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SLEEPING PRONE ON THE SOFA: CONCORDE ROOM
➜ IANFROMHKG
Keen to hear people’s views. Is sleeping prone on the sofa in BA’s Concorde Room (like you would in the privacy of your own living room) appropriate or simply low-class and tacky?
➜ STEVESCOOTS
I find it as discourteous as people blocking seats with bags in lounges and gate areas.
➜ CAPETONIANM
I would consider it inappropriate, but just imagine if that person had been flying for 24 hours and possibly hadn’t slept before boarding, is not feeling well and has got to the stage of no longer caring, so decided to have 40 winks stretched out. Haven’t most of us been there at some point? Unless he’s taking up seating space that other people need, I would not let it upset me.
What to me is far more inappropriate is seeing people scooping up food, canapés, biscuits, fruit and so on, and shovelling it into a bag. I even saw someone filling up a small bottle with whisky and putting it into his bag.
➜ GIVINGUPBA
Sorry to disagree with you on this: I have been there many times, but would never lie prone on a sofa in an airport lounge – a lounge is not my hotel room or living room.
CAPETONIANM, you also described as inappropriate people “scooping up food, canapés, biscuits, fruit and so on, and shovelling it into a bag” – there, I agree with you. I was once in the BA Galleries lounge at Heathrow T5 and was utterly amazed to see a guy, in full view of everyone, filling up his rucksack with can BUSINESSTRAVELLER.COM/FORUM
after can of drinks, then exiting the lounge – words fail me.
➜ LUGANOPIRATE
I wouldn’t call it low class as I’ve seen people of all classes do this in many locations around the world. What does distress me is where you have a typical arrangement of sofa, two armchairs and a table, with a person full out on the sofa and their bag and laptop occupying both armchairs in a crowded lounge. The lack of consideration of some of my fellow travellers never ceases to amaze me!
➜ IANFROMHKG
Does the Concorde Room not have a relaxation area with loungers or daybeds?
BA needs to take a look at the Cathay Pacific first class lounges in Hong Kong if it wants to know how to treat premium passengers properly!
Mind you, most people wouldn’t share a sofa with a stranger so, whether he was lying on it or sitting on it, he is effectively blocking other people from using it anyway. Why do so many solo travellers make a beeline for a sofa or a group of four chairs that could be used by colleagues travelling together or by a family? I have lost count of the number of times we have had our family sit apart from each other in lounges because we simply can’t get four seats together. Grrrrr.
On the subject of looters, a year or so ago I was in the AA arrivals lounge in LHR and saw a woman loot every mini-bottle of champagne from the fridges and put them in her handbag. As if that wasn’t bad enough, she didn’t even bother to shut the fridge doors! So I made some rather sarcastic comment about how if she was going to steal things she could at least have the decency to shut the doors so that what she left behind would remain cold. To my momentary embarrassment, when she swung around (she had had her back to me), I realised she used to work for me! Ah well. I never liked her anyway!
Unsurprisingly, AA no longer keeps champagne in its fridges, and you now have to ask for it. Just another little disservice caused by greedy and selfish passengers and, in this case, I know exactly who it was!
I saw a woman loot every mini-bottle of champagne from the fridges and put them in her handbag
➜ TONYR
So what do people suggest if you are in the lounge with a long stopover, badly delayed flight or a serious case of post-red-eye fatigue? Should you decamp to the public concourse where sleeping across seats is quite common? I might be less forgiving if someone was stretched out reading a book in a busy lounge, but if they are power-napping, surely we’ve all been there often enough on our own busy travels to cut them some slack – they have, after all, paid for a lie-flat bed with their ticket.
➜ FDOS_UK
IANFROMHKG, apart from the small number of bookable cabanas, that’s right, the F Lounge has none, so you can’t blame knackered travellers for making themselves comfortable and sleeping, in my opinion.