Can someone explain 5am airport drinking?

[Prenoden]

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

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

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

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

Who says it's unacceptable?

Who says?

And you're forgetting shift workers.

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 🤣

Guessing that this is at a British airport?

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

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

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.

Most flights to the UK aren't usually early in the morning. They'll turnaround the plane so our early morning flight is the lunchtime return flight or they tend to be night flights or midday/early afternoon so the pax would have got to the airport at say 9/10/11am or afternoon onwards, and not 5am so any drinking wouldn't seem that bad. Also, I can't remember seeing any pubs at any of the airports I've been too but maybe I wasn't looking for them.

It defo happens elsewhere, certainly at some major airports...connecting passengers, time zones etc.

There are at least some early morning flights to the UK airports from places in europe, for example for a while we had one from our local airport that departed for London before 0700 local,.we still have one that leaves for London before 0900 most days...

I've seen locals heading for that particular early flight on the wine/beer in limited amounts at breakfast time prior to boarding to go and watch a Rugby international at Twickenham....and before anyone asks they were good as gold on the flight.

@xSideshowAuntSallyXx

Most flights to the UK aren't usually early in the morning. They'll turnaround the plane so our early morning flight is the lunchtime return flight

For info the UK LoCos will schedule like that to avoid nightstopping in europe (cost) , so no doubt many UK regional airports won't have early arrivals from europe.

OTOH the foreign carriers are working the other way round so lots of their flights leave europe early AM to get into places like London to turn to head back to London mid-late AM.

Also some Uk airlines such as BA do nightstop in europe precisely so they can o operate early AM into London from Europe, for example to feed BA Longhaul services that tend to start leaving late AM

Well if we're going down that route, drinking alcohol at anytime/anywhere is needless, still doesn't stop most people from doing it though. Do you finger wag at anybody having a tipple?

As is eating cake and fry ups and fast food and smoking and drinking fizzy sweet drinks

No, can't explain it myself, but to each their own!

Difference being those things don’t impact upon others. Have you ever been on a flight full of rowdy drunks? It’s terrifying.

How is me having 2 glasses of wine and sleeping for 4 hours impacting you? Please tell me, because I can assure you, not once has me having a glass of wine had any impact on anyone.

What you describe is very very different and no that should not be allowed.

Agree. It’s not alcohol, it’s behaviour and attitude. You’d never ever even be aware of it if I had two glasses of wine before my flight. It impacts nobody else.

Rowdy drunks shouldn’t be allowed on the flight. People having a drink before boarding aren't usually rowdy drunks.

If you had been in Dubai airport a few days ago you would have seen me with an Aperol Spritz at 5.30am. Bloody nice it was too. When I was Emirates gold I’d have been on the champagne in the lounge after my shower.

By that time though I had done a full day of work, then gone to the airport and caught a 17 hour flight leaving at 9 pm so by the time I arrived in DXB it was my 2pm the next day. It was a rammed flight in a middle seat without a wink of sleep. A G&T every 3/4 hours is a nice little thing to look forward to when you are trapped in hell.

I had a 5 hour transit in DXB then had to catch another 8 hr flight. It was just what I fancied and helped me stay awake and passed the time.

There were a LOT of people in that airport drinking. DXB is a major hub so there would have been people there from all over the world.

I was in the airport at 4am last week and there was a bloke with a wine. Start as you mean to continue I guess…

I'm terrified of flying and I had ONE wine on the plane a couple of years ago, thinking it would calm my nerves, and it did NOT.

I drink coffee and hide my mania the whole flight.

Can't wait to go away in 2 weeks.

I mope around the house saying goodbye to my houseplants, the postie, different objects in my home, the dogs........I hate flying and I'm terrified.

Can't see that any amount of alcohol would help.

Maybe because a 'Spoons pint is cheaper than a Costa coffee!

I rarely drink, but always join DH having one before a flight, it's a tradition I suppose. And it feels weird sitting in a pub (generally the only place with seats left) and having a cuppa. We'll have one or two before boarding, but we don't drink on the flight. We don't have a 'Spoons breakfast any more though - it's bloody £12.99 now 😲

Coming home we tend to do the same, often because the smoking area is part of the pub. Only if we have transport booked back in England though, not if we have to drive home.

Drinking should not be allowed in an airport full stop. What if there’s an emergency and you’re impaired? It’s selfish behaviour.

Because you’ll be impaired if there’s an emergency, you’ll be inconveniencing your fellow passengers unless you’re in a window seat?