Acceptable amount to steal from the Galleries Lounge
Apr 10, 2024, 9:43 am
#706
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: YYC
Programs: BA bronze, Aeroplan peon
Posts: 4,788
Apr 10, 2024, 9:49 am
#707
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Middle Earth, and often worse
Programs: BAEC Silver, A3 Gold
Posts: 2,323
Apr 10, 2024, 9:51 am
#708
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Middle Earth, and often worse
Programs: BAEC Silver, A3 Gold
Posts: 2,323
Do folks on this thread fly BA with status solely to drink booze? Sure sounds like an entitled lot. I much prefer the other benefits of being in Silver - especially the extra baggage and a place to just rest between flights - but, that is just me.
Apr 10, 2024, 10:27 am
#709
Fontaine d'honneur du Flyertalk
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Morbihan, France
Programs: Reine des Muccis de Pucci; Foreign Elitist (according to others)
Posts: 19,534
Pretty much the very same debate was had further up thread and the responses were really quite amusing, ranging across the whole spectrum. From the holier-than-thou / butter-wouldn't-melt / self righteous / "theft is theft" 
etc to the other end of I have paid for this because my C or J ticket is more expensive / I have paid for this because I am a status member. I'm more of the latter, I certainly wouldn't lift a bottle of champers or wine but absolutely would take a half-eaten bag of crisps to finish on the way to the gate, a can of coke or apple etc.
I wonder if this analogy is relevant? If you are in a restaurant and decide that you cannot eat all that you are served and decide to take the remainder of your meal home with you, or maybe the rest of your bottle of wine if you can't finish it with the meal - I have seen this happen countless times BTW. Is that theft? In the minds of most people (I believe) it wouldn't be theft because you have paid for this food and wine - either at the start when you ordered in a pub or at the end if in a restaurant and the bill arrives.
Now I see the similarity with the restaurant analogy and BA lounges is that a passenger certainly HAS paid for the meals, drinks and snacks on offer in the lounge but the difference is the transaction happened some days / weeks / months earlier when the ticket was booked - because a C or J ticket has some premium ££ in there for the extras BA provide with the lounge access. Or if lounge access is due to status, a "premium" of sorts has also been already paid with cumulative ticket sales to BA over the year.
Maybe this is why some feel so uncomfortable with someone taking small items from the lounge because it feels like you haven't handed over any ££ on the day.....but if you did then maybe it would feel much more like a pub / restaurant experience. Does anyone really think taking your half consumed bottle of wine or half-eaten piece of chocolate cake in a serviette from a restaurant is theft in any way?
etc to the other end of I have paid for this because my C or J ticket is more expensive / I have paid for this because I am a status member. I'm more of the latter, I certainly wouldn't lift a bottle of champers or wine but absolutely would take a half-eaten bag of crisps to finish on the way to the gate, a can of coke or apple etc.I wonder if this analogy is relevant? If you are in a restaurant and decide that you cannot eat all that you are served and decide to take the remainder of your meal home with you, or maybe the rest of your bottle of wine if you can't finish it with the meal - I have seen this happen countless times BTW. Is that theft? In the minds of most people (I believe) it wouldn't be theft because you have paid for this food and wine - either at the start when you ordered in a pub or at the end if in a restaurant and the bill arrives.
Now I see the similarity with the restaurant analogy and BA lounges is that a passenger certainly HAS paid for the meals, drinks and snacks on offer in the lounge but the difference is the transaction happened some days / weeks / months earlier when the ticket was booked - because a C or J ticket has some premium ££ in there for the extras BA provide with the lounge access. Or if lounge access is due to status, a "premium" of sorts has also been already paid with cumulative ticket sales to BA over the year.
Maybe this is why some feel so uncomfortable with someone taking small items from the lounge because it feels like you haven't handed over any ££ on the day.....but if you did then maybe it would feel much more like a pub / restaurant experience. Does anyone really think taking your half consumed bottle of wine or half-eaten piece of chocolate cake in a serviette from a restaurant is theft in any way?
Moreover you would not dream of dining or lunching at a friends and walking out with what is left of the dessert or the bottle unless specifically invited to do so by your host. I sincerely hope that I sound neither mealy-mouthed nor condescending but I just think that if we here did not think that there was something a bit incorrect - we would not be discussing this.
What I do wonder are BA the only Lounges from which people take things? I rather doubt it but I have never seen such discussions over at Iberia for example.
Apr 10, 2024, 10:32 am
#710
Fontaine d'honneur du Flyertalk
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Morbihan, France
Programs: Reine des Muccis de Pucci; Foreign Elitist (according to others)
Posts: 19,534
OT... but I used to stay 4 nights a week in a hotel in London that had happy "hour" in the lounge from about 17:30 to 21:30. Free wine, beer and snacks. The lounge attendant would generally put a couple of bottles of red and white out about 20:45 and then finish around 21:00, so there should have been enough to keep people happy until 21:30 (it was normally quiet at this time).
One evening I went to get a top up at just before 21:00 and there was no wine, so I asked him if he was going to put anymore out? He looked puzzled and said he'd put 4 bottles out not 5 minutes before. Anyway, he got another bottle of each and I got my top up. He said that somebody had been swiping bottles, but hadn't caught anybody as yet. I took that as a challenge...
A few nights later I was in again and the last remaining full bottle of red was in my sights. I saw some guy come in and put the bottle on his table as if he was going to pour himself a glass. He then went to get a newspaper, and immediately covered the wine up with the paper. He sat there for a few minutes, then picked up the newspaper / wine and headed for the door.
Just as he got to the door I asked him if a could have another glass of the wine before he took it away? His face was a picture, he pulled the bottle out from the newspaper, thrust it into my hand and left without saying a word
This guy was a regular (I believe he actually worked for the same company as me), but I hardly saw him again after that night. I mentioned it to the attendant and described the guy (he was a spitting image of Ben Elton) and he know who I meant, so no doubt he kept an eye on him after that.
I was talking to the GM of the hotel a while later, and he told me how many bottles of wine the lounge got through, and I was amazed. Unfortunately, because of this, they had to "downgrade" the wine offering from the perfectly drinkable (IMO) Hardy's Mill Cellars Shiraz to something that tested like battery acid (IMO)
One evening I went to get a top up at just before 21:00 and there was no wine, so I asked him if he was going to put anymore out? He looked puzzled and said he'd put 4 bottles out not 5 minutes before. Anyway, he got another bottle of each and I got my top up. He said that somebody had been swiping bottles, but hadn't caught anybody as yet. I took that as a challenge...
A few nights later I was in again and the last remaining full bottle of red was in my sights. I saw some guy come in and put the bottle on his table as if he was going to pour himself a glass. He then went to get a newspaper, and immediately covered the wine up with the paper. He sat there for a few minutes, then picked up the newspaper / wine and headed for the door.
Just as he got to the door I asked him if a could have another glass of the wine before he took it away? His face was a picture, he pulled the bottle out from the newspaper, thrust it into my hand and left without saying a word
This guy was a regular (I believe he actually worked for the same company as me), but I hardly saw him again after that night. I mentioned it to the attendant and described the guy (he was a spitting image of Ben Elton) and he know who I meant, so no doubt he kept an eye on him after that.
I was talking to the GM of the hotel a while later, and he told me how many bottles of wine the lounge got through, and I was amazed. Unfortunately, because of this, they had to "downgrade" the wine offering from the perfectly drinkable (IMO) Hardy's Mill Cellars Shiraz to something that tested like battery acid (IMO)
Apr 10, 2024, 4:17 pm
#711
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Germany
Posts: 4,104
Apr 10, 2024, 7:17 pm
#712
Join Date: Dec 2001
Posts: 1,045
Apr 10, 2024, 11:58 pm
#713
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Highlands, Scotland
Programs: EK,BA,QR
Posts: 547
The thing is, we are mostly all adults here. We know within ourselves if we are stealing, we can try to justify it till the cows come home - but when it's wrong it's wrong. And it's rather sad that we would appear to require this amount of discussion on a what is meant to be a, relatively speaking, intelligent and normally interesting forum.
Apr 11, 2024, 2:47 am
#715
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: UK
Programs: Mucci. And BA Gold – previous awards - Gold 12, Silver 7, Bronze 4.
Posts: 5,056
I am not going go over everything that has been said, but I will try summarise a thread that has been going on for nearly a decade now!
It fundamentally seems to boil down to what people consider excessive or beyond acceptable.
So finishing something you have started seems to clearly be OK, though some people might frown if that means that the item leaves the lounge. Personally I don’t, provided that it is only one or two items. e.g. a snack and a drink.
But taking an unopened item is where it gets into contentious territory. As above, for most posters (not all!) the one or two items ‘rule’ I mentioned above seems to be OK.
But going beyond that is where it starts to get contentious. Clearly nicking a large full bottle of something (thus depriving use by others) seems to be regarded as theft and IMHO rightly so.
Having said all that… am I still going to be reading this thread (with the same old points made) in another decade? Or is it now time to put it to bed. YMMV.
It fundamentally seems to boil down to what people consider excessive or beyond acceptable.
So finishing something you have started seems to clearly be OK, though some people might frown if that means that the item leaves the lounge. Personally I don’t, provided that it is only one or two items. e.g. a snack and a drink.
But taking an unopened item is where it gets into contentious territory. As above, for most posters (not all!) the one or two items ‘rule’ I mentioned above seems to be OK.
But going beyond that is where it starts to get contentious. Clearly nicking a large full bottle of something (thus depriving use by others) seems to be regarded as theft and IMHO rightly so.
Having said all that… am I still going to be reading this thread (with the same old points made) in another decade? Or is it now time to put it to bed. YMMV.
Apr 11, 2024, 3:40 am
#716
Fontaine d'honneur du Flyertalk
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Morbihan, France
Programs: Reine des Muccis de Pucci; Foreign Elitist (according to others)
Posts: 19,534
I am not going go over everything that has been said, but I will try summarise a thread that has been going on for nearly a decade now!
It fundamentally seems to boil down to what people consider excessive or beyond acceptable.
So finishing something you have started seems to clearly be OK, though some people might frown if that means that the item leaves the lounge. Personally I don’t, provided that it is only one or two items. e.g. a snack and a drink.
But taking an unopened item is where it gets into contentious territory. As above, for most posters (not all!) the one or two items ‘rule’ I mentioned above seems to be OK.
But going beyond that is where it starts to get contentious. Clearly nicking a large full bottle of something (thus depriving use by others) seems to be regarded as theft and IMHO rightly so.
Having said all that… am I still going to be reading this thread (with the same old points made) in another decade? Or is it now time to put it to bed. YMMV.
It fundamentally seems to boil down to what people consider excessive or beyond acceptable.
So finishing something you have started seems to clearly be OK, though some people might frown if that means that the item leaves the lounge. Personally I don’t, provided that it is only one or two items. e.g. a snack and a drink.
But taking an unopened item is where it gets into contentious territory. As above, for most posters (not all!) the one or two items ‘rule’ I mentioned above seems to be OK.
But going beyond that is where it starts to get contentious. Clearly nicking a large full bottle of something (thus depriving use by others) seems to be regarded as theft and IMHO rightly so.
Having said all that… am I still going to be reading this thread (with the same old points made) in another decade? Or is it now time to put it to bed. YMMV.
Apr 11, 2024, 5:32 am
#717
Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 4,096
Somewhere up this thread I said I do take stuff from aeroplanes as souvenirs if branded. Well, I’ve just been arrested and carted off to a Singapore prison, here in the SIN QR J lounge they serve Tatt in normal QR glasses but without the branding; will I take them? No, and I suspect few others do, but were they branded I’d fill my boots!
The airlines are big companies and they know what they’re doing when they brand removables.
The airlines are big companies and they know what they’re doing when they brand removables.
Apr 11, 2024, 5:43 am
#718
Ambassador, Hong Kong and Macau
Join Date: May 2009
Location: HKG
Programs: Non-top tier Asia Miles member
Posts: 20,245
Somewhere up this thread I said I do take stuff from aeroplanes as souvenirs if branded. Well, I’ve just been arrested and carted off to a Singapore prison, here in the SIN QR J lounge they serve Tatt in normal QR glasses but without the branding; will I take them? No, and I suspect few others do, but were they branded I’d fill my boots!
The airlines are big companies and they know what they’re doing when they brand removables.
The airlines are big companies and they know what they’re doing when they brand removables.
ax ratio was 5:1 so any appropriation was impossible.
Apr 11, 2024, 6:18 am
#719
Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 4,096
Apr 11, 2024, 7:26 am
#720
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Argentina
Posts: 40,357
The thing is, we are mostly all adults here. We know within ourselves if we are stealing, we can try to justify it till the cows come home - but when it's wrong it's wrong. And it's rather sad that we would appear to require this amount of discussion on a what is meant to be a, relatively speaking, intelligent and normally interesting forum.
All I can say is. If I ever invite certain BAEC Flyertalkers into our lounge. You'll be asked to empty your pockets before leaving.