Originally Posted by
dayone
I'm not a historian, but my initial memory of "lounge dragon" was in the BA forum when I first joined FT. My understanding of the term is an airline employee who overzealously enforces lounge entrance policies and procedures, both real and imagined.
It’s been around FT for some time in various forums, e.g.
this 2008 post. It could well have originated in the BA forum. Members were debating the appropriateness of the expression at least as far back as
this 2010 thread and
this 2013 thread, and IIRC at one point a moderator deemed it unacceptable, in the same way that some view the expression “gate lice. “
IIRC I was among those who pointed out that “lounge dragon” appeared in the official FT glossary, and subsequently it disappeared.
Gate lice remains.
Count me among those who view it as more descriptive and neutral than pejorative but YMMV.