# Serving alcohol in planes legally **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 24, 2009, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serving-alcohol-in-planes-legally/518756 "2009-11-24T10:36:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TXCowboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/76d3ee/32.png) [@TXCowboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TXCowboy)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2009, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serving-alcohol-in-planes-legally/518756/21 "2009-11-24T23:20:09Z")
> [@Lord\_Mondegreen](#): > > It’s been my experience that it is not uncommon for Flight Attendants to pull rules, regulations, and laws out of their nether regions. > > Getting a legal lesson from a Flight Attendant is like getting a history lesson from a tour guide. She may have been right, or she may have been repeating some airline folklore. Don’t know for sure if it was a law, regulation or that airlines rule but I do know they would not serve it past that point. I thought at the time maybe they ran out of it and as you say, just making something up, but on the return trip (Atlanta to Dallas) a few days later, I experienced the same thing. After leaving Atlanta, I asked for a Coors and was told the same thing and after crossing the Mississippi, they started serving it. It was right there in the bottom drawer of the beverage cart the whole time. ---
**Author:** ![TXCowboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/76d3ee/32.png) [@TXCowboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TXCowboy)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2009, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serving-alcohol-in-planes-legally/518756/22 "2009-11-24T23:24:13Z")
> [@Ronald\_C.Semone](#): > > The Coors company did not pasterize its beer and it refused to sell it in the eastern part of the U.S. because it said the beer would deteriorate in the time it took it to get to the east coast. If I remember correctly, someone sued the company over the right to transport the beer east and won the court case, thereby opening the whole country to Coors. Thanks for the explaination, I never really knew why they wouldn’t sell it in the eastern U. S. I just knew they wouldn’t. I can remember back in the mid '70’s it wasn’t even available in Texas, you had to make a road trip to Colorado to get it. BTW, (not that movies are based on facts all the time) but thats what the movie Smokey and The Bandit was all about, running illegal Coors beer from Texas to Georgia. ---
**Author:** ![Electric\_Monk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/2acd7d/32.png) [@Electric\_Monk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electric_Monk)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2009, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serving-alcohol-in-planes-legally/518756/23 "2009-11-24T23:31:37Z")
Well, a U. S. District Court has ruled that New Mexico can prohibit USAir from serving alcohol in OR OVER the state. [http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Judge-NM-can-yank-US-Airways-apf-2935205780.html?x=0&.v=1](http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Judge-NM-can-yank-US-Airways-apf-2935205780.html?x=0&.v=1) The actual ruling is here (PDF Warning): [http://www.nmcourt.fed.us/Drs-Web/view-file?full-path-file-name=%2Fdata%2Fdrs%2Fdm%2Fdocuments%2Fndd%2F2009%2F09%2F30%2F0002615034-0000000000-07cv01235.pdf](http://www.nmcourt.fed.us/Drs-Web/view-file?full-path-file-name=%2Fdata%2Fdrs%2Fdm%2Fdocuments%2Fndd%2F2009%2F09%2F30%2F0002615034-0000000000-07cv01235.pdf) ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2009, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serving-alcohol-in-planes-legally/518756/24 "2009-11-24T23:36:26Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > There was this case where it was decided that USAirways cannot serve alcoholic beverages while over New Mexico airspace or while on the ground in that state: > [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33125756/ns/travel-news/](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33125756/ns/travel-news/) Kansas did something similar in the 70s. From the wiki on Kansas liquor laws: > [@](#): > > In the 1970s, Kansas Attorney General Vern Miller, who served from 1971 to 1975, brought a new bout of enforcement of Kansas’s prohibition, even raiding Amtrak trains traveling through Kansas to stop illegal liquor sales.[4] He also forced airlines to stop serving liquor while traveling through Kansas airspace.[5] Today, it is likely that these restrictions would be found unconstitutional under the Supreme Court’s decision in Granholm v. Heald, 544 U.S. 460 (2005). Or maybe not, given the cited New Mexico case. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2009, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serving-alcohol-in-planes-legally/518756/25 "2009-11-25T05:18:11Z")
> [@Ronald\_C.Semone](#): > > The Coors company did not pasterize its beer and it refused to sell it in the eastern part of the U.S. because it said the beer would deteriorate in the time it took it to get to the east coast. If I remember correctly, someone sued the company over the right to transport the beer east and won the court case, thereby opening the whole country to Coors. This was also illustrated in the epic court case of Smokey & The Bandit vs. Sherrif Justice, 1978. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2009, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serving-alcohol-in-planes-legally/518756/26 "2009-11-25T05:42:25Z")
Like ships, aircrafts generally follow the laws of the country they are registered in. A crime on a Pakistan Airline Jet flying to London will see Pakistani Courts having juridiction ,even if it was committed over Moscow. This jurudiction lasts until landing. ---
**Author:** ![NineToTheSky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5a626/32.png) [@NineToTheSky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NineToTheSky)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2009, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serving-alcohol-in-planes-legally/518756/27 "2009-11-25T08:51:35Z")
That Coors thing is interesting. Back in the early '70s, I made my first road trip across the States, west to east. In those days, American beers weren’t available in the UK, but I had heard of Budweiser; I’d seen in films that it was known as ‘Bud’. In Arizona I stopped in the middle of nowhere - just a bar and gas station. Back in the day, I had long hair, and stood out because of that - particularly in the backwoods of Arizona. I walked in. A line of denim clad, cowboy booted and hatted men, sat in a line at the bar, swivelled around, looked me up and down, and swivelled back - in silence. Thinking myself really cool (knowing about American beers), I said cheerfully “I’ll have a Bud.” The silence deepened. The barman stared at me, and sneered “We don’t serve that sort of liquor here. This here’s Coors country.” ---
**Author:** ![FRDE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e68b1a/32.png) [@FRDE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FRDE)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2009, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serving-alcohol-in-planes-legally/518756/28 "2009-11-25T10:03:14Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Like ships, aircrafts generally follow the laws of the country they are registered in. A crime on a Pakistan Airline Jet flying to London will see Pakistani Courts having juridiction ,even if it was committed over Moscow. > > This jurudiction lasts until landing. That sounds right to me. I used to supply a computer system for duty free sales onboard aircraft and the general rule was that the goods were sealed in containers prior to landing and the documentation (stock list) had to conform to the local customs rules - not too much of a problem as they tended be the same. ---
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2009, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serving-alcohol-in-planes-legally/518756/29 "2009-11-25T14:26:02Z")
Of course, this discussion brings to mind the old question “If an airplane flying from the U.S. to Canada crashes exactly on the border, where are the survivors buried?” ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2009, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serving-alcohol-in-planes-legally/518756/30 "2009-11-25T14:41:51Z")
FWIW, flying from JFK to London on British Airways in 1986ish I was offered wine without a bat of an eye. I was 16. Also FWIW, Carnival’s cruise ships are registered Panamanian, Bahamian, and similarly, but they don’t serve alcohol to anyone under 21. ---
**Author:** ![Dahu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dahu/32/3416_2.png) [@Dahu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dahu)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2009, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serving-alcohol-in-planes-legally/518756/31 "2009-11-25T14:59:07Z")
> [@Ronald\_C.Semone](#): > > Of course, this discussion brings to mind the old question “If an airplane flying from the U.S. to Canada crashes exactly on the border, where are the survivors buried?” I would think it would be up to the relatives. Probably the US ones in the US, and the Canadians in Canada. _(yes I know)_ ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2009, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serving-alcohol-in-planes-legally/518756/32 "2009-11-25T15:05:44Z")
> [@Ronald\_C.Semone](#): > > Of course, this discussion brings to mind the old question “If an airplane flying from the U.S. to Canada crashes exactly on the border, where are the survivors buried?” Wouldn’t that depend on where they are when they actually, yanno, **die** …? ---
**Author:** ![BlakeTyner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@BlakeTyner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlakeTyner)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2009, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serving-alcohol-in-planes-legally/518756/33 "2009-11-25T19:13:06Z")
This is also a bit of a tangent, because it involves traveling through a state–on the ground–but I get a kick out of it nonetheless. Amtrak’s Texas Eagle is a daily train from Chicago to San Antonio, with stops along the route. One of those stops is Texarkana, a city on the Texas/Arkansas state line (they have 2 post offices, 2 police forces, etc., but it’s effectively one city.) The train station is smack dab on the state line, so when the train is southbound, the front half will be in Texas and the rear half will be in Arkansas. You can’t buy beer on Sunday in Arkansas (or at least you couldn’t in the mid-90’s.) So on Sundays, at the Texarkana stop, if you were in the dining car you could have beer or wine with your meal, but if you were in the lounge–just one car back–you couldn’t buy alcohol. The reverse became true on northbound trips. No alcohol in the diner, but all you wanted in the lounge. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2009, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serving-alcohol-in-planes-legally/518756/34 "2009-11-25T20:23:25Z")
Johnny Carson used to say when he flew back to Nebraska he couldn’t have alcohol when flying over certain counties 'cause they were “dry.” I don’t know if that was true or some attempt at a weak joke. This was back in the 70s though ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2009, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serving-alcohol-in-planes-legally/518756/35 "2009-11-26T01:22:47Z")
I can relate my experience, but with the caveat that it occurred 25+ years ago. I boarded a Sabena flight in Detroit, Michigan that was bound for Brussels, Belgium. I was 17 at the time, and thus not legal to drink in any US State (variously 18, 19, or 21 depending on which state at the time). I was not permitted to order alcohol while we were over US airspace. I was not permitted to order alcohol while we were over Canadian airspace. Over the Atlantic, above international waters, I seem to recall I _was_ permitted to order alcohol. Can’t remember what the rules were when we landed in Reykjavik, Iceland, but I do remember that in international airspace they applied Belgium laws. Apparently, I was of legal age. ---
**Author:** ![NineToTheSky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5a626/32.png) [@NineToTheSky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NineToTheSky)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2009, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serving-alcohol-in-planes-legally/518756/36 "2009-11-26T08:03:07Z")
It’s interesting that this is one of the few occasions I’ve come across on the Dope where the answer doesn’t seem to be known. ---
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2009, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serving-alcohol-in-planes-legally/518756/37 "2009-11-26T16:33:24Z")
If I may add anecdotal experience, on a trip to Germany right after high school, at some point on our transoceanic adventure, we were served alcohol in accordance with the German laws. The reverse was true on the way back, once we got close to US soil, the liquor train shut down. We were flying Lufthansa, if it matters. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2009, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serving-alcohol-in-planes-legally/518756/38 "2009-11-26T18:29:34Z")
> [@Ronald\_C.Semone](#): > > Of course, this discussion brings to mind the old question “If an airplane flying from the U.S. to Canada crashes exactly on the border, where are the survivors buried?” Ha, ha, ha. But there was a Canadian movie (Bon cop, bad cap, IIRC) based on the hypothesis that a corpse was found lying over the sign that said “Bienvenue au Quebec” on one side and “Welcome to Ontario” on the other and they couldn’t decide which province had jurisdiction so the investigation was carried out by a team of two, one from the Ontario Provincial Poloce and the other from the Surete du Quebec. The story was based on the resulting complications. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2009, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serving-alcohol-in-planes-legally/518756/39 "2009-11-26T19:19:22Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > I would guess it’s up to each airline’s individual policy what they do once in international airspace. I believe that while over the territory of the originating or arrival country then those laws apply. > > Every international Middle Eastern or Muslim country airline I’ve flown on has served alcohol to non-muslim passengers (Gulf Air, Emirates, Etihad, Garuda, Biman) How do they tell if someone is Muslim or not? ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2009, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serving-alcohol-in-planes-legally/518756/40 "2009-11-26T19:29:28Z")
Let me put this another way. In the context of this thread, the notion of “serving alcohol” pretty much means “not refusing to sell it to a person because of something about the person–mainly age”. So when you say these airlines serve alcohol to non-Muslims, do you mean it’s against their policy and applicable laws to serve alcohol to Muslims? If that’s the case, then how do they differentiate the passengers? Or do you mean that any passenger can ask for alcoholic beverages, and that those who do are presumably non-Muslim? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serving-alcohol-in-planes-legally/518756.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serving-alcohol-in-planes-legally/518756.md?page=3)