The first rule of any all you can eat buffet is that you can consume food while you’re there, but you can’t pack of extras and take it with you. Yet a Delta Sky Club member was spotted filling up plates of food, and packing himself several meals to go – mostly ribs, garlic chicken, associated sides and chocolate chip cookies.
I saw him pack up at least 3 PLATES (yes, we have paper) full of food and put them in his plastic shopping bag. I wanted to get a pic of the situation, but it’s not cool to post people‘s pics. As if on cue, he got up to grab some…wait for it…bananas, so I quickly snapped a pic of his food haul. Dude has a penchant for St. Louis ribs and garlic chicken, not to mention sides and chocolate chip cookies.
Who Knew the Sky Club Did Take Out?
byu/AbilityFunny1412 indelta
Delta Sky Clubs have more robust food options than other standard airline lounges, so it’s more tempting and more useful to take the food. Still, I feel sorry for their seatmates when they unfurl the ribs and garlic chicken on their flight.
No chance is the guy next to me eating a full rack of ribs plus sides on this plane gtf pic.twitter.com/hDD9u6MlPi
— Lanna Tolland (@lannatolland) February 20, 2023
Of course, some just see it as a way of getting their money’s worth – especially as Delta raises fees and limits access to its lounges. One woman shares video of herself taking salami: “If you get 36 slices of salami per Delta sky club lounge visit, you break even on your annual fee after just 30.5 lounge visits.”
@meat.slut Delta executives hate this 1 money saving trick #meat #traveltiktok #travel #foryoupage #fyp #meatslut @delta ♬ Little Bitty Pretty One – Thurston Harris
The credit card lounges have real food, too. One passenger at the New York JFK Chase Sapphire lounge was spotted maybe taking what amounts to a record for food removed from a lounge?
The couple next to me filled up two duffel bags worth of food. They basically shoved entire plates of desserts, prepared food, etc. and ordered six Sapphire Burgers, etc. and put them in their duffel bags inside empty boxes they had brought. There was a huge pile of empty plates they stashed behind a plant.
Six Sapphire Burgers Were Shoved Into A Duffel Bag
Yet it’s drink cans and packaged snacks that are easiest to swipe. 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.
Capital One has actually really leaned into this, introducing high quality grab and go food and drink in their lounges, and placing it by the entrance. You’re supposed to take food with you, or stop in just to grab something to go.
United now has its own ‘Club Fly’ to go stops in Denver and Houston, and Delta has offered to go food on the condition that a passenger entitled to the lounge doesn’t actually use it.
So maybe the trend is now this is actually ok?
Predictable response from Delta raising fees, limiting access, and calling its customers Poor. You reap what you sow Bastain.
Not seeing a problem here. If you fly a lot and earn the reward or pay the 30% credit card interest and qualify for access, then enjoy the food.
Excited to see all the posts from Bastain coming up hanging out with Co-Eds at Coachella since he thinks he is the THOUGHT LEADER IN TRAVEL(Gary should sue for trademark infringement). Bastain is obtuse.
‘In this economy…’ that sounds like a good idea.
@Michael Mainello — Welcome back, sir. Where’ve you been?! At least we agree on SkyClubs.
@Michael Mainello the T&C of the SkyClub include a rule that food and beverage can only be consumed in the club…it’s not a take out joint.
I watch people dump their booze into their travel mugs all the time. I’ve gotten to the point where I just roll my eyes and remain thankful that I was raised with better manners and standards of social decorum.
No class. No class.
People can be so greedy. I witnessed an American wheelchair bound obese man on a flight from Europe to the US, order 2 drinks at a time during the flight… one soft drink, and one other… each time he stuffed the can into his backpack. at least 8. Wow. All that for about 5 bucks worth of soda. How cheap can a person get?
This is obscene and I wish DL and others would call them out on it to publicly embarrass them (if that is even possible) and stop food from leaving the lounge. To use an excuse about cost of membership or other reasons is lame. Abide by the rules or don’t participate. Wonder what other corners people like this cut in life. If you cheat on this you like do so in other areas (wife, golf, expense reports, etc) since there is always some lame excuse to justify horrible behavior.
These are the people who complain that the seats on the airplane are too small.
To reduce crowding, allow 5 minute passes where you collect food then leave.
If you ain’t cheatin, you ain’t tryin.
With airfares going up, people have to make the choice, fly or eat. If you fly enough to get lounge access, the other problem gets solved.
People have no shame.
(Let me guess…Americans…)
I saw the same thing last year at the PBI Sky Club. Man in a suit packed 3 or 4 plastic containers with food and put in his carry on.
Just to be clear I will take a bag of chips or a piece of fruit for the road from a lounge but what these people are doing is just plain wrong.
In the current environment, I am not at all surprised that boorish behavior is enthusiastically accepted by so many.
Humans are humans. There’s a reason that packaged snacks are scarce in US lounges (they’re too easy to take “for the road.”). With food becoming more expensive and on-aircraft food being sparce, lounge food “to go” becomes more appealing — especially as the lounge food has actually improved in recent years. Some people, of course, will take undue advantage of this. Like with everything else.
@Parker – I agree it is classless, but if the club doesn’t enforce it, so be it.
@1990 I comment sporadically on this blog. However, I did agree with you on the uniforms. If you you work for the company, then you follow the rules. No political statement should be allowed.
@Alex
Normally I’d agree with this but I was just on a cruise ship with mostly Russians and Iranians…….Ho Lee Shit…..they STEAL everything that isn’t nailed down and they were unloading the buffet into plastic bags….oh and the whole “using tongs” thing at the buffet is unheard of to them….literally grabbing cake (yes, CAKE) with their bare hands.
@CHRIS sigh. People these days are like school in the summertime…no class! Hahahaha
This honestly sounds like Tim Dunn trying to reinforce the value of the Sky Club in his weird mind.
@1990 Based on your monitoring of the View Blog comments (as Tim is weirdly silent for once), I feel like you’d agree?
Yeah, I get tired of the “ugly Americans” comments. Yes, some Americans can be ugly, rude, and offensive. But I’ve seen plenty of people from all continents show the same behavior to make such generalized statements. Mom pulling their kid’s pants down so they could poop on a BUSY sidewalk? Yep, saw that in Asia. A German-speaking child using tongs at the buffet while Dad is just grabbing things with his bare hands? Yep, saw that, too. And many, many more. It’s just about everywhere.
Taking a coffee to go? Sure. Stashing an entire meal (plus sides and dessert) in your bag? C’mon people please! STOP…just STOP!!! Try to understand how very much you are embarrassing yourself.
At least they have good taste. Ribs and garlic chicken are delicious! LOL
@Plane Jane — I’m just a fan; not ‘monitoring’ any more or less than you or others. I only know Tim from the site, and I do appreciate his comments on here. You know, sometimes things come up for us; I wish him well, regardless. Seeing as this post is on Delta, hopefully he will eventually share his thoughts on this with us. However, I wouldn’t expect too much, since this post is more on the silly side, rather than a detailed analysis on profitability or competitiveness of the airline.
@Michael Mainello — You’re on-point here. Laws, rules, norms–it’s all about enforcement. If Delta were to cite this as a reason for increasing membership rates or credit card fees, then I’d take more of an issue with it, personally. But, realistically, I doubt a few odd-balls taking a to-go plate is gonna bankrupt the airline or anything.
@CHRIS — Your “Ho Lee…” reference reminds me of Asiana 214, where some goofball called-in fake names to the local television station, and they sure did fall for it. What was it, again… First Officer ‘Sum Ting Wong’? Bah! Not too subtle on that one.
@Alex L — It’s less of an American thing; more of a human/situational thing. But, then again, I suppose it depends on where you’re from and what you expect. If you’ve ever been to a Costco, it’s all about the free samples, son (or daughter, since I suppose Alex could be either.)
@hwertz — I’ve had those ribs at the SFO SkyClub…yum-yum! I recall LAX had them, too. Best food though, by a mile, is at the new Delta One lounges; I’ve tried JFK and LAX so far–amazing!
This looks like some decent grub. On mast last visit to a Centurion lounge it was tomato soup, greasy grilled cheese, and sweet potato “stew”.
Such morons, killing the golden goose.
AC said it perfectly. No extra comment needed.
Typical fat, disgusting, cheap American behavior.
They are the same people who wonder why so many Europeans don’t want them in their country.
Plus, it just increases the cost for the rest of us.
@Thing 1 – wonder where in Asia you were that they had to pull their kid’s pants down. Saw this on my first trip to China, way back in ’97, where the kid’s pants were completely split in the crotch and all they had to do was squat; no manual adjustment necessary.
It’s not okay to pack platefuls of food to go and I certainly hope this is not a trend. If this is a trend, , airlines need to implement some strict guidelines about acceptable behavior in their lounges. If people are so clueless or uncouth and need specific rules, then so be it. What has society become??? Savages with no idea of what proper etiquette means? I’ve grabbed a few snacks from the lounge in the past, such as cookies (2-3), fruit, or bag of chips but not anything from the buffet.
Society continues to fall. No manners, no politeness, just greed and selfishness.
I travel on Delta all the time and he probably didn’t want that dog food Delta serves on their flights just saying
I have wanted to take food from the Sky Club for my flights but that’s not allowed at their sit-down lounges, just the grab and go ones which my airport doesn’t have. I have had to pack my own food for two nine hour flights in Delta One. I cannot eat dairy without passing large volumes of gas to say nothing of frequent trips to the rest rooms to leave messy, loose deposits. Delta invariably limits on board meal choices to ones that have melted cheese which cannot be removed–even their Special Meals. Alternatives that I’ve been offered include nuts and cookies. I note this problem in the feedback Delta requests to no avail. I’ve also request airport food vouchers and cold sandwiches (from which cheese can usually be removed.) At least my food isn’t considered a part of my carry on allowance and to my surprise, TSA didn’t confiscate my blue ice. One time I got a $30 food credit which was nice but not edible when In was hungry. BTW, the incidence of dairy intolerance is significantly in higher in people of color.