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.

 

[SOPOOR]

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.

Yes, seems to be a lot of asian buffets.

I think its great to have that policy.

 

[harvyk]

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.

It would be interesting to know how they calculated the actual value of the food being weighed, since different foods have remarkably different prices per kg.
100g of steak is going to be a very different proposition to 100g of rice. It would also be interesting to note if they remove the inedible parts of the food before weighing, or is that bone / shell / skin about to be included in the "you did not eat all of it" price.

I can certainly understand them getting annoyed if someone walked out the door with a doggy bag, but if you're running a buffet restaurant you'd have to expect some degree of wastage.

I'm just thinking back to my family, sometimes my kids eye's are bigger than their stomachs, that said both my boys tend to go for things like pasta and garlic bread at our nearby all-you-can-eat restaurant. My son does sometimes leave some of his meal behind, however it's a plate of pasta which was all of perhaps 50c worth. Considering that we've probably just paid $20 for him, they are making a massive profit on them. So would we still be charged for that half a plate of dry pasta?

It's funny though, I feel less bad about going to an all you can eat restaurant and paying $20 each for my boys to simply get garlic bread and plain pasta, than to go along to a normal restaurant and pay $10 each for effectively the same thing. Perhaps it's the whole "they can eat whatever they want, and thus they are eating what they want" factor coming into it.

 

[JohnK]

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

Are these lounge rules clearly visible? Are the rules enforced? In some lounges the apples are near the exit. I wonder why!

Also is there a lounge rule regarding beverages? I note that they have coffee cups you can takeaway from the lounge? So it's ok to takeaway coffee but not ok to takeaway Coke Zero?

 

[SOPOOR]

It would be interesting to know how they calculated the actual value of the food being weighed, since different foods have remarkably different prices per kg.
100g of steak is going to be a very different proposition to 100g of rice. It would also be interesting to note if they remove the inedible parts of the food before weighing, or is that bone / shell / skin about to be included in the "you did not eat all of it" price.

I can certainly understand them getting annoyed if someone walked out the door with a doggy bag, but if you're running a buffet restaurant you'd have to expect some degree of wastage.

I'm just thinking back to my family, sometimes my kids eye's are bigger than their stomachs, that said both my boys tend to go for things like pasta and garlic bread at our nearby all-you-can-eat restaurant. My son does sometimes leave some of his meal behind, however it's a plate of pasta which was all of perhaps 50c worth. Considering that we've probably just paid $20 for him, they are making a massive profit on them. So would we still be charged for that half a plate of dry pasta?

It's funny though, I feel less bad about going to an all you can eat restaurant and paying $20 each for my boys to simply get garlic bread and plain pasta, than to go along to a normal restaurant and pay $10 each for effectively the same thing. Perhaps it's the whole "they can eat whatever they want, and thus they are eating what they want" factor coming into it.

I think the fee is to discourage people from wasting.

One thing ive wondered is that it could get into a silly argument with staff if you leave the crusts of a pizza or the mashed potato of a steak

 

[Stealthflyer]

Are these lounge rules clearly visible? Are the rules enforced? In some lounges the apples are near the exit. I wonder why!

Also is there a lounge rule regarding beverages? I note that they have coffee cups you can takeaway from the lounge? So it's ok to takeaway coffee but not ok to takeaway Coke Zero?

The Virgin lounges seem to promote the takeaway option - particularly for coffee. Last time I visited the Melbourne lounge, I mentioned to the staff at the desk that I didn’t have time to eat but was desperate for a post-international flight shower and they told me that there were paper bags available for taking food away. In fact they seemed disappointed when I turned the offer down. Waste aside, in peak times it might actually be better for users to leave early with their takeaways, thereby freeing up seats.

 

[p--and--t]

It would be interesting to know how they calculated the actual value of the food being weighed, since different foods have remarkably different prices per kg.
100g of steak is going to be a very different proposition to 100g of rice. It would also be interesting to note if they remove the inedible parts of the food before weighing, or is that bone / shell / skin about to be included in the "you did not eat all of it" price.

I can certainly understand them getting annoyed if someone walked out the door with a doggy bag, but if you're running a buffet restaurant you'd have to expect some degree of wastage.

I'm just thinking back to my family, sometimes my kids eye's are bigger than their stomachs, that said both my boys tend to go for things like pasta and garlic bread at our nearby all-you-can-eat restaurant. My son does sometimes leave some of his meal behind, however it's a plate of pasta which was all of perhaps 50c worth. Considering that we've probably just paid $20 for him, they are making a massive profit on them. So would we still be charged for that half a plate of dry pasta?

It's funny though, I feel less bad about going to an all you can eat restaurant and paying $20 each for my boys to simply get garlic bread and plain pasta, than to go along to a normal restaurant and pay $10 each for effectively the same thing. Perhaps it's the whole "they can eat whatever they want, and thus they are eating what they want" factor coming into it.

In the Korean BBQ (cook yourself mainly) restaurants especially, the food comes out on separate trays each time, meats, seafood, noodles etc. I believe they have a separate price per 100g for each category. You can keep ordering trays, as many as you want, but if you don't use, you pay.

When I was in Rio a few years back there were many restaurants that charged by the 100g. They had a big buffet divided into two sections. One with premium foods and one with standard foods. Small medium and large plates alongside each. When you got to the end of each section, they weighed the plates and that was the cost of your meal. You could keep going back and put more on a fresh plate and that would be weighed and so on. Seemed very fair. Instead of having two huge plates of stuff determined by the chef (aka fillers like chips or mash etc) and a lot of wastage or feeling obligated to eat all of it because you paid a hefty price for it, you could eat what you want and as much as you want and only pay for that.

 

[Buzzard]

You are on the wrong cruise in that case

Without taking your post seriously, based on previous posts people have obviously stayed at the wrong hotel and gone to the wrong F Lounge given the behaviour described if I was on the wrong cruise

 

[p--and--t]

Without taking your post seriously, based on previous posts people have obviously stayed at the wrong hotel and gone to the wrong F Lounge given the behaviour described if I was on the wrong cruise

Been on a few cruises various parts of the world. Depends on the time of year (school holidays), the price point and the originating port.

The most sophisticated would probably been the river cruise AMS to BUD

But quite a few eye opening scenes at the buffet on the 12d cruise I did out of Sydney to the Pacific the week after xmas a few years back. Never seen before so many families where most were severely over weight from dad to the youngest and obviously missed basic manners 101 but full attendance at advanced gluttony 501 and collecting pretty coughtail umbrellas 909.

 

[Genji88]

Whilst every nationality does this to some degree, ever wonder why Asians take it to such extremes?

A Famous quote from Sun Tzu comes to mind - "obtaining a portion of a competitors food is worth 20 of your own"

The more included stuff you manage to obtain, the more is wiped off the cost of your fare or stay. Of course FF's wonder why anyone would want that Sub Par noodle salad in a J or F lounge, until you see how much the retail outlets are charging for the same thing. Obtain enough stuff and you might even make a "profit"

While at the Sofitel Melbourne I did acquire a Very sizeable stash of Lanvin toiletries. However I did thank the room crew who replenished them to the Guest Relations Manager Terence, and filled out forms for positive feedback for a couple of other staff.

I will admit though that stashing a cheeky coke while picking all the prawns from the salad is not nearly as bad as taking the whole bowl and an unopened bottle of champers

 

[muppet]

...
It's funny though, I feel less bad about going to an all you can eat restaurant and paying $20 each for my boys to simply get garlic bread and plain pasta, than to go along to a normal restaurant and pay $10 each for effectively the same thing. Perhaps it's the whole "they can eat whatever they want, and thus they are eating what they want" factor coming into it.

Genuinely curious ... where’s this all you can eat restaurant?
Other than Sizzler as a kid, I seriously couldn’t name one that exists now!

 

[DC3]

Genuinely curious ... where’s this all you can eat restaurant?
Other than Sizzler as a kid, I seriously couldn’t name one that exists now!

Sizzler. OMG. All those people shoving their finger nails into the salad bar food on display. Imagine how many were laid-up sick from those antics. Glad to see the end of most of that chain. I understand that a “handful” are still operating. . All you can eat. LOL.

 

[onemore]

Whilst every nationality does this to some degree, ever wonder why Asians take it to such extremes?

A Famous quote from Sun Tzu comes to mind - "obtaining a portion of a competitors food is worth 20 of your own"

The more included stuff you manage to obtain, the more is wiped off the cost of your fare or stay. Of course FF's wonder why anyone would want that Sub Par noodle salad in a J or F lounge, until you see how much the retail outlets are charging for the same thing. Obtain enough stuff and you might even make a "profit"

While at the Sofitel Melbourne I did acquire a Very sizeable stash of Lanvin toiletries. However I did thank the room crew who replenished them to the Guest Relations Manager Terence, and filled out forms for positive feedback for a couple of other staff.

I will admit though that stashing a cheeky coke while picking all the prawns from the salad is not nearly as bad as taking the whole bowl and an unopened bottle of champers

I mentioned in an earlier post where I was working on an offshore drilling rig, and the workers would set their alarm clocks to wake up for the evening meal during their hours off work, their reasoning for doing this as explained to me was that seeing they are not paying for the food then it is extra pay for them, also that during their month off they can lose the weight they put on during their time on the rig.

 

[Rug]

A colleague was telling me about a European tour they were on where other travellers at the hotel were taking all the tea bags that had been put out at the breakfast buffet! People be crazy!

Happens on cruise ships also. So annoying

 

[Atleastonce]

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.

I was at an all you can eat Japanese restaurant in Melbourne last week who had this policy.

 

[Forg]

Why on earth would anyone feel the need to BYO food and drink onto a flight if they were travelling in F with CX?

The only way this behaviour makes any sense is if they were in the lounge by virtue of OWE status and were about to board a long haul flight in Y.

EDIT: or maybe taking stuff out to share pre flight with a large group who don’t have lounge access!

Members of what I like to refer to as ‘haggling cultures’ feel the need to ‘win’ in every transaction.

This includes taking as much as possible of anything they’re getting as part of the cost of whatever-it-is, whatever the whatever-it-is is.

I’m nor really a fan of haggling cultures, if I’m being honest. Or at least not the ‘Must Defeat’ part of those cultures.

 

[SOPOOR]

I was at an all you can eat Japanese restaurant in Melbourne last week who had this policy.

was it one of tokyo/okami restaurant?

ive been to both and it almost seems that menu lay out, products, restaurant layout and even the photos look the same

could be the same owners, and all the have the policy
dont know how they make a profit , theyre so cheap for what you get

 

[Atleastonce]

was it one of tokyo/okami restaurant?

ive been to both and it almost seems that menu lay out, products, restaurant layout and even the photos look the same

could be the same owners, and all the have the policy
dont know how they make a profit , theyre so cheap for what you get

It was Okami at Brunswick. I couldn’t believe how cheap it was. The food was amazing, and there wasn’t a spare seat.

 

[SOPOOR]

It was Okami at Brunswick. I couldn’t believe how cheap it was. The food was amazing, and there wasn’t a spare seat.

food quality aside, for that price, theyd need a lot of bums on seats!!

 

[Moody]

In 40-odd years of travel I have taken the following away from airline lounges :-

• About 10 coffees that I needed a bit more time to consume
• Around 5 packets of biscuits for short flights with no/limited snacks
• 2 newspapers ( I just wanted the puzzles but it was easier to take the whole paper)
• 1 beer for my wife who was rejected by BA lounge dragons

Stuffing containers with food is greedy and disrespectful - but the behaviour we don't speak up about is the behaviour we accept. In that spirit I pledge to loudly berate the next lounge vulture I see (*)

(* Provided that they don't look big and mean, or might do a martial art, or have tattoos, or body piercings, or ...)