This is why we can’t have nice things…
A reader sent me a report of a fellow traveler loading her ziploc bags with food she pilfered from a United Airlines club lounge in London. Such tacky behavior should be shamed.
Woman Pilfers Cheese In Large Ziploc Bag From United Club Lounge, Asks Staff For More
The premise of an airline lounge includes consuming food and drinks inside the lounge…and only inside the lounge. It’s one thing to take an apple or orange with you or a cup of coffee, especially when there are to-go cups provided. But it’s quite another to bring bags or containers into the lounge with the express intent of taking out large quantities of food for consumption outside the lounge.
We go to London, the site of what I consider to be the best United Club in the world. I’ve reviewed the lounge and recently spent several hours there: the food and beverage selection is quite respectable.
And apparently one Premier 1K member, we’ll call her Karen, liked the cheese so much that she decided to fill a large ziploc bag with it…and then ask for more! As the reader shared:
I just witnessed a hog empty the LHR United Club VIP section’s entire supply of blue cheese into her gallon-sized resealable bag. Then she asked the contract lounge attendant for more blue cheese “to go.”
Based on the resealable bags spotted in her carry-on, it looks like she pilfered several more food items before she took all the blue cheese off the buffet. She and her companion were talking loudly about what they were taking out of the lounge. Clearly a return to a la carte dining in the VIP side of the LHR lounge would mitigate some of this boorish behavior.
And there are pictures:
(The VIP section is the former Global First side of the lounge and reserved on an invite-only basis for top-tier flyers)
As an aside, I identify her as 1K member because of the blue tag on her bag, which is only given to Premier 1K and Global Services members. I blurred her face out of pity, just like I did not publish the face of the woman with the fake service dog I wrote about earlier this week. You get the picture though: there is no denying this person should have been escorted out of the club for her boorish behavior.
Hey folks, United will cut the quality of the food in the lounge if we all go in and take some with us. I know the food isn’t always great onboard, but the cheese is meant to be enjoyed inside the lounge, not outside…
(H/T: JL)
Must have spent all her cash on flights since she obviously didn’t spend it on clothes, glasses or her hair. Should have called her frumpy dumpy Karen.
Lol!!!
A complete waste of humanity. Total trash. You shouldn’t have blurred her face. Should lose all privileges.
And she’s a fat porker too. Shocker.
Are you suggesting different behavioral standards based on weight?
WIth regard to food selection, the United Clubs have gone WAY downhill in the past few years, This type of behavior doesn’t bode well. The attendants should have squelched this.
I was in the Polaris lounge at IAD last night. The buffet section was nothing to write home about. Don’t tell me their cutting corners there too.
She’s had enough cheese. Time for an intervention.
Let’s see…..first you were the beer police, now you’re the cheese police. Maybe it’s time to mind your own business. Not everyone thinks like you, get over it.
This was shared by a reader. But when United starts cutting food becuase Kevin and Karen are taking enough home to feed their dogs, then we have a big problem…that impacts you, and me, and everyone else.
So sorry, you’re wrong.
That’s right Matthew- not everyone thinks like you when it comes to this behavior in the clubs, like loading bags full.of food and drinks, yelling at their cellphones, etc.
Of course, those other people are what we call toxic douchebags. As well as the dopes who excuse them.
But please, have some sensitivity for them- does anyone think about their needs?
Unless you see something I don’t it looks like she took 3 or 3 one inch cubes of cheese. I’m pretty sure united isn’t going to cut back on the food service over this. Tacky? Yes. Outrageous enough to shame her? No.
Did you read what was said? This was her initial load. She then asked for a refill so she could fill her bag up.
It has been obvious for years you live to denounce anyone who you feel you have the right to dégrade. Who hurt your feelings so much that you use Karen as a way to denigrate women? It’s unbelievable any well known company actually pays you to be cruel to people and encouraged others to join you. Cheese? Really? Why do you care so much and have nothing else to write about? I really want to let kind people know.
I’ve seen United react to overindulgence (like this) by cutting benefits for everyone. I’m not being “mean.” I’m looking out for the majority of travelers and trying to protect the integrity of the United lounge experience.
Technically the “Karen” is the one who’s outing another doing something “wrong”… is she going overboard? I think so, but many times I’ve taken food with me to a flight. Either I was running behind or was just planning ahead for a long haul. I live in a town on the border to APAC, where the United lounge is arguably the worst in the world. I think we, and United have bigger whales to fry than this worrying about this Muenster…
Perhaps you shouldn’t side with the porker.
If I saw her, her ass would have been banned for life.
What does a person’s weight have to do with anything?
Because they got to that size eating like pigs.
Yiannis, we understand that it’s difficult for you to afford living in Santa Barbara (zip code in your user name) but that doesn’t excuse hogging down every food item not nailed down.
Come on over to Malibu where I’ll be more than happy to publicly shame you. Yes, God is gracious as your mother knew when she named you, but even he doesn’t approve of boors.
The lounge attendant acted politely by not replying it’s just food,not love.
Retail cheese prices have risen considerably. To offset the price increase and average down the cost of personal cheese consumption, the lounge guest went all in and then some on procuring the cheese from a supplier providing the lounge guest with cheese at a fixed cost. Now on a serious note: when will we see more lounges at airports saying it’s not permissible to remove food from the lounges?
Coming from UA, that’s probably not even real cheese but some ultra processed s..t to mimic cheese. She is disgusting and should be banned from lounges.
Catering in LHR lounge is very good.
Better than the Virgin lounge?
Definitely not. Qantas, Cathay lounges also better.
But I would say it’s the best lounge in T2 (EI, LH, SQ, AC, UA, PP)
Of the LHR T2 lounges I get access to as *G, the UA lounge is the one in which I choose to spend the bulk of my time to eat before the flights out.
I have only been to T2 once or twice after the pandemic (BHX is more convenient for me nowadays), but typically the food in the UA lounge isn’t significantly better than what is served next door by SQ, whose lounge is dead for most of the afternoon and therefore provides for a much more relaxing experience.
SQ lounge closed at LHR until at least autumn. Perhaps my least favorite SQ Lounge. Meanwhile, I was just in the ICN SQ lounge and it was such a pleasant surprise.
I agree it’s absolutely nothing special (maybe when it reopens it will be better?), but the SQ flight schedules mean it is exceptionally quiet for a large chunk of the day.
Blue cheese is so fragile – was it not mush after being carried out? Even cheddar cubes would tend to get damaged.
Maybe she made a grilled cheese sandwich
You know she ate it anyway.
@Chi Hsuan … +1 .
You nailed it. This is why we can’t have nice things. The to-go drink and snack selection at the Cap One lounge in DFW has been decimated as of late. I think we all know why.
We finally made it to that lounge last month and I was not a huge fan. I did notice the to-go section and when we were there it looked like it was stocked pretty well. We were not fans of the food there. Then the bartender was rude. We were sitting right beside the bar. My husband ordered us both a drink. She refused to make two unless I walked to the bar to order it – we were sitting within 10 feet of her with no one in between us, so she knew there were two of us. My brother-in-law and sister were also there. He walked across to the end of the bar and ordered drinks for both of them. That bartender made them, no problem. For reference, we are 60 years old, so it wasn’t a question of age. We had a few more drinks and my husband walked over to the other bartender to have them made.
She obviously doesn’t read labels. Cheese has saturated fat, enough that one shouldn’t eat more than 1-2 slices per day. Look at how fat she is.
The only justifications that I can see are:
1. She is in business class where food is free and the cheese taken is intended to eat before and during the flight, and/or
2. She is Canadian. In Canada, cheese and milk are really expensive. That is partly why more than a few Canadians are jealous and hate Americans. They like our cheese, milk, and gasoline prices.
Canadians are polite, we don’t hoard cheese. Most maple leaf lounges don’t even provide cheese
Cheese is far from cheap in the US either.. I’m from the UK but now living in the US and think the prices of cheese are horrendous. You can get a block of half decent cheese in the UK for £3-5 ($4-7). And compared to some European countries the UK is pricey for cheese (and the wine that goes with it) but nothing in comparison to here..I hate to think of the prices in Canada then!
I’m chuckling because this reminds me of the time my wife was upgraded to first class. My wife is professional Soviet era and dresses well, but she wasn’t rich of course. She dressed nicely but said that she “stood out” in first class. Perhaps it was her accent at the time.
When I fly, I always dress office professional. If I’m going to a lounge, I’ll usually have a nice jacket as well. I have snarfed a few cans of diet coke in my time, but never emptied the fridge and I knew to be discreet.
Shaming overt classless behavior helps make society a better place to live.
I think it’s absurd to dress up for a flight so as not to offend the snobs. I always dress for comfort – t-shirts all the way. Men’s suits are bulky to pack, so I can see someone wearing one for practical reasons only. It is a sad fact that some people judge people’s worth by their clothing and appearance.
food issues = bad behavior.
That’s last year’s 1K handle wrap.
She looks like a couponer time. Raised poor. Well off now but hooked on coupons and deals, and something free is the ultimate deal
Are you saying she’s hooked to the frequent flyer program game? That’s one big coupon game, as I see it. It also happens to be one I like.
I have run off with an apple or banana at times, but I do so openly with them in hand while saying thanks and goodbye to the lounge attendants at the entrance/exit.
I usually take one of the small Dasani water bottles on the way out of the Polaris Lounge in Chicago. That’s so I know I’ll have a drink of water when it’s time to take meds. But I always feel kind of guilty about pilfering the water.
Why shouldn’t you take some water? Unless there us a specific sign asking people not to take stuff, there is novreason not to. Some lounges provide containers.
If there is a sign, then just ask. I’m sure they’ll say it’s OK.
In this case, the commenter was describing an incident when someone took an inordinate amount, and then requested more. The attendant could easily have refused.
Frankly, this behavior sounds pathological. I believe that oeople with eating disorders will hiarde food.
Despicable behavior. she should be banned from the lounges for a year.
Keep expanding the pool of 1K’s United. We need more of this.
It’s funny you should say that: When I read about how qualifying rules were raised, it was sold as “well, the lounges will be less crowded now” as if raising the prices on something benefits the elite like someone glad if they’re paying 2X more for a Tesla than they need to. It reminds me of a classic Ukrainian joke:
One oligarch says to the other: “I just bought the new Mercedes Z-3 class for $120,000 Euros.”
The other replies: “ok, you’re better than I am. Sigh. I only paid $100,000 for mine.”
Think about how messed up that is. The argument we heard in the 80’s for “supply side” economics was that more people would join the middle class and above, instead of just pulling the elites down. If the lounges are so popular, build more of them. It would be great if priority pass lounges were built out for the proles to gather in. So the frumpy lady snarfed a bag of cheese. Yeah, that’s pretty pathetic but in terms of bad things in the world happening, it’s not all that awful.
Boeing safety whistleblowers continue to die while Boeing CEO’s take home tens of millions in bonuses. I’d rather have the frumpy cheese lady sit next to me rather than one of those profiteers ruining the world.
Now that most commenters have shamed the lady, can you now please name who this “reader” is so we can shame them to mind their own damn business and stop taking photos of their stuff? lmao.
Imagine thinking this lady is the cause for UA’s shitty food and catering. I bet this happens to all lounges.
So you do this too?
Sure Jan
Don’t worry folks. She eats all that cheese she won’t shit for 2 weeks. Karma.
Americans abroad are simply the worst.
That’s not fair. They are pretty awful here at home too.
@scooter … +1 .
I don’t think your blurring really stopped her identity. Not great behavior but we’re talking about $5 worth of cheese compared to a $3000 flight. It’s kind of something I’d sigh about rather than losing sleep over.
Incidentally, when some reviewers cover a lounge they often order 4-5-6 things off the a la carte menu. Would that cause a situation where lounges may limit how much you can order?
We don’t know whether she was on a $3000 flight, on a five-figure LH first class fare to New Zealand, a $1000 transatlantic economy ticket, or a £58 hand-baggage-only SAS special to ARN. But does it make any difference?
It could, but I think the point is to consume food inside the lounge, not take it away.
Agreed.
She may look at me guzzling $100 of booze before a flight and think “cmon mate…”. As long as what goes on in the lounge stays in the lounge!
Mick’s comment is spot on. If she’s paying top dollar for her ticket and access to that lounge, the airline would probably be OK if she loads up on the food, which they can consider a loss leader as an inducement for her to come back next time because she was so happy that she got a freebie. On one condition. The airline had better have enough supplies so that what one individual takes in too large a quantity doesn’t deprive others. As long as they keep on bringing out more, the other passengers should not really care. But if the airline does not have enough to replenish the supply, that whole business model falls apart. (My wife and I were mildly annoyed on our honeymoon when we came down for breakfast at our hotel and every morning the croissants were gone, but we were really irritated on the last day when we were there early and saw two other tipping the complete supply of croissants into their large bag as they had apparently been doing every morning.)
The lounge is open to every*G customer flying any alliance member, regardless of fare or class of service. Unless the VIP area is reserved for those flying on UA metal, she may well have been flying short haul economy.
It is typically reserved for 1Ks and Global Services members flying United Business.
No way they let Star Golds flying economy on that side of lounge.
Ah, I thought that it was just based on their UA membership tier – I certainly haven’t been given access to the VIP part as a *G flying other alliance members in either Y or C.
@ Matthew — Thank goodness. They must keep the peons in their own holding pen.
And let me add that there is a limit. The airline probably doesn’t mind someone walking out with a bag full of cheese chunks or even several pastries, but they might draw the line about someone walking out with a couple of bottles of liquor.
When an event like this happened with me, it didn’t end so well for me. I think you posted this story for me once a year or so ago.
https://www.kirkstravelstories.com/post/lounge-privledges
I wish I could say I learned my lesson..but…
I thought about you. Yes, no good deed goes unpunished!
Oh, yeah, it was awesome when that guy got wrecked by both the lounge agent and the comments section haha
Hahahah that’s a good read mate! Hilarious.
I guess the lesson is what makes us so annoyed with what other people are doing. Yes this could lead to cheese removal which may directly impact us. But otherwise it’s best just to shrug and think “that’s strange” rather than let it eat us up. I’m def failing at this myself haha but trying to be more aware.
I think that she might be mentally ill. Her actions were crazy.
This type of bad behavior happens all the time. Whenever something nice and/or good is presented, the roaches come out of the woodwork and ruin it for everyone. For those who condone what she did, what would the result be if everyone did the same? Manners and civility count, rude and gluttony behavior don’t.
And just imagine sitting near stinky bleu cheese hog on the flight, p.u. !!!
Honestly…after being a FA for almost 35years the cheapest of cheapskates i came across were the top tier frequent flyers.They probably got their ranking on company paid tickets.The real FF are the ones who can afford to pay their own way.Most have class and we can tell them apart.
Had a CEO of a major bank..well known public figure on board.From LAX to NRT in SQ’s Suites.His seat had a fault as it couldnt recline electronically.But we were able to rectify the fault.However going by guidelines we were to issue him a recovery voucher.Before i could even write down his details on the voucher in the galley my colleague came to me and told me that guy was demanding for his $300 voucher.Seriously?A man worth probably more than a billion dollars.When i went to give him the voucher he said its not the money but the principle.Yeah right.It may be that but it just shows what kind of person he really is.
Plenty of other incidences to throughout my flying career.
You ex-SQ FA?
Really?
@ Matthew — This is truly gross. What exactly did she do with the cheese? Eat it on the plane with her fingers? Maybe she should fly Southwest, where she can get a whole row to herself.
Perhaps she knew what we all do: on-board food is usually terrible. By stocking up on some edible items she was fortifying herself for long hours of poor-quality food (sometimes outright inedible as my recent JNB-EWR Polaris experience). Granted, it was tacky but probably happens a lot more often than we suspect… maybe I’ll nab some victuals before my next UA flight just in case. 🙂
My name is Karen and I really dont like disrespect of people using my name as a bad person. You don’t know how many people make derogatory comments when they find out my name
Not meant to be against the many good Karens of this world.
I take oranges & bananas from the lounge.
Are u gonna report me too?
Some don’t agree you take anything from the lounge.
How now, brown cow?
No, I’m not going to report you. But if I see you filling up your backpack with oranges and bananas, I will mock you on the blog.
Btw do you know there is a Karen* nation in Northern Thailand Laos and Myanmar?
*Not being associated with stupid,redneck woman without manners.
Am I only only one seeing the irony of this article and comments on a travel blog that is focused around getting every last drop of entitlements, perks, and optimized credit card sub, etc (not to mention complaining when you don’t get them or if it involves a dog) – especially if you spend any time in a lounge you see people stocking up on food and drinks that make you wonder if they are enjoying a last meal after a month starvation and before a great famine… or this first time they tasted legal alcohol,
looks like fromunda cheese
Assuming she wasn’t going to eat all this on the plane (maybe she was?) one thing I’m surprised no one mentioned is US customs rules state “Cheese (only vacuum packed and pasteurized, no cheeses made of raw milk).” I’d read from that that loose cheese would not be allowed? To those who seem to be ok with this behaviour – it was mentioned in the article she pretty much cleared the buffet of cheese. Pretty much says she doesn’t give a * about anyone else around her. You’d be ok with the buffet being devoid of cheese because someone else decided to take it all for themselves. I witnessed similar behaviour in Texas Roadhouse once, the free nuts at the exit someone loaded at least 20 bags into their bag. I didn’t say anything but it’s no wonder companies take away, or downgrade offerings if people like this take advantage
Probably not the first, or last, time if she’s got a hoard of ziplock bags. A select few usually ruin things for the many with their behaviour. Same goes for tourist spots where people disrespect the local culture or the signage to keep to trails etc. etc. Before you know it places are shut down or limited in what you can do because a few people don’t think about anyone else around them
Hmmm On a United flight from LHR….
Carrying that much cheese it would have been true revenge, if able to see her boarding pass, to contact CBP at her destination and let them know…
They frown seriously on people bringing in disallowed foodstuffs such as unsealed cheese …!
Obviously the assumption being that she is flying back to USA… It may not be the case however!