Lounge Rant
 

So I was recently at The Bridge lounge and right after I come out of the washroom, some guy who was a lounge patron, not a bartender or CX customer service agent suddenly grabs me by the arm and confronts me because I was constantly looking at a girl and smiling at the same time and he threatens to have me kicked out. Kicked me out for what?! I always smile at people at the lounge :D All I could say in my head is really?! WT* dude :rolleyes: I mean I wasn't doing anything wrong. I wasn't even bothering anybody. He didn't get me kicked out. I guess he was just jealous or something. What a twit. Anyways, thought I'd share it.

that's bizarre, I take it he wasn't a CX staff but rather a lounge patron?

...on the topic of lounge rants, line out the door again this morning for breakfast in the Wing F for the Haven. On a Sunday morning! I was only there because my gate was below, but seriously how can there be so many people in the lounge? Makes me want to go out of my way to avoid the Wing. Just for observation purposes, I walked over to the J side. Jam packed.

assuming your side of the story is indeed correct :cool::) in my book threatening behaviour and/or language and taking by an arm is reason enough to involve police, especially if nothing outside of glances and smiles was done. That individual needed to be placed quickly in his place, and often a tour to the nearest police station is a humbling enough experience.

Yep. A lounge patron who was probably drunk.

considering u're in an airport you want to fly (and not to be a witness) otherwise i would have called that assault...

Wow, you show great restrain, I would of done some Wing-Chun moves on him and tell him to mind his own business. Geez, I smile and chit-chat with girls in the lounge all the time, it's call being friendly, geez.

As for another poster said lounge is a zoo. Yeah, for the first time in my flying experience with CX I had to bail out of Wing because it was too crowded, I made the mistake of going to Bridge which was more crowded, so I bail out of that and went to G16, finally, some breathing space...

was he the boyfriend or something?

You could have said "actually, I was smiling at you" with a wink!

Some people have creepy smiles... My wife just pointed out to me yesterday that there was this creepy guy smiling at her. At the end, my wife informed the lounge attendant. The lounge attendant told my wife that this guy constantly get such comments from other guests. But he means no harm. The attendant doesn't know how to tactfully tell this guy about his creepy smile.

By the way, this is at the first class portion of The Wing. Probably not the OP...

So it's better to just "Avoid eye contact and stop with the creepy smiles"

I agree - time to involve the police.

Really? You must live a very feather-bedded life if you regard some drunk guy grabbing your arm and mouthing off as grounds to waste a load of police time (and yours, and his). The police should be used for more important things.

It is not about pressing charges. As a preventive measure, police should be involved before anyone else would get hurt. Unlike US police who would probably handcuff anyone disturbing the peace in an airport, HK police would likely only give that person a warning and escort him out of the lounge (and perhaps lead him to a place where he can cool off or recover soberness).

Well, the girl was around my age (20's) I assume the twit was around 40 something so go figure. The girl was actually Filipino and me being Filipino as well, Filipinos tend to have that kind of trait where they would always smile, look at each other and just talk. I did get a conversation out of her right afterwards and she didn't seem to be creeped out our anything. She was smiling too. And the one of the bartenders was also Filipino, so we had like a quick "3 way" conversation. Whenever I am on holiday, thats just my trait I guess where I would just smile at someone and have a conversation. I made friends over the years just by doing that so no harm done at all.

And my smile was no where creepy in my opinion. It wasn't even a smirk. It was basically a happy face with a nod. :)

I could've pushed the guy back or got the staff involved but didn't bother. I was already going on a quick holiday and didn't need additional stress. I just wanted to get a way for a few days and just chill out. I'm that guy that doesn't really cause a scene especially in a business class lounge where everybody is professional. Might of have a different outcome if it occurred inside the subways or buses of New York.

Exactly , ^^ we are not in the USA ...

spot-on reply. I wonder why lounge personnel haven't been proactive, a drunkard in the place is a huge annoyance. Just call the police to escort him out and sweat all the alcohol in a safe place.

Could have been the father? :cool::D

also spot on, back in Empire's mainland police does not usually talk with their mouth, they let tasers and revolvers do the job :)

This is exactly the instances you would call a police. I really don't know what's going on in some people's mentality, but don't act like police are so overwhelmed with tasks that they can't be bothered. They are exactly there to handle disputes like this.

Now calling the army would be an overkill....

Given what's going on in HK right now, you shouldn't be surprised by one's mentality anymore. Or maybe it's just cultural or generation differences :eek:

But OP might not want to make a scene because his employer might not be too happy about that even though he is off duty :p

If I was the girl, I would be pissed off at my dad more than the other guy. A father with that kind of cohanas (spelling?) certainly should be making the mulahh to bring me into The Wing First Class.

I absolutely disagree with you on this. It's not a question of whether the police are overwhelmed - this simply isn't a matter that warrants police involvement (assuming that you are in fact an adult, not a child as you alias and some of your posts would suggest). Mature adults should be perfectly capable of dealing with situations like this without turning them into a major drama.

Someone physically assaulted you (grabbing your arm) and threatens you verbally, you have 2 options:

1) Teach the guy a lesson not to grab another man by self-defense (my preferred method)

2) Call the police because you have been assaulted and threaten and there's no idea what would the man do next. He already grabbed your arm, doing something else later isn't too far out of the question, especially with alcohol involved.

This thread is not really CX related. It just happened to occur in a CX lounge. I'm closing this thread.

sxc
Cathay Pacific Moderator