roberino

StingWest

There seems always to be people with bags on the seat next to them, both for convenience and to make a little more personal space I imagine. When a lounge is that full, just apologise and say that you're "sorry, but all the seats are taken - do you mind if I sit here". Never had a problem or even an annoyed stare.

speedbuslhr

Steve in Olympia

SQTraveller

In some of the outstations, they stop people using the main BA lounge and direct them to the contract lounges instead

ratypus

if a lounge is that crowded, it's usually not worth staying in - I wouldn't stay in the T5 Flounge if I couldn't find a seat: I'd rather head over to Galleries in T5B or even just sit quietly in an unoccupied gate with a coffee and a paper

DCAFly

I had a confrontation over bags on a seat once at the US lounge at LAX (years and years ago obviously) and I went full-on a-hole. Some guy with a "I'm more important than you are" air about him (don't ask how I knew that, it was just oozing off of him) had an entire couch taken up with his bags. Refused to move them when I asked because I had no where else to sit. Too bad, I got here first or something was his reply. I think I said something like - well, ok, you can do that if you want, but I'm sitting on this couch in 5 seconds regardless of whether your bags are here, then I turned butt to couch and counted down from 5. Got to three when he moved his bags. Does that make me a jerk?

UKtravelbear

I was in a lounge the other week.

A guy had a seat for himself and put his coat / bag on the one to his left and tossed a newspaper on the one to his right so he was taking up 3 chairs! He went off to get a drink / food but when he came back someone was sat on the newspaper seat and someone was about to sit on the 'empty' seat.

They muttered something about the newspaper was clearly abandoned and no one was sat in the seat next to that one so it was fair game.

He couldn't really argue!

PAL62V

Not at all. I would have been also tempted to 'let one go' while I was in that position.

OverTheHorizon

Well, yes.... but kind of a "good jerk" if you know what I mean ?

ISTFlyer

I remember, it was 21st of December around 16:00, I had arrived from LAX and I was flying to IST ( 16:35 departure delayed to 17:10 ) [ All flights were delayed because of the Gatwick drone incident the day before ] in WT and ET cabins. As IST is one of the longest routes that does have the M&S service, I was strictly going to help myself in one of the Galleries Club Lounges in T5. There were around 200 people standing and waiting for seats in the South Lounge. There were also people eating food in the TV room or at the business corner ( even on the table where the printers are situated ). I was lucky to spot someone who was leaving and I just put my bag on top of that seat; grabbed 2 plates of the main courses, a bottle of water and a glass and just had my dinner in 5 minutes. Then I saved myself out of the lounge and went to the boarding gate which was A23.

I had a similar but a better situation ( less people waiting ) on the 12th of January in the South Lounge around 12:00 and my flight was departing at 15:50 so I didn't know the gate yet. I just went to the service desk at the lounge and asked my gate. When I learned that my flight would depart from one of the concourses, I have headed to the Galleries Club in T5B which there was almost no-one. I was easily able to find a pair of couches that I reserved for myself and enjoyed the quietness.

Often1

Yet there are those on this board who whinge that they weren't allowed to bring in an extra guest. BA can't know how many guests there will be, but it does have at least a rough idea of the number of passengers with access who are scheduled for the day. On busy days, it seems smart to politely turn away guests and to have a staff member circulate and discretely ask people to move the seats they are using for storage. It should not befall a passenger to have to deal with this.

krispy84

DCAFly

I don't think there is anything wrong with this - we all throw our bags on the seat when there is ample seating. It's the people who refuse to move their crap when people are obviously looking for a place to sit. It's like on the metro/bus when an elderly person comes on and no one moves their crap off the seat next to them to let the elderly person sit. What is wrong with those people? Every time I see this I turn into the officious interloper that asks the offender to move their stuff for the elderly person to sit. On public transport I usually get the finger (or worse) but the collateral effect is that someone else gives up their seat. I'm surely off topic at this point so I'll stop, but these people really get my goat.

I sound more like my father every day.

patsharp