Be sure to read the comment left by "askme" on the linked page. It is a similar story but it actually made me laugh.
Hacking Airline Lounges for Free Meals
41–50 of 119 posts
Re: Hacking Airline Lounges for Free Meals
#42Re: Hacking Airline Lounges for Free Meals
#43The "hack" I've seen the most frequently is buying a ticket that gets you in the priority lane in addition to a standard ticket so that one can go through minimal security wait times and then cancel the ticket in time for a refund.
Re: Hacking Airline Lounges for Free Meals
#44You could buy a first class ticket and hold on to it for a year, then use the lounges whenever you actually do travel. It doesn't look like this is possible in the US though. I don't see an airline that offers their lounge just for having a first class ticket. Alaska even requires a ticket for the day you're there.
Most US airlines don't offer lounge access for domestic first class tickets, but they generally do for international business/first. And sometimes for "premium" transcontinental routes (like JFK-SFO).
Then again, the food in US airline lounges leaves a lot to be desired. The free meal would probably just be cheese and crackers and carrot sticks...
Re: Hacking Airline Lounges for Free Meals
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm thinking he never changed the actual flight info, he just manually "photoshopped" the data on the ticket. Even with the barcodes, many airports and lounges do not actually check the barcodes, they just visually verify the info. There was a story a few years back when Delta and some others started doing boarding by zones. People were doing online checking, saving their printable ticket as a PDF or whatever, and ed…
I don't understand the apparent desire for early boarding. Almost every airport lounge I've been in has been more comfortable than the aircraft. The plane's not going to leave without you. I much prefer sitting in the lounge and wandering on last.
> The plane's not going to leave without you.
I saw at least one case where a checked-in passenger arrived around 7 min before the official departure time (he was in a bar) but the gates were already closed and they didn't let him in.
Re: Hacking Airline Lounges for Free Meals
#46You could buy a first class ticket and hold on to it for a year, then use the lounges whenever you actually do travel. It doesn't look like this is possible in the US though. I don't see an airline that offers their lounge just for having a first class ticket. Alaska even requires a ticket for the day you're there.
Most US airlines don't offer lounge access for domestic first class tickets, but they generally do for international business/first. And sometimes for "premium" transcontinental routes (like JFK-SFO). Then again, the food in US airline lounges leaves a lot to be desired. The free meal would probably just be cheese and crackers and carrot sticks...
Very true, I can't imagine going thru the effort to do this to get some pre-packaged cheese and Bud Light.
Probably better to just hang out in a hotel lobby which has the same amenities and less hassles.
Re: Hacking Airline Lounges for Free Meals
#47Most airline lounges in the U.S. offer free snacks, wine and beer – not meals.
Re: Hacking Airline Lounges for Free Meals
#48From the guidelines:
> Please submit the original source. If a blog post reports on something they found on another site, submit the latter.
Should this submission be amended to the URL and headline of the original article? http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2014/01/24/Man-uses-fi...
Re: Hacking Airline Lounges for Free Meals
#49Most airline lounges in the U.S. offer free snacks, wine and beer – not meals.
I haven't seen free meals in airline lounges lately either.
Re: Hacking Airline Lounges for Free Meals
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not if you tell them you're just going to eat. Seems like that's pretty easy to confirm. Why be sneaky about it? Obviously nobody at the airline lounge cared that this guy showed up every day, why would the guards care?
Imagine you're a guard there and I drop by every day for a meal. You're wondering if I'm a a terrorist looking for security holes while I eat, and your biggest concern is false negatives: you would hate to rule me out as a threat and then find out I blew up your airport. What questions would you ask me to figure that out?
Hello, do you happen to be one of those y'know... Terrorists?