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.

 

[kookaburra75]

Nice way to justify theft.

Ho humm - if you want to troll by sledging people check out some of the other threads for tips from some of the masters in action
If it's complimentary, then it can't be theft - but if people go overboard then it is certainly poor manners.

 

[TomJones]

I'll admit to the regular ramsacking of the hotel breakfast buffet during my uni days when on trips with friends. Meant we could skip lunch by snacking on the takings throughout the day, which saved quite a bit of money for drinks

 

[Beano]

This blows me away... I was in the HKG CX First Class Wing on Friday and three travellers rocked in and spent one hour blatantly filling containers with food and loading them into a trolley bag. They also helped themselves to bottles of water, wine.... end even the champagne complete with stopper! It was something to behold!
I approached them and asked why... they said that they were entitled to take as much food and drink as they wanted. They were very well prepared as their trolley bag was overflowing with containers they brought with them.
The lounge staff watched on... but did not stop them.
After the 'guests' departed the lounge staff said that this was a regular occurrence. They told me that the guests were frequent travellers and their colleagues at The Deck advised that they had already 'raided' The Deck!

Now the big thing here (apart from their terrible behaviour) is that the food at CX lounges is pretty average at best. Stale bread, cold 'hot' dishes... a la carte is a little better, but thankfully the booze is OK! I am still flummoxed why you would want to take the food with you! The Perrier-Jouet I can understand.

Bothers me a bit!

Ooh ROo

Willie

I thought the rule was that lounge food and drink could not be taken out. At least that is the rule with Qantas.
PS. I know buffet table to run out, so no seconds. Piling on the first plate may be a good strategy.

 

[Beano]

M

I'll admit to the regular ramsacking of the hotel breakfast buffet during my uni days when on trips with friends. Meant we could skip lunch by snacking on the takings throughout the day, which saved quite a bit of money for drinks

My wife stayed at a 5 Star hotel in Monaco (near Monte Carlo) with an outlook on the harbour. A well dressed lady with a large handbag proceeded to make a large bundle of sandwiches from the buffet at breakfast and stuff them in her bag. Even in Monaco!

 

[daft009]

I'll admit to the regular ramsacking of the hotel breakfast buffet during my uni days when on trips with friends. Meant we could skip lunch by snacking on the takings throughout the day, which saved quite a bit of money for drinks

Think we all had that perfected to an art form back in our uni backpacking days lol

 

[Beano]

M

My wife stayed at a 5 Star hotel in Monaco (near Monte Carlo) with an outlook on the harbour. A well dressed lady with a large handbag proceeded to make a large bundle of sandwiches from the buffet at breakfast and stuff them in her bag. Even in Monaco!

Never had that luxury in my uni days. B&B or YHA was all i could afford.

 

[JohnK]

God there are some sad sad souls commenting on this thread,

Nothing to do with the volume, taking it out is theft and just quietly pathetic.

There is no right or wrong here and in your opinion it's theft but it's actually not theft. Not even close.

I'd be more worried about the people who pile food on their plate(s) and then leave it behind to be thrown out.

Do you think I should return the opened business class amenity kit that was left behind on the seat after QF119 last week? Shame there weren't more left behind.

I'll take aaway some bread rolls, cookies and pretzels from lounge this weekend. You can judge all you like.

 

[Beano]

It may not be theft but some loungesrules about taking food out.

 

[zenyattamondatta]

no right or wrong here [...] but [...] actually

LOL

 

[Princess Fiona]

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

A couple of years ago in the SYD Flounge I saw a guy sit down across from me and tuck into a box of Chicken McNuggets and a Big Mac Meal.
He left shortly afterwards when AA 72 was called.

 

[jase05]

I’ve taken the odd piece of fruit from a hotel buffet occasionally and I always grab a handful of mentos or kool mints when leaving a lounge.
What sickens me more is the absolute wastage when people pile their plate sky high and then only eat a fraction of it

 

[banana boy]

Hey, can I join in with the outrage? Yeah, nah, no. Who cares? Eat, drink and take as much as you want, as long as the slobbering, belching and farting is out of earshot I couldn't care less. What gets up my nose in lounges are the DYKWIA types who feel fit to regale me and everyone else in the lounge with tales of their latest wondrous exploits at full shouty volume on their mobile phones.

 

[DC3]

... the DYKWIA types who feel fit to regale me and everyone else in the lounge with tales of their latest wondrous exploits at full shouty volume on their mobile phones.

You won’t easily escape from Mr Shouty, banana boy. He will seek you out.

 

[sjk]

The Private Room in Changi

I once requested a third egg. They still let me in, though.

 

[JessicaTam]

[mod hat]
Some pruning of recent posts has occurred.

Play nice or suffer the consequences.
[/mod hat]

 

[onemore]

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

Or as I saw in Woolies was a couple topping up the liquid clothes wash detergent container, and then putting the opened one back on the shelf.

 

[redrat]

You won’t easily escape from Mr Shouty, banana boy. He will seek you out.

MR Shouty has been in operation since phones became portable. I remember a session in the F lounge at akl circa ’99 where people were going up to him to tell him to go away somewhere else. I also told all the airline people phones in flight on commercial aircraft will never be tolerated. Can you imagine having that person next or near to you on a flight?

 

[davistev]

I brought my family to the Holiday Inn Express in Bali for the weekend and as you know they do have a pretty basic breakfast buffet. On this occasion, the hotel was full of group tourists from a country I shall not name with manners that are beyond description. On the first morning, we barely had anything to eat except corn flakes as the buffet was decimated before we could even get to the front of the line (scrummage). On the second morning, the shift manager approached our table and thanked us for staying with them. He then asked us if he could order anything from the kitchen for us. The kids had a huge plate of fresh pancakes, fresh fruit, watermelon and we had poached eggs on toast with fresh coffees. For a Holiday Inn Express, that was pretty flash for us. The kids were happy but what we remembered most were the looks from the "group tourists" as we were getting the royal treatment (HIE style).

It was a wonderful thought from management as they could see that it was a battleground and one in which our family was not going to win.

 

[Happy Trails]

Some of the better 'all you can eat' BBQ joints in Thailand have a policy whereby they charge extra for the food that you take, but don't consume.
That reduces the wastage at least.

 

[p--and--t]

Some of the better 'all you can eat' BBQ joints in Thailand have a policy whereby they charge extra for the food that you take, but don't consume.
That reduces the wastage at least.

In Melbourne there are a handful of all you can eat restaurants (typically, but not only, Korean) where any food not consumed on your table is weighed and you are billed accordingly. A great policy.