amt

This is fun... next can we tackle the people who sample the pick and mix or eat the grapes in Sainsburys.

Mountlodge

Well I have been known to walk off with a couple of Twinings Decaf mint teabags when I'm in the First Lounge at heathrow despite having a bag of them in my laptop bag!! On the flight ask for hot water and dunk the bag in the water.

ML

tomparskate

That is obsurd, I always try to ensure I finish my drinks Inn GC or GF wherever I am. I occasionally pilfer a packet of crisps and a can of Fanta but that’s it!

tomparskate

Do you get charged for the hot water?

msm2000uk

Why bother decanting it into an empty plastic bottle?

Surely one could simply walk up to the serving area, pick up the JW bottle, and walk out the Lounge with it in full view?

I asked last week, whether there were any signs which advised Food & Drink were solely for consumption within the Lounge, but was told that LHR has no such signs.

M

FrancisA

No, during the GG strike, they provided more substantial food in the lounges. Previously there were nothing like soup or salads in the Club lounge at T1 for instance. They also had lunch boxes for CE pax to take.

I am referring to the introduction of reduced ET catering in 2007/08 where BA specifically invited affected status customers to take provisions from the lounges and provided boxes to do so with the sandwiches.

They did not say remove bottles of premium spirits though ....

LUFTY

This whole discussion turns on the fact that the items are taken out of the lounge.

Otherwise an alcoholic drinking a whole bottle of JW Blue in the lounge would be guilty of theft in the same way that a greedy pig having four desserts (OK guilty as charged) could be considered unreasonable and therefore dishonest.

And how about the people that go out for an all you can eat carvery and help themselves to too much food and decide to take the leftovers home for their pet dog. Is that unreasonable and therefore dishonest and should they have taken smaller portions in case they were full ?

This is all simply resolved with a sign in the lounge but in the absence of this I find it hard to believe that a tribunal properly directed would consider this proven to the criminal standard.

Remember the criminal standard is not they probably knew it was dishonest or it is likely that a reasonable person would consider this dishonest.

The test is that the judge/magistrate/jury must be sure beyond all reasonable doubt that this is a dishonest action.

JAT74L

How many on here would grass the person up to the lounge dragons? :-)

JAT

Koru Flyer

I think the challenge is, if we grassed them up, would the lounge staff actually do anything, and what, call the police? Would I want to be a witness and hang around, what if I was wrong or the product hidden in another bag, or disposed of when they realise, what if I end up sitting CW next to the person I accused! The list is endless.

Again deterent is the key, signs, cameras, more staff etc etc

I would however, say something to them to show my disgust, maybe it has an effect maybe not, but at least I know I did something. Unlike a pub, I am fairly certain they would not try it on, in a secure area...

KF

Jagboi

Have I stumbled onto the Legal Talk website?

subject2load

Why bother indeed ?

And why limit yourself to removing the equivalent of just one bottle ?

We know that many lounge users come & go, popping out to visit shops etc. So the shameless JW delinquent could simply hand the first bottle to friends in the public departure zone who have no lounge access ; then come back to the lounge, help himself to another bottle (maybe vodka this time ?), hand that to the friends too ; come back for a third. And so on.

Hard to say which parts of this thread constitute the most depressing read : the thoroughly distasteful act itself, as recounted by the OP ; or the nonsensical assertion from one poster (and maybe more) that neither BA, nor its overwhelming majority of decently-behaved passengers, care about items of significant value being removed in this way.

There really are times when you just despair.

msm2000uk

I haven't stated that BA don't care about their items being removed, but when we see almost weekly reports of items being taken out of the Lounges, one does have to wonder.

M

subject2load

No, I'm conscious it wasn't you M.

As to the weekly reports : I'm of the view that, at some future point, action - of one sort or another - will inevitably be taken by BA.

The action could take any number of forms, whether separately or combined, and ranging in 'severity' from prominent signage / written guidance notes (leaflets issued at reception and/or website) ; greater control of supplies, eg manned bar ; more limited options and quantity ; to the extreme, such as enforcement of an exclusion order on anyone found acting as per the OP's description.

But above all, I'm very confident that if this sort of stuff increases in frequency, the overall lounge experience could - over time - become significantly devalued in the eyes of the majority, directly as a result of the behaviour of a small minority.

itsmeitisss

If the miscreant didn't realise what he was doing wasn't appropriate, why did he feel the need to fill another container? Surely, it was to suggest that the bottle had been consumed in a more conventional way? Therefore he was being dishonest.

subject2load

@ itsmeitisss - I doubt you need to convince any of the right-minded amongst us that his behaviour was downright dishonest. Of course it was.