Traditionally airport lounges have offered snacks, but you’re not supposed to take food with you for the flight. That’s to limit costs. Hotels with club lounges frequently have drinks, but many make a point not to offer bottled water – knowing that their beverage costs would skyrocket.
Without to go containers, though, passengers and hotel guests get creative. Where there’s free food, some people are going to go wild.
Among U.S. airline lounges, Delta does the most with catering. There are frequently both hot and cold options, and several stations of each. So is it surprising that customers are taking food home with them to eat later as dinner, and filling up on snacks to fuel their upcoming Netflix binge?
A couple weeks ago at SeaTac I was standing next to a guy who dumped two bowls of the candy buffet display into his suitcase. I didn’t say anything because obviously it’s not my place. But people like that are ridiculous. Does anyone really need 400 peppermint patty candies?
…Last night at the MSP G club some lady unloaded almost an entire potato chip display into her giant purse. It was probably one of those thousand dollar purses too.
The food doesn’t even need to be good. Decades ago United Airlines passengers would stuff copious amounts of packaged Tillamook cheese into their laptop bags when leaving the Red Carpet Club.
And here’s video from the British Airways Galleries First lounge at London Heathrow where two passengers reportedly made several trips to take 20 or more drink cans and five bags of chips.
Have airport lounges thrown in the towel, knowing that passengers are going to do this anyway? Might as well give them permission!
Capital One really bucked this trend, introducing high quality grab and go food and drink in their Dallas lounge, and placing it at the front of the lounge. We’ve seen others pick up on this idea as well.
United Airlines now has a grab and go lounge concept, basically grab some food instead of using a lounge, pioneered last year in Denver.
Love this concept from @united at Denver. Their “Fly” lounge is designed for you to “steal” stuff from! Fridges full of snacks and drinks, a coffee bar, and a few tables. Stuff is designed for grab and go. Great if you’re on a short connection. pic.twitter.com/ZvfRtak3yz
— Paul Lucas (@paul_winginit) September 5, 2023
Delta Air Lines will let you take away food if you have access but agree not to visit a Sky Club, to help with lines.
Hotels face significant theft, sometimes even beds out of rooms. IHG once ran a ‘towel amnesty’ and a Marriott in DC even offered blanket amnesty for 100 years of theft. It always seemed to me that taking away a single portion of something that’s being offered to you was reasonable, but that there’s a Potter Stewart-style ‘know it when you see it’ line that’s just too much. What’s ok to take from the lounge, and where exactly is that line?
You stated that the food was free…yes, but what do you pay to enter the lounge? Probably a minimum of $50?
So taking a little extra seems ok.
Saw the potato chip grab last month at the concourse F lounge. Lady nearly emptied it while the bartenders were busy. The only thing that keeps my faith in lounges is visiting the one at HND. No lines of kids ordering Shirley Temples and fantastic food. Also, what’s up with the dogs in Sky Clubs? Had three at once. And these weren’t purse dogs, they were 30+ pounds. But at least the dogs were better behaved than the kids.
After waiting many extensive hours in lines to gain access we miss lunch and dinner so we now always bring large foil trays & covers to empty them out completely so they are forced to refill.
Thank You Delta for feeding our family and relatives.Delicious cuisine 😉 🙂
@Ira If you have no class or any dignity, sure. Why not take the toilet paper as well. $50 bucks is $50 bucks.
It’s clearly Gary’s fault for influencing all us heathens to get platinum cards so we can all stand in line for half an hour to get into the Sky Club to steal food and stink up our flight as board last and complain that there isn’t any overhead space.Food has always been one of my favorite words. Put free in front of it and it’s even better. I can’t see myself dumping a whole big display in my bags though. Especially if it’s not packaged. What a mess. My son likes to grab a bunch of peppermint candies. I tell him two or three. Leave some for other people.
Are we so poor that we should steal a trifle?
Theft is not acceptable. But I have, on occasion, asked staff if I might take a piece of fruit with me in the full expectation that my request will not be turned down.
The Air Canada Cafe (near D20 in Domestic only) at Pearson has wraps, couscous, hummus, pasta salad, and other goodies as well as quaint paper bags to tote them out of the lounge in.
It’s only for biz class or Elite, so not everyone gets in there, but it’s a super spot.
I’ll be honest, this is exactly what I expect from the kind of “statused” people that frequent airport lounges. And exactly why I prefer to wait the twenty minutes for my flight sitting near the gate.
It’s karma in action. Steal the junk food and pay the price in your health.
It is not all you can take buffet. Excessive, sounds more like impulsive. As in impulsively stealing something because it is there. Regardless of the entry price. Behave yourselves!
@ Gary — I think this called revenge. Delta sees a giant mound of miles in your account and steals them, some lady sees a display of free potato chips and stuffs her purse with them. Good for her.
…and then there are people that can stuff so much food in their bodies that they don’t need to put it in carry on bags or doggy bags
Never forget a few years back in ICN where they had a cheese display. Several large blocks of cheese and a knife to cut what you want. To my amazement a guy came up and took a whole block (at least 2lbs weight) and dropped it into his backpack.
It was summer (hot and humid) so I can only imagine how that cheese turned out by the time he got to his destination, as there was no way you would eat 2lbs of cheese straight
Pigs. Act like humans not savages! I have seen
It at Buffets as well just ignorant people fighting
Over crab legs stuffing them in bags when they think
Know one is looking!
There will always be people like this who act like they never eaten before and those who have no class. That’s what happens when you let the common mob into once something a bit more exclusive and why we can’t have nice things. It’s like the Asian ladies at a Chinese buffet in front of the crab tray
Another opportunity for all classes of passengers to show how selfish they are. OTH, they are prepared for the long time sitting on the runway as an airline hostage. I hope that they took or bought something to drink.
Trailer Park trash.
I fly Delta frequently and other than noticing a person taking 1 or 2 bags of potato chips have never seen anyone “stealing “ food from buffet. A very strange article.
@ Sohail – so because you have not seen it, it is strange??? It is called gluttony.
I fly weekly and see behavior like this regularly.
I see “businessmen” in lounges as the worst offenders. Some corporate overlords must not give them a good enough food allowance, so they need to stock up on lounge food before heading out to their 50th PowerPoint presentation of the year.
Noticed people taking food to go out of Platinum lounges many times.
Remember the person who had diarrhea on board?
He could have stuffed lounge food, got spoiled in his bag, ate it. Voila, gotcha.
We are living in an entitled world now! Adults teaching their children its DOG EAT DOG in everything! From driving aggressively to stealing from stores! So does it really surprize anyone that “club food” at airports is really a TO GO buffet for the family going to DISNEY WORLD?
Big woop.
Food is cheap, especially bulk.
Airline tickets not cheap.
Netts off.
Perhaps we should all cancel our membership at these lounges. I pay through membership to enter a lounge, please stop demonising the traveling public from picking up a sandwich or dessert , along with a bottle of water for one’s flight. These lounges should be stocked to the brim.
I think there is a 98% chance the guy in the ba video is me, and for the record I *do* take canned drinks from the lounge to enjoy on my flight, or tube ride into the city, but never more than 2 – not 20!
In “the old days” (25 years ago) there was reasonable free food on board airplanes and little food in airport lounges. Now, the situation is largely reversed. I’m not surprised that some lounge visitors would take some food with them for their flight. Obviously, the lounge operators in the USA are hip to this reality and take steps to limit the “shrinkage.” AMEX Centurion even refuses to stock “to go” coffee cups! Most of the USA lounges don’t stock items that are easily transportable: like they’ll serve chips out of a dispenser, instead of offering snack bags. Elsewhere, they don’t seem to care as much. I was just at a European lounge that had a variety of pre-packaged sandwiches in a case. I assumed they WANTED you to take one! I did: it was lunchtime and I was talking a 2-hour foodless intra-Europe flight. I’d note they also had a tray of bread and sandwich meats/cheeses intended for in-lounge consumption.
@DavidN
At least your not a racist asshole. Only kidding. You are worthless.
I stopped all but essentially flying for any destination less than 400 miles ….it’s a sky full of pigs
Grow tf up, people. Try to be reasonable. I doubt that most airlines would give a crap about taking an extra can of soda, but stuffing a duffel bag full is just wrong.
23 years flying Delta as Platinum or higher and now silver.
$650 a year for skyclub membership for just me.
I’ll take whatever I can. They have taken everything they can.
I fly weekly, visit the lounge when I have a lay over and snack, drink and enjoy my membership. I have paid ample for it. My travel time is lengthy, so sometimes I don’t stop for dinner. I get to my hotel and drop into deep exhaution to fall asleep. I will continue to enjoy all I’ve paid for, but i can’t eat 20 bags of Chips if I wanted to. Let’s be adults
@8:00 Joe – ROTFLMAO you nailed it. Payback for greed and gluttony in effect.
@Ira $50? That’s what we pay at the store for a bottle of water, a pack of M&Ms and a Snickers! No, dear. It doesn’t mean you get the whole GD buffet! JFC privileged people are so gross
Airport lounges are essentially all-you-can-eat buffets, and there has always been the gag about taking extra buffet food as you leave.
Buffets figured it out; if somebody wants to take food with them, you put the food on a scale and pay by the pound. Maybe lounges should follow a similar model, but that requires a “server” who keeps an eye on you.
How dare anyone malign Tillamook cheese? Lol
Yearly membership is $650 plus now its a extra $50 fee per companion to enter lounge each flight. The canceled the first companion free right after I joined. Kinda felt duped as it was one of the reasons I joined. Well you better believe I’m getting my money’s worth for that price tag. Now I’m not stuffing bags, but we’re eating and drinking our fill. And honestly for what we’re paying a few to-go options would be great!!
It used to be for business travelers. Now you have families in there with little kids running around,, strollers blocking everything, teenagers in their pajamas hogging all the charging outlets staring at their phones.. kids grabbing fist fills of candy bars and cookies. Maybe kid under 21 not allowed? Ridiculous over spring break and Christmas
Before I got the lounge privilege taken from me (Delta Amex Platinum here), I would take enough for me and my friends/family who didn’t have access and eat at the gate.
Cause if I’m paying for an annual fee and $50 per visit, then that means I have access to whatever food I want. It’s not free. I’m paying for it.
Do I take a whole tray? No. There is a limit to everything.
However, my adult money allows me a reasonable level of rachet-ness.