Michael O’Leary, the CEO of Ryanair, is pushing for stricter regulations to curb the rise in disruptive passenger behavior linked to alcohol and drug use. One of the regulations is a two-drink limit at airports. I’m all for it because I’m sick and tired of reading stories and seeing videos of unruly passengers and the majority of the time, these incidents are exacerbated thanks to drugs, alcohol or both.
According to the BBC: “Crew members and other passengers have become targets, according to Mr O’Leary. Delays add to the problem, with longer drinking times at airports. “In the old days, people who drank too much would eventually fall over or fall asleep. But now those passengers are also on tablets and powder,” he added. “It’s the mix. You get much more aggressive behaviour that becomes very difficult to manage.” Mr O’Leary said it was difficult for airlines to identify inebriated people at the gate, especially when they boarded in a group.”
O’Leary says beach and party destinations are the worst like the Greek Islands and Ibiza. In fact, he says, “Ryanair staff search bags for alcohol before passengers board flights to Ibiza.”
Recently, a TUI pilot on a flight from Glasgow to Tenerife made sure that he laid down the ground rules before takeoff. In his pre-flight announcement, the captain made sure that all the passengers aboard, many of whom had apparently already hit the sauce and were rowdy, knew that he wasn’t going to tolerate any bad behavior.
In related news, there’s a viral thread on Reddit (embedded below) with the title: “First class drink limit?” The caption read, “was [on a] 3 hour flight LAX – DFW, paid to upgrade to first to start the long weekend and the flight attendant just cut me off after 3 drinks and said she couldn’t serve more than 1 drink per hour. Like many, am EP, never heard this before. Have been given 3-4 drinks in economy many times. Very weird.”
First class drink limit?
byu/Andy_Dufresne_ inamericanairlines
FYI: EP stands for Executive Platinum, which is American Airlines’ highest published level of elite status. To reach that status, AAdvantage members must earn 200,000 Loyalty Points in a year (March 1 to the end of February) of the following year. The best way to achieve this is by flying American and/or spending on one of their branded credit cards.
First of all, I’m EP and get upgraded often and not once have I ever had a drink in the sky (I’ve flown over three million miles). I don’t drink but even if I did, I wouldn’t do it in the sky since it’s terrible for your body (alcohol dehydrates you) and many people can’t control their actions. If something goes wrong, I want to be fully functional.
Secondly, I don’t think it’s weird and if I was on the flight, I would have given the flight attendant one of the certificates the airline gives their frequent fliers to reward exceptional employees.
As I said previously, I’m sick and tired of reading about drunk passengers acting out. Below are just a few of the hundreds of recent examples:
–Unbelievable: another American Airlines passenger urinates on seatmate and it happened on the same route
–Drunk passenger on American Airlines throws up on seatmates in first class
–‘Aggressive and disruptive’ United Airlines passenger zip-tied after biting off piece of flight attendant’s uniform
–Video of hero Frontier flight attendant speaking out about duct-taping drunk punk
I find it shocking when flight attendants keep serving passengers drinks even though they’re clearly drunk. I once had a rocker sitting next to me after he performed at the Super Bowl and he seriously had seven drinks within two hours and then he passed out for the rest of the flight. Couldn’t even wake him so thank goodness there wasn’t an emergency and thank goodness he wasn’t a bad drunk.
One AAdvantage Executive Platinum member commented on the Reddit thread, “The regulation says they cannot serve you past the point where they think you are intoxicated. That’s a bit subjective. I’ve had FAs happy to serve me multiple drinks in short order. I’ve not ever pushed it.”
An American Airlines (AA) flight attendant replied that “this is the correct answer. It is indeed subjective, and some flight attendants like to set their own personal limit so they don’t have to make a determination whether you may or may not be getting intoxicated. I like to personally assess each passenger so I don’t have to arbitrarily cut people off who are not yet getting intoxicated. But we are, in the end, liable and on the hook for over serving.”
Another AA flight attendant chimed in too: “I’m an AA FA as well, but still within my first year. I’ve always been told we are limited to one per flight hour, and to be mindful of how much alcohol we serve to an individual.”
When people don’t seem to be able to control themselves, airlines and airports then need to make sure they don’t exacerbate the situation and do what they can to make flying peaceful for all those onboard.
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That’s never going to fly.