Lounge Etiquette 101: don’t put your feet on the furniture. When one man decided to take a snooze on a couch and put up his feet in a United Airlines lounge, another passenger took revenge in a hilarious and clever way.
Passenger Takes Revenge On Man Who Put His Feet On Couch In United Airlines Lounge
United Airlines has a beautiful new lounge at Newark Liberty International Airport that marks the next generation of lounge design for United. Rather than rows and rows of beige individual seats, there is now great diversity in seating, including many couches and booths.
> Read More: United Club Newark (EWR – C123)
One reason United has historically avoided couches in its airport lounges is because it encourages sleeping. Well sure enough, people have been using the couches in its new lounge to do exactly that. In fact, United has even put signs up throughout the lounge which state, “As a courtesy, please do not place your feet on the furniture.” This warning covers not only feet on couches, but also feet on tables, which is such low-class behavior considering people eat off those same tables.
When FlyerTalk member Ari saw a man was sleeping with his feet on the couch at the United Airlines C121 lounge in Newark, rather than wake him up, he moved one of the signs and placed it right at the foot of the passenger.
The FlyerTalk moderators did not like where the conversation was going and deleted the entire thread (a cache still exists), but I find this to be a useful discussion. First, one of the lounge employees should have woken up the sleeping passenger. I know some take a more “live and let live” approach to this and would argue that this man was not bothering anyone and that he had taken his shoes off, but I see it differently.
While I understand that line of thought, if everyone just spread out and put their feet up, a luxury lounge quickly becomes a refugee camp. Lounges tend to get crowded and taking up this extra space crowds others further. But even if the lounge was empty, United makes clear that sleeping in lounges is not permitted. Therefore, if you visit a United lounge, you should respect that rule. If you need a bed, get a hotel room.
CONCLUSION
Harm is not usually felt when there are few outliers, but the potential for harm comes when everyone stops following the rules. When rules are not enforced (like no feet on furniture), it encourages more and more to disregard the rules, creating new norm in which people selfishly do not consider others or treat them the way they wish to be treated (I can tell you I would not be amused if someone came to my house and put their feet up on my couch or coffee table).
I chuckled at this harmless “revenge” and think this “passive-aggressive” approach beats a direct confrontation. Leave the direct confrontations to lounge staff, who should be enforcing the rules anyway.
(H/T: View From The Wing)
Maybe UC-NYC was drunk again and passed out. Give him a break, he’s an elite in many ways. Besides when he’s passed out, he’s not online telling everyone how special he is and how wrong we are if we don’t agree with him on anything and every time.
And I’m sure after he woke up angry about the sign he requested the video of who put it there and wants them banned from the lounge.
Can you two get a room already? Enough with this.
I doubt we could agree on a hotel.
LOL!!! So true, so true…
I feel like people putting there feet on furniture and tables has been out of control recently, I’ve seen it a lot. UA doesn’t do a good enough job enforcing it.
Also, people putting their feet on the bulkhead really annoys me too, maybe that’s just me though.
It’s definitely not just you. If there is one thing I would do differently as an inexperienced and uneducated American is no shoes in the house–ever. But then I’d need a sink at the entry way where my shoes are, so I can wash my hands immediately after touching my filthy shoes! Ugh I go crazy thinking about it. Why was I not raised correctly in this instance? Floors, sidewalks, and roads are the dirtiest. Thank pedicurists for their service. Scrub your feet y’all 🙂
So true!! This is especially obvious at the new UA club at EWR!! Disgusting!!
Signage at Ual lounge entryway, proactive employees enforcing The Rules, online rules and expectations of lounge and aircraft onboard ettiquite posted per application or member updates,
After hearing about 10+ hour delays for flights, that passengers have no control over, and airlines feel they aren’t responsible for, just what were they expecting? Maybe they need to install a few lounge chairs.
Usually one bad deed does not justify another.
Accidentally spilling a large, full glass of icewater on this idiot would seem to be a proper response.
“Oops…oh, I’m sooooo sorry…”
Like this Jabroni cares- low class gavones and selfish jerks. Like the selfish a$$holes who got drunk and woke me up at 100 am in my hotel last night….
many hotels really need better insulation or sound proofing or whatever. we shouldn’t need to hear the massive doors slamming and people snoring through walls and everything else
Why don’t they put some loungers in where people can get s little sleep on a long layover. I have been dead tired with nowhere to shut my eyes. At least he took off his shoes. I completely understand not being able to keep your eyes open.
When I was in the new United Club at ORD C Concourse a few weeks ago I saw a lounge attendant go right up to a man who had just fully reclined on one of the couch-benches near the entrance. I was impressed by the worker doing her job and enforcing standards.
In Japan it is not uncommon to see people on the subway with their shoes off and wearing socks – not bare feet – on the seat crossed.
Thus guy us ok.
It people WITH THEIR SHOES ON that are a problem.
Give the guy a break. Hopefully he was not snoring.
A normal person wouldn’t have worried about something so trivial.
Probably millennial or Zoomer. Both those generations are infantile.
They shouldn’t have couches. People will have a tendency to lie on them. The United lounge at SFO Alaska Terminal (Pitiful Lounge) only has single seating. That solves the problem,
(United Lounge at United SFO).
Even worse than “feet-on-furniture” are those guys (yes, mostly guys) that seem to have forgotten how to lock the lavatory door on board and then proceed to pee while standing up. I’ve now started to knock on the lavatory doors if they read “unoccupied/green” after I walked in on somebody on every flight I’ve taken these past months….
Is it just me or did others also experience a strange increase in unlocked lavatory doors while unoccupied?
The big problem with not locking the lav is turbulence….a person can find themselves somewhere they really don’t want to be under the circumstances
Hmmm. Well there’s always turning around and leaving the lav door ajar. Perhaps the occupant might get the message ?
if you’re going to have a rule, you need to train staff to enforce it.
when you have rules that are not enforced, people tend to get annoyed and confrontational. Rules were not made to be broken.
The world would be a much better place if there was a respect for rules and accountability from people” do unto others, as you would have them do onto you.
be kind, be polite, and we all would exist in this world together much Happier.
Agreed.
Look at how today’s travelers travel outfits … slippers, flip flops, pajamas, etc. etc. it’s one thing to dress comfortably. It’s another to look like you just fell out of bed or ready to do yard work. So why is anyone surprised that they carry their lack of manners into the lounge and behave exactly like they do at home? Layer on the “I’m entitled and don’t care what you think” quotient and there you go.
The spandex three sizes too small is always fun
If they had couches, it sounds like the refugee camp you experienced was pretty posh.
Definitely a locker room or frat house.