Alcohol in Transit

[Lurkingandlearning]

Inspired by thread about airport lounge bars and the daft rules about what you can buy - only single measures but can buy another single to pour in to make a double. The idea that this prevents drunk passengers, which is good but clearly unworkable especially as you can go from bar to bar without staff monitoring how many drinks you’ve consumed.

Would anyone care if alcohol was unavailable at airports and on planes (stations and trains, ports ferries) ?

It’s nice for people who drink just as it was once nice for people who smoked to be able to do so but is it really that important to anyone?

It seems to me the only ones really benefitting are the breweries when in those situations anyone who is impaired by alcohol are potentially
annoying if not out right dangerous to everyone else.

Would you stop travelling if you couldn’t drink in transit?

Of course I wouldn’t stop travelling! I do often enjoy a preflight alcoholic drink though, I’m scared of flying and I find I’m more relaxed if I’ve had a drink (I must stress though; I’m not drunk on one of two pre drinks and I’ve never been a nuisance, and I don’t usually drink once on the plane). We got an overnight ferry recently and shared a bottle of wine, again it was just nice and relaxing but not for nerves, just because we were having a lovely dinner.

@TheChosenTwo Thank you for posting

Me too although I don’t drink in transit because of fear of flying. I enjoy it and for me, it often adds to the holiday vibe.

I’m more curious about how people would feel if they couldn’t drink in transit

Just breathalyse everyone before serving them a drink. Make it the law, just like drink driving. Or tokens only for purchasing drinks. Two max per person. Sorted, but but, the freedoms lost, it's MY RIGHT! etc.

It wouldn't stop me flying but I do like a prosecco on the flight to thr holiday. I don't tend to drink alcohol at the airport. I can't understand how some people have a couple early in the morning

I wouldn't miss it at all, but many would.

It's a habit that a lot of people get themselves into, isn't it.

Lots of people associate alcohol with fun, socialising and celebration, which in many cases are what flights and journeys are about.

There are a very small minority of people who get aggressive and cause disruption.

It would be a shame to punish the, what, 99% of others who are no harm to anyone else by having a few drinks.

I imagine the revenue lost and the cost of policing it would outweigh any benefits.

They should ban drinking and reinstate smoking areas. No one ever disrupted a flight because they'd had one too many Benny Hedgehogs.

Maybe not, but I'd rather not have to sit next to someone who reeks of smoke....

If they're a smoker, they will smell of smoke anyway, because they'll have been smoking up until they got inside the airport, probably till the last possible moment in view of the enforced abstinence to come.

I would get pissed before I left the country, just not at the airport. I don't mind short haul having no booze but seven hours plus with no alcohol would make me freak out. It's one of the only comforts on a long flight and helps me sleep.
I've never been on a flight with anyone acting up when drunk though. It must be very scary. But it's unfair that the few should spoil it for the many.

A more serious consideration (from the Govt's point of view) is the tax lost to the Treasury.

Amazed people can afford to get pissed at airport prices tbh.

Isn't it that the 'problem passengers' were glugging from their Duty Free' rather than having one too many in the airport bars?