News and notes from around the interweb:
- Trade fight between Boeing and Airbus — and between the U.S. and Europe — is coming to a head
- Proposed legislation would require all truck rentals to be reported to the FBI
- Should kids be banned from club lounges? Is age or behavior the right metric? I tend to favor behavior standards but worry about the disruptive confrontations that would follow once bad behavior happens.
Grand Hyatt San Francisco Club Lounge - Work habits while traveling. I prefer working on vacation and vacationing while I work.
- Criminal terror suspect was working at London Heathrow. Nothing bad happened and that raises questions that aren’t being asked.
Allowing kids in lounges is a marketing tactic. Kids who develop fond memories of lounges could be more likely to pursue elite status and luxury travel when they travel on their own as adults.
Who are these people that think the hotel club lounges are some kind of elite space and need to protect it from riff-raff like children? It’s a slightly more exclusive place you get access to if you pay $50 more a night not a private member’s only club. You’re not special because you can get in there and your experience is not devalued by children being there. Get over it. The kids that are in there are there because their parents paid for it or are valued members.
I’ve spent more time than I care to think about in those lounges and the most disruptive people I consistently see are “adults” that don’t know how to behave in places like that. The vast majority of kids I see in those places are reasonably well behaved.
Ban kids from lounges?
That is an ideal space for kids. They can choose what they want to eat, consume it quickly and be done. In my experience, countless families bring kids to the lounge for less fussy, less formal, faster (mostly fast) service.
I’d far prefer to encounter a four year old in the lounge than in the hotel dining room.
If it’s a sizable lounge like Qantas at HKG, no one should have any problem with passengers bringing their kids. An already cramped facility like Qantas first class at LAX during crowded evenings is a different matter. If there isn’t enough space for kids to run around without getting into other people’s way, then sure, why not some restrictions on bringing them in? Most likely, in first class lounges, children are just riding the coattails of their parents’ status anyway. If they behaved like any other passengers then no worries, but with kids who scream, shout, and run circles around furniture (not to mention grab buffet items with their grimy hands) that obviously isn’t the case.
Lounges could be outfitted with lockers for child storage.
Children are not the issue. Their parents are.
The parents have responsibility to teach their children appropriate behavior in all situations…. not just lounges. I cannot stand anyone running and skipping and hopping around in the lounge….no matter what their age. And it is very annoying when anyone of any age drops their food all over for someone else to clean up. And then there is the putting feet on the furniture….. that I can allow for toddlers (their legs are short), but adults are disgusting.
Children of all ages need to learn how to behave in various situations.
I don’t mind kids in lounges, if well-behaved. But if your kids are able to ambulate, you better make sure they know how to pick their food without touching every other consumable in the place. I don’t want meningitis with that apple, thanks.
Like politics, the culture of hyper-critical non-parents and parents who think Their Little Jesuses Can Do No Wrong makes communication (and correction) difficult.
So IMO, kids = yes. Bad parents = no. I realize how subjective that is, though.
Come to think of it, adults are capable of not washing their hands and picking food poorly. Correction: bad adults = no.
**Grabs popcorn**