Originally Posted by
krazykanuck
It's not so much getting around them, but how they choose to do it. I mean, even in Houston, the KLM, AF and BA lounges all had self serve booze as of my last visit, or in recent history. The KLM lounge added a bartender, well a guy that stands next to the booze since they don't really have a bar, because they got a number of complaints lodged against them from airport employees and the TABC got involved (and I was told that by an employee that works in that lounge). In TX, despite our very quirky liquor rules, there is nothing prohibiting self serve alcohol in an airport lounge, Amex for whatever reason has chosen to not do that.
I think the big issue is dram shop law liability. If the lounge is operated by a foreign airline, it's relatively difficult to sue the airline if someone gets plastered and then gets in their car and kills someone. Whereas American Express is an extremely easy litigation target for anyone in the US.