changes in the human brain when people enter an airport lounge and free food is on offer. As an example on Friday, in the VA MEL lounge, which was a zoo, the line for potato chips was 6-8 PAX long, the hot food line was even worse. At the QP in ADL this evening I watched one PAX pile their plate so high with the coughpy salad and hot food offerings, pasties and pies, the food was starting to fall off I then noticed the PAX sitting behind me had a bowl of soup, a seperate bowl of salad and another bowl of hot food mixed with rice all full to the brim (the old style aircraft soup bowls before they became the main meal “large” bowl of soup) and more bread rolls than you can poke a stick at, her partner had the same so 6 bowls of food plus bread between 2 people. Do people/ PAX not realise that if they are hungry and want more lounge food you can go back more than once.

Maybe I have just become jaded and ambivalent to airline lounges. Do not get me wrong I like ‘free stuff’ but airline lounge food???????. Apologies for my rant.

 

[SeatBackForward]

This must rank as one of the most bizarre things any traveller, on any mode, has witnessed in the last decade.

But I believe you, as truth can be stranger than fiction, although why the lounge staff didn't intervene is beyond me.

What about the story about the Japanese guy who bought a fully flexible first class ticket, and used the first class lounge everyday for his showers and meals for something like a year.

 

[cmbhome]

Sickening. Appalling greed. Taking much more than a fair share must end up costing all the rest of us.

 

[Kandy]

I’ve asked to have some water to refill my disposable bottle before, and the lounge attendant looked at me like a weirdo and asked if I just wanted a new bottle of water. So now I have no hesitation in taking bottled water if there’s no refill tap or jugs.

wouldn’t steal food but have been known to get up multiple times when I’m bored in the lounge to eat things I don’t really want!!!

 

[unclebobl]

It's the age of entitlement, they paid a membership so they can take what they like. The only good thing to come out of it is they will get hardening of the arteries or ptomaine poisoning from eating the leftovers. The same people walk around supermarket filling up on free samples

 

[fn0]

No-one is entitled to take as much food and drink as they want!

The understanding and the unwritten contract between customer and the hotel buffet or airport lounge is that you can take as much as you can eat and drink while there. Taking away bottles of drink and containers of food is just plain theft and should be treated as such unless the amount is insignificant ie. the apple or banana case

 

[suze2000]

I have to admit to deciding how many drinks I can try to squeeze in my lounge time. But this is mainly because I find flying Y so unpleasant that I need to be a little drunk to face it.

And I've stolen the odd magazine a couple of times, but only if there's something specific I want to keep out of it.

 

[lahlee]

wouldn’t steal food but have been known to get up multiple times when I’m bored in the lounge to eat things I don’t really want!!!

Sometimes eating is the only thing that keeps me awake in lounges. I'm sorry to say I've wasted many hours in The Private Room in Changi as I've been so tired I've been almost delirious

 

[JohnK]

Sickening. Appalling greed. Taking much more than a fair share must end up costing all the rest of us.

So in your mind taking 2 small cans of Coke No Sugar from the F lounge is worse than drinking 6 glasses of the top champagne?

 

[babysun]

I take snacks for the flight from the VA lounge. They provide bags for them. Probably more for the people in a hurry. Usually some of the little biscuits or a muffin.
I do this for a couple of reasons. I have a few food intolerances and I don't know what I will be fed on the plane. For example I have an egg intolerance which usually isn't a big deal. Until it is.
My most recent flight was from LAX-BNE and every breakfast dish in Y had eggs. Unfortunately I only take snacks from the VA lounge. I was offered a banana from the crew member. I was starving & very hangry. First the first time I used my WP status to follow up on the offer from the cabin manager ...'if there's anything you want just ask". So I did and was presented with a tray from business class with non eggy hot food. I felt rather embarrassed about it but not embarrassed enough to not eat & enjoy it. It's so much nicer to eat food from a plate than try to scrape it out of foil. There have to be some perks!
Feedback was sent to VA about too many eggs on the new menu.
The other reason is kids. Whenever I travel with my kids they don't want/like what VA is serving. If I have a stash of bickies then we know everyone is happy.
I also fill up my reusable water bottle. Sometimes with diet coke but usually just water and a stack of lemon wedges.
People need to realise they're being pigs but also what the environmental impact is. So much plate filling and not much eating goes on. It's gross on so many levels.
I think there is an element of paranoia about bags being stolen etc if you leave the table so fill your plates sky high just in case you think you "might" want to go back. TAKE YOUR VALUABLES WITH YOU!

OH. Also When VA offers a bloody finger sandwich and calls it lunch some seasoned travellers know to eat first. But stop being pigs about it for goodness sakes.

 

[harvyk]

What is the etiquette of bringing Maccas or similar outside food INTO the lounge anyway??

They couldn't care less, why would they?
If you have lounge access you'd take up exactly the same amount of space with or without the macca's, and it's not like they are selling the food there.

Let's face it, a lounges primary purpose is as nothing more than a very nice waiting room.

 

[SOPOOR]

They couldn't care less, why would they?
If you have lounge access you'd take up exactly the same amount of space with or without the macca's, and it's not like they are selling the food there.

Let's face it, a lounges primary purpose is as nothing more than a very nice waiting room.

for me , if its just a take away drink in a container for 1 portion, it would probably be the maximum, eg a bottle of water, jucie or even a beer to have later on the flight or at the waiting area,

I wouldnt take any food unless it was a prepackaged sandwich, and only if I was getting on a flight that didnt have it included food

as for food at buffets, I was in vietnam years ago, and we had a 5 star breakfast buffet, and we were talking to the waitress about a sight seeing we were doing later that day, and she kindly put together a lunch pack for us from buffet food! we were impressed

 

[Kalimera]

I often wonder if something changes in the human brain when people enter an airport lounge and free food is on offer. As an example on Friday, in the VA MEL lounge, which was a zoo, the line for potato chips was 6-8 PAX long, the hot food line was even worse. At the QP in ADL this evening I watched one PAX pile their plate so high with the coughpy salad and hot food offerings, pasties and pies, the food was starting to fall off I then noticed the PAX sitting behind me had a bowl of soup, a seperate bowl of salad and another bowl of hot food mixed with rice all full to the brim (the old style aircraft soup bowls before they became the main meal “large” bowl of soup) and more bread rolls than you can poke a stick at, her partner had the same so 6 bowls of food plus bread between 2 people. Do people/ PAX not realise that if they are hungry and want more lounge food you can go back more than once.

Maybe I have just become jaded and ambivalent to airline lounges. Do not get me wrong I like ‘free stuff’ but airline lounge food???????. Apologies for my rant.

I often wonder if something changes in the human brain when people enter an airport lounge and free food is on offer. As an example on Friday, in the VA MEL lounge, which was a zoo, the line for potato chips was 6-8 PAX long, the hot food line was even worse. At the QP in ADL this evening I watched one PAX pile their plate so high with the coughpy salad and hot food offerings, pasties and pies, the food was starting to fall off I then noticed the PAX sitting behind me had a bowl of soup, a seperate bowl of salad and another bowl of hot food mixed with rice all full to the brim (the old style aircraft soup bowls before they became the main meal “large” bowl of soup) and more bread rolls than you can poke a stick at, her partner had the same so 6 bowls of food plus bread between 2 people. Do people/ PAX not realise that if they are hungry and want more lounge food you can go back more than once.

Maybe I have just become jaded and ambivalent to airline lounges. Do not get me wrong I like ‘free stuff’ but airline lounge food???????. Apologies for my rant.

My wife and I also witnessed a similar occurrence at the Q Bris. lounge. We had an hour to kill between flights and as it was early AM a quick toasty and a coffee was the order of the day. Only 1 pax on front of me at the toaster and plenty of ham etc.....I thought.... he then proceeded to make 8 toasties using all but 2 slices of bread, all the remaining ham and most of the cheese and tomato. Either by careful calculation on his behalf, or perhaps a tinge of remorse towards me he left just enough to make 1 sandwich. As he was leaving he saw me looking at the pile on his plate and added " I get really hungry during a long flight and a toasty or two really hits the spot" My wife and I shared the toasty and headed off to catch our flight. On the way to our gate we saw him again boarding his "long flight" to......Newcastle!!

 

[Deleted member]

I vaguely recall seeing a guy fill up his bag with beers in the lounge, might have been Darwin by memory.

I know of one regular on this forum who uses (has used) his access on arrival to load up with a few beers in the (SYD Dom J ) lounge before heading home,

 

[onemore]

I once made the mistake on going on a short cruise out of Brisbane just to see if I would like to go on a long cruise by myself, and was it an eye opener, as I witnessed human behaviour at its worst in regard to people and their eating habits.
Before I continue I have to declare that in my working life I was in the Australian Navy for a lot of years and then 35 years working offshore in foreign countries, where the workers would set there alarm clocks in their offtime so they could get woken up to go and eat, then back to bed for a few hours before getting up to eat again before going to work, but the difference compared to the cruise was that the food on ships and rigs is dished out.
The people on the cruise ship were meandering along the buffet line, don't you just hate them buffets that is not the people of course, stopping at every offering and piling their plates with food, taking it to a table and then coming back and piling another plate with the same amount, I know this because I watched in bewilderment at what I was seeing, so for the remaining couple of days of the cruise I was up early as soon as the meals started and left before the vultures came in for their morning pickings.
On the subject of cruising by yourself why in the name of anything holy would anyone want to be seated with a bunch of strangers that you have never met before to sit down and dine with, I don't get it, and didn't partake of that so off to the a la carte restaurant I went.

Are Sizzler restaurants still around?

 

[Danielb56]

I often wonder if something changes in the human brain when people enter an airport lounge and free food is on offer. As an example on Friday, in the VA MEL lounge, which was a zoo, the line for potato chips was 6-8 PAX long, the hot food line was even worse. At the QP in ADL this evening I watched one PAX pile their plate so high with the coughpy salad and hot food offerings, pasties and pies, the food was starting to fall off I then noticed the PAX sitting behind me had a bowl of soup, a seperate bowl of salad and another bowl of hot food mixed with rice all full to the brim (the old style aircraft soup bowls before they became the main meal “large” bowl of soup) and more bread rolls than you can poke a stick at, her partner had the same so 6 bowls of food plus bread between 2 people. Do people/ PAX not realise that if they are hungry and want more lounge food you can go back more than once.

Maybe I have just become jaded and ambivalent to airline lounges. Do not get me wrong I like ‘free stuff’ but airline lounge food???????. Apologies for my rant.

Unfortunately we get lazy. Their thinking probably was that the line is too big (most likely from people piling up their food like them holding others up) for me to return and wait. So lets do it all now and no need to get up. However, they probably put on 2 kgs (from laziness) and waste 1/2 the food they piled on anyway. Let's rant together....

 

[Willie]

This must rank as one of the most bizarre things any traveller, on any mode, has witnessed in the last decade.

But I believe you, as truth can be stranger than fiction, although why the lounge staff didn't intervene is beyond me.

I took pictures but not to share in public.
The staff honestly rolled their eyes and said they have been told to ignore the regular guests... and their greed!

ooh Roo

Willie

 

[Dr Ralph]

Suggest a rename of the thread - change to "Confessions of the things that I've taken from a lounge"

 

[onemore]

Suggest a rename of the thread - change to "Confessions of the things that I've taken from a lounge"

Guilty as charged your honour, last month I did have two long black coffees and on leaving I grabbed a copy of the AFW.
But in my defence I was hungover from my last night in Australia and had way too much to drink, especially some beautiful CSM'S from the Barossa Valley, and the AFR was for an international connection so nobody would talk to me.

 

[JoshuaEicke]

Guilty as charged your honour, last month I did have two long black coffees and on leaving I grabbed a copy of the AFW.
But in my defence I was hungover from my last night in Australia and had way too much to drink, especially some beautiful CSM'S from the Barossa Valley, and the AFR was for an international connection so nobody would talk to me.

Nice way to justify theft.

 

[onemore]

But I am not a member of alcoholics anonymous.