Spudd,

Your sarcasm is uncalled for and reflects short-sightedness on your part.

Who here does not recognize airline lounges for what they are, which are just glorified waiting rooms as you say?

But you should not dismiss the security concerns - the sense of accountability and personal responsibility held by the respondents of this thread.

Right off the bat I believe this young lady is not trustworthy by virtue of her fabricating a story that all of us could see right through. I will not go so far as to say that free-loading is stealing, but I will say that her untrustworthiness at the outset may indicate that she's got other things up her sleeve as some other have suggested.

Something I don't get. You yourself mock the increasing slumliness of such lounges. Yet could it be possible that the increasing incidence of trailer trash who prop their feet up on coffee tables and loudly gab about "chasing pussy" (yes, I really had to listen to these two half-buzzed guys sitting in a room full of older men and ladies - don't get me wrong, I have my share of war stories which I don't mind telling, but I have the sense to know the difference between an an afternoon at an airline lounge and a night out at "Foxes") are coming from "these people" getting comped in whether by members outside the entry way, or with lounge passes?

On the accountability part, how would you feel if somebody let one of these people in, and a bag, jacket, briefcase, etc., of yours was stolen?

I am not saying that we need to be the lounge gestapo, but the reasons for people saying what they have should not be mocked.