The Hidden Dangers of Guesting Strangers into Airport Lounges [Roundup]

News and notes from around the interweb:

  • A reason not to guest people you don’t know into airport lounges sometimes they get drunk, become belligerent and are kicked out of the terminal by police… and you may get your own access terminated.

    I let a guy into the LAX club because they wouldn’t let him in with a one time pass. Whenever I let someone in, I usually just say “enjoy the lounge” and go my own separate way.

    I boarded my flight, flew all the way to IAD, and when I landed I got a phone call. It was an agent at the LAX club. She told me that the guy got drunk and his flight got delayed and now he was being belligerent and threatening Club staff members. When they scanned his boarding pass, they were able to trace him to my club membership and having let him in….She told me that they had to have the police escort him out of the terminal.

  • Double Avios for traveling to 5 destinations in Iraq that travelers are warned not to visit. Maybe triple Avios are needed?

  • The top 10 airport bars in the U.S. what a lazy list, it just pulls Google rating and prices. And it comes up with a DFW TGI Friday’s for the number one spot.

  • American dropped this route a year ago. It’s unserved by Southwest, so the field is clear. I live in Austin and I’ll use this flight absolutely never.

  • Starting January 1, the cash portion of Southwest Airlines cash and points flight redemptions will earn points and companion pass and status-qualifying credit.

  • The Maldives depends on tourism, it’s about 30% of GDP, so naturally they tax it. And taxes naturally go up and to the right. Effective the tourism goods and services tax (‘tourism tax’) goes up from 16% to 17% effective July 1, 2025. Then, the ‘green tax’ doubles from $6 to $12 per person, per night, starting January 1, 2025.

  • Maybe the name of Washington’s National Airport shouldn’t have been changed

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Isn’t it a violation of most lounges rules to leave a guest in there after you exit anyway? I say revoke that membership with no refund.

  2. Iraq isn’t particularly dangerous to visit now and the guy is right; it’s a fascinating place. I visited in April and had a great time. Erbil, for one, is capital of the autonomous Kurdish region, and full of history, while surrounding lands are spectacularly beautiful. There is no shooting war going on, unlike in quite a few places in the world right now, and with it’s oil it’s a middle income country. It’s not for the people who get thrilled by the idea of going to Vegas, Disney or Cancun, but it’s not a particularly extreme destination right now. Those foreign office warnings don’t get updated much and there’s a lot of cya in them. I’ve always wondered what they would say if rating their own country. When people ask me about traveling to places like Iraq, I usually say, “Which country leads the world in civilian mass shootings?” The Brits do need to keep an eye on their travel insurance since that may exclude countries based on those foreign office instructions.

  3. The lounge bartenders who are trained not to serve someone so they get drunk got someone drunk.

    I think the lounge needs to retrain their bartenders

    If they attack his membership he needs to attack their license to serve with the liquor license board

  4. @Tomri – he violated terms of the lounge membership so it could be revoked. Any allegation he made about the bartenders would be unable to be proven so your post is pointless.

  5. @ac then for that matter. There would be no support for to revoke his membership. It is a catch 22. The lounge would have to admit their employee served a drunk or the front desk admitted an intoxicated person into the lounge

    The bartender should have cut them off. They were tips trained

  6. @ac then for that matter. There would be no support for to revoke his membership. It is a catch 22. The lounge would have to admit their employee served a drunk or the front desk admitted an intoxicated person into the lounge

    The bartender should have cut them off. They were tips trained .

  7. When the American Airlines Admirals Club stopped admitting service members in uniform who were returning home from an overseas war zone after their deployment, and also refused to accept the one-day pass they had previously sold for $79, I decided to use my paid annual membership to bring in this servicemember as my guest. When I purchased my Admirals Club membership, the terms stated that I could bring up to two guests traveling on a same-day American Airlines ticket. Are we at risk of having our Admirals Club membership terminated if we sponsor an armed forces servicemember as our guest?

  8. Membership includes access by either immediate family members (spouse or domestic partner and children under eighteen (18) years of age) or up to two (2) guests. Access by immediate family members or guests applies only when such individuals accompany the Member.

    House Rules
    American reserves the right to refuse to serve alcoholic beverages to any guest who appears to be intoxicated or is otherwise unruly.

    During your visit to an Admirals Club lounge, American requires that your attire and conduct are consistent with a professional environment

    Did American refuse to serve? Appears they did not .
    As for conduct American has a history of NOT enforcing this rule (feet on furniture, cell phone use etc).

    American can not be selective in who it enforces it’s house rules on
    This is like saying you are a Vegan but you have a Leather Handbag

  9. Of course American can use discretion in how they enforce their rules. And they have the _right_ to refuse alcohol service to anyone but he may not (likely was not) have been unruly when he was ordering drinks. He only became unruly later. The unwanted guest should be banned for life from flying on American (ideally all planes) – that guy is the source of the problem.

  10. @Dillion:
    Doesn’t matter. Violation of rules was bringing in a guest and then leaving them once the member left. That there, not even considering the intoxication aspect, can be reason to revoke membership.

  11. @ NedsKid
    Where does it say that in the house rules. Not on the website

    What is implied is can not be enforced as it is not in the 4 corners of the document

    Show us otherwise

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