i heard an air-rage story on the news this morning where a couple of drunk guys were being obnoxious. the plane was delayed, probably sitting on the tarmac for a while (i know how torturous that can feel) and the idiotic airline folks gave out free drink coupons. what did they expect? why do they even serve alcohol on planes anyway? it’s not a cocktail party. don’t they want passengers to follow directions and sit quietly? they tell you when to eat, when to drink, when you can get up and walk around, when to buckle up, they want you to be patient when the flight is delayed…so where does drinking alcohol fit into all this? how does getting drunk jibe with the structured regiment of a plane flight? it wouldn’t be any skin off my nose if they just banned alcohol altogether from planes. don’t get me wrong - i get just as pissed as anyone by the increasingly crappy airline service (for which i don’t blame any one particular faction) and i like going out and drinking, but how can they provide what they have to know is uncomfortable conditions and rude service and serve alcohol and expect people not to get drunk and be disruptive?
I see your point completely however I see no reason to punish those of us that drink responsibly on planes because of those who don’t. I enjoy a beer while on a flight to my vacation destination. It makes me a bit relaxed on in otherwise relatively stressful experience (I’m not big on flying). Of course with the prices of alcohol on flights and in airports I cannot afford to get drunk and am therefore not a problem on planes.
Alcohol is there for people who enjoy drinking it, to be able to have just that. It even helps some fear-of-flying (I just know this is begging to be EricaJonged) people relax for the flight. Most people who purchase cocktails, beer, wine, etc. on a flight do so responsibly. Just because a couple of guys are being irresponsible with their drinking doesn’t mean that we should ban alcohol from planes altogether.
That’s getting a little paranoid, dontchyathink?
I mean, I don’t like obnoxious screaming babies on my flight either, but I won’t go lobbying to have them banned from airlines.
melpomene
paranoid? if you mean ‘overreacting’, maybe. they don’t make emergency landings and arrest people for screaming babies though. they’ve already declared much of standard drunken obnoxious behavior to be a federal offense on planes. they have already made it clear that they will not tolerate the effect alcohol has on a large portion of society, yet they still serve it.
Call me what you will, but if they got rid of alcohol on planes I’d never fly again. A glass of wine or a cocktail is the only thing preventing me from having a full blown panic attack mid-flight. I assume the airlines have thought about whether more people are like the obnoxious jerks you described, or if more people are in need of alcohol-induced relaxation or sedation, like me.
Also, I firmly believe that people who are jerks are going to be that way whether they are drinking or not. I have personally witnessed many people on planes causing problems, making unreasonable demands, getting up from their seats and generally making trouble without having a drop of alcohol. If adults, drunk or otherwise, become enraged over flight delays to the point of being a danger to themselves or others, the problem is a lot bigger than whether or not you can kick back with a Bud on an airplane.
Is my fear of flying a psychological issue that I should probably deal with in some other way? Yes. But you posted in IMHO, so this is my opinion.
Dude, chill out. I went to college here in DC while I was still legally a resident of California, and flew four-five times a year. Back, forth. Back, forth. Nebraska from the left side, Nebraska from the right side. I now know better than I want the layout of DFW and ORD (Dallas-Fort Worth and Chicago)airports. If I hadn’t been able to get a gin and tonic on at least some of those flights, I would have gone insane from boredom, coach-class crappy seating and the “food” and “movies”. Anyone who has a problem with air rage after a few pops probably has it sober, just not as much.
That said, you’re usu. limited to two drinks in coach, but unlimited (and free) in first. It’s the rich,drunk, obnoxious people who ruin it for the rest of who quietly read and sip.
What we REALLY need to do is give people whatever they want in terms of recreational drugs-but not too much,just enough-and then we’d have friendly skies.
Can’t you just hear the flight attendants now? “Beer, wine, pot, nitrous, poppers?”
Bars have bouncers that toss out troublemakers. Airlines should just have bouncers too…
And I suppose a couple of parachutes if you folks are going to be squimish about it.
false_god
hey dude, i’m chill. everything’s cool, man. just kickin’ back and floatin’ some ideas, bro’. so a gin and tonic while you’re sitting on a plane cures boredom? that’s cool man, that’s what it’s all about. doin’ your own thing, man. i’m down.
should alcohol be banned from planes?
I think i would give that a resounding NO
Right on
Also how do you expect people to be able to fall asleep on long flights withou alcohol, not very easy to do.
haha, they should
One other consideration…
Flight attendants prefer that alcohol be available on the plane, so they can decide when a person has had enough.
If it was not served on the plane, they surmise that people would drink more heavily at the airport bar. Since the effects of alcohol are greater in the lower pressure of the airplane, many people may actually be MORE inebriated than under the current situation.
Let me ask YOU a question or two, zwaldd:
- How often do you fly?
- How long are your flights?
- What’s the longest flight you have been on?
Assholes who act up on planes such that it disrupts a flight are very rare. So rare that when it occurs, it makes the papers and Web news. Think of all of the flights every day that are NOT delayed or disrupted by persons who consume alcohol.
Your argument is basically that these rare occurances by a few butt-burglars that do act illegally should thus be able to inconvenience nice little me, who sits quietly, listens to her music, and sips her Bailley’s. If that is correct, and I am reading you right, then my response is - no.
Well, it might be a good idea to ban alcohol from the cockpit, at least.
IMO alcohol is just a convenient scapegoat for air-rage incidents. In the “good old days” of air travel (I’m only 27 myself and I can remember when it was different) unlimited booze really did mean unlimited. And who ever heard of “air-rage” until about five years ago?
The real causes of air-rage, though no airline will admit it, are cramped seats and high temperatures. The cabin temperatures in airplanes are kept deliberately high, ironically to keep the average flyer in check by putting them to sleep. Problem is, it also increases the effect of alcohol in some passengers. As for cramped seats, as any flyer will attest, the more crowded a plane is, the more anxious and stressed people will become–quite apart from the recently-discussed dangers of bloodclotting from long-term spells in tiny airplane seats.
As for me, I’m really going to need a few G&Ts on my trip back to the States in three weeks.
On a related note…
I have an 11 hour 20 minute non-stop from Paris to Dallas in two weeks on my return. Imagine that without any alcohol (shudder).
- 10 times a year, max
- 3-4 hours, not inculding layovers/transfers
- 5-6 hours
Let me give you my experience with this first. In 1993, I was flying from Gatwick to Portland (via Chicago) when, somewhere over the Atlantic, a heavily intoxicated passenger decided he wanted to see the cockpit. He literally forced the door open and began yelling at the pilot. The co-pilot and two stewards escorted him back to his seat and told him to remain there. Then he got violent.
He struck one steward, knocking him nearly unconscious. The others tried to restrain him. I grabbed the straps off my backpack, and along with a couple other passengers, managed to get the jerk tied up. He ended up getting stored in the luggage bay. Police were waiting for us when we landed.
So. Do I think alcohol should be banned? No. But I wish flight attendants were better trained on when to cut people off, and how to handle potential violence. That could have been a significatnly worse situation very easily.
As long as the pilot is not the one consuming the alcohol it’s all right with me. 
Seriously, by that same token why not prohibit car passengers from drinking alcohol while on the road? The dangerous consequences of alcohol consumption apply to them just like they do to airplane passengers. While under the influence of alcoholic beverages they might perturb the driver’s attention and provoke an accident. That is unlikely to happen on a plane, since a drunk troublemaker is likely going to be contained by other passengers before he can get to the cockpit and seriously endanger the safety of the flight.
If you are going to adopt a particular position you should be consistent. That would mean no alcohol being consumed on ANY moving vehicle. Doesn’t make sense to me.
And on the 8th day God created beer.
I have to agree with Anthrcite. I’ve flown to Europe twice and Japan (only once) in the last two years, not to mention my at least 10 trips a year from Charlotte to L.A. and the occasional other places i go. And i’ve flown this frequently for just shy of 20 years. You know how many “air-ragers” i’ve seen? NONE. Zero, zip, zilch, not-a-one. Now should I be banned from drinking on airplanes because of something that has affected (this is a guesstimate) maybe 0.01% of the people who fly? I know i dont know you (OP’er) and i dont mean any offense by this but its whiners like you that ruin alot of stuff for everyone else.
Oh, please, not another Neo-Puritan relflexive twitch!..(no insult intended to the OP or the poster; just a world-weary wail.)
This is a security issue. Ladies and gentlemen can do all sorts of things without causing a rumpus; they just do 'em discreetly and without bothering others. Vacationers, stresed business folk, nervous flyers, appalled diners needing lubricants to choke down the cardboard meals etc. etc. have excellent, legitimate reasons to enjoy civilized (though obscenely overpriced) drinks if they want!
Duke identified a real problem: deregulation has resulted in cancellations, delays, overbooking and missed connections. “Buy off” coupons for free drinks are a pitiful response for inefficiency. They wanna go that route, they pay the increased price for policing. (“Drinks on the house because we messed up…”)
BTW, I hate flying w/ wailing babies but don’t blame the poor miserable little bits of humanity–or their parents. My doc warned me (sinus infection) that airlines save money by lowering air quality in passenger cabins. If I’m tired, miserable and stuffed-up, what are they going through?
Veb
quasar
this is already prohibited in some states. open container laws and such.
‘slippery slope’ is the logical fallacy of assuming that an argument for a specific situation applies to all similar situations. it’s easily shot down. just fyi for future arguments.
cisco
not whiners like me. you’re thinking of someone else.