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Original poster

Can someone explain 5am airport drinking?

409 replies

Prenoden · 04/09/2025 06:52

I'm not asking this as a kill joy or teetotaler, I enjoy a drink on holiday as much as anyone but how are people able to stomach pints at 5am?

Been on holiday recently and could barely eat before flight yet everyone else had pints/ g&t etc. It wasn't even mid morning it was 5am

OP posts:
FrenchandSaunders · 05/09/2025 10:06

My dad used to work nights on the newspapers in Fleet St years ago .... the local pubs used to open at 4am when their shift ended. I thought it was odd until I realised that's their evening time. A drink with friends, home for something to eat, bit of TV, then bed for most of the day. Repeat.

SwingTheMonkey · 05/09/2025 09:57

OneFlewOverMy · 04/09/2025 08:57

No surprise then that the plain toilet queue is never ending.

Do only people who have been drinking alcohol use the toilet on an aeroplane?

user764329056 · 05/09/2025 09:57

Two places where time takes on a different meaning, airports and casinos, there’s never any clocks in casinos and often no windows as they want you to lose sense of time and stay there as long as possible

MrsSkylerWhite · 05/09/2025 09:55

Guessing that this is at a British airport?

Megifer · 05/09/2025 09:53

Electricrhubarb · 05/09/2025 09:39

Has anyone noticed this early morning drinking in other countries at airports, or is it more common in the UK?

Notice it quite a lot. Was in a very small airport last year in Spain that didnt have a bar but sold cans of gin in the shop, overheard a spanish family getting some and cracking them open when i was behind them, this was at 6am.

and on a recent holiday it was fun to watch a large group of Germans knocking back the free Cava at breakfast at about 7.30am then staggering back to the sunbeds 🤣

ThatBlackCat · 05/09/2025 09:41

IGaveSoManySigns · 05/09/2025 08:42

But we live in a society. And drinking at 5am is unacceptable.

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Who says it's unacceptable?

Who says?

And you're forgetting shift workers.

Electricrhubarb · 05/09/2025 09:39

Has anyone noticed this early morning drinking in other countries at airports, or is it more common in the UK?

FrenchandSaunders · 05/09/2025 09:19

@IGaveSoManySigns coffee and cake is needless to me ...... thank god everyone is different!

Lanzarotelady · 05/09/2025 09:11

@xSideshowAuntSallyXx Sorry - I misunderstood your post - I read it wrong.

Lanzarotelady · 05/09/2025 09:10

xSideshowAuntSallyXx · 05/09/2025 09:05

Because it's the airport and time is rather irrelevant there, shops are open most of the night too. Same goes with motorway services, who also have a 'Spoons at a lot of them now.

When you're travelling you're not doing normal day to day life or routine. Airports are a 24/7 hub where life doesn't stop because the rest of the UK are in bed.

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I know and understand that, hey I am there with the rest of them - I was asking someone else why it is different?

notimagain · 05/09/2025 09:06

IGaveSoManySigns · 05/09/2025 08:42

But we live in a society. And drinking at 5am is unacceptable.

Show quote history

To you it might be, to many it really isn't.

I don't know if you've ever worked night shifts but I often did and it was considered completely acceptable by others to occasionaly have a drink on the way home post work...

The 9 to 5'ers on the way to work might raise eyebrows but I'm afraid all that sometimes demonstrated was that they had limited experience of how and when a lot of the world works.

xSideshowAuntSallyXx · 05/09/2025 09:05

Lanzarotelady · 05/09/2025 08:55

Why is it different?

Show quote history

Because it's the airport and time is rather irrelevant there, shops are open most of the night too. Same goes with motorway services, who also have a 'Spoons at a lot of them now.

When you're travelling you're not doing normal day to day life or routine. Airports are a 24/7 hub where life doesn't stop because the rest of the UK are in bed.

ApolloandDaphne · 05/09/2025 09:01

And never mind airports, what about the hotels that serve fizz along with breakfast? I really don't care where and when people drink alcohol on holiday. It's time to step off the real world and just let go a bit. Live and let live I say.

HeartbrokenCatMum · 05/09/2025 09:00

Agree with others, it’s just part of the holiday ritual! I don’t think anything bad about it, just couldn’t stomach it myself.

Lanzarotelady · 05/09/2025 08:55

IGaveSoManySigns · 05/09/2025 08:42

But we live in a society. And drinking at 5am is unacceptable.

Show quote history

What time would be acceptable?

Lanzarotelady · 05/09/2025 08:55

xSideshowAuntSallyXx · 05/09/2025 08:43

But not at the airport.

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Why is it different?

Lanzarotelady · 05/09/2025 08:54

IGaveSoManySigns · 05/09/2025 06:36

Drinking at 5am is needless, no matter how you try to dress it up.

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So many things are pointless, make up, hair accessories, expensive handbags, glittery flipflops, holidays, forums like this, expensive chocolate, throws, scatter cushions, china cups, ornaments, fluffy socks - do you want me to conintue?

Life would be bloody boring if we didn't have or do anything needless.

Do you, or have you had issues with drinking @IGaveSoManySigns ? Not being goady, but a genuine question?

xSideshowAuntSallyXx · 05/09/2025 08:43

IGaveSoManySigns · 05/09/2025 08:42

But we live in a society. And drinking at 5am is unacceptable.

Show quote history

But not at the airport.

Charabanc · 05/09/2025 08:43

IGaveSoManySigns · 05/09/2025 08:42

But we live in a society. And drinking at 5am is unacceptable.

Show quote history

To you

IGaveSoManySigns · 05/09/2025 08:42

ThatBlackCat · 05/09/2025 07:50

It does to the person's body. And a clock is just a marker of man made time. Life, the atmosphere, the world is the same no matter the time.

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But we live in a society. And drinking at 5am is unacceptable.

Charabanc · 05/09/2025 08:23

God some people are such fun suckers 😆

I love a Mimosa or two at whatever time I want to drink it in the airport.

CostelloJones · 05/09/2025 08:21

I’ve done hypnosis now (which has helped but not eradicated my fear) but before that I needed a couple just to get me in a plane without crying 🤣

notimagain · 05/09/2025 08:15

miscarriageworries · 05/09/2025 07:51

I know this is always said and yes you’re more at risk of a car accident but aren’t you much more likely to survive a car accident than a plane crash ?

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Possibly...don't forget a lot of things that technically go on the list as aircraft accidents don't get reported by the general MSM but are eminently survivable...for example there's been a bit of a fashion recently for aircraft clipping wings/tails on the ground...basically very expensive aviation equivalents of fender benders...nobody hurt but probably some damaged careers..

miscarriageworries · 05/09/2025 07:51

LlynTegid · 04/09/2025 06:57

Exactly, even though they are at hundreds of times greater risk on the journey to the airport.

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I know this is always said and yes you’re more at risk of a car accident but aren’t you much more likely to survive a car accident than a plane crash ?

ThatBlackCat · 05/09/2025 07:50

IGaveSoManySigns · 05/09/2025 07:43

I think alcohol should be banned from airports full stop. It’s pointless. Stepping off a flight at 5am doesn’t magically make it 5pm.

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It does to the person's body. And a clock is just a marker of man made time. Life, the atmosphere, the world is the same no matter the time.