Don't have One Too Many or Admit being Drunk...

[V Singh]

With free booze available @ various Lounges, its easy to have one too many pre-boarding drinks. What has been your experience on this front?

 

[juddles]

Problem is every drunk I have ever met says they have always been well behaved. How do you know whether you are or not?

Quickstatus, I hear and understand your point. Alcohol is well known to cloud peoples memories....

I am totally for the denial of service to coughholes. I do not enjoy being anywhere, be it a flight or a restaurant or anywhere, where there are tools that are drunk and impacting on me. Raucous behaviour, foul language, etc. I simply deplore that.

But I also do understand (and COMPLETELY agree with) the other side of this - as expressed by Max Samuels, etc. That this is a hard area and there is actually much pleasure to be gained from getting tipsy on a flight that does not necessarily mean an impact on others.

I do drink. Profoundly. Amongst a myriad other things, it allows me personally to escape the restrictions of Asperger and actually be able to connect with fellow pax. It allows me to relax and really super-enjoy whatever travel I am doing.

As so many things in life are, it is really the person, not the influences, that make them a great or horrid pax.

To answer your question, the "How do you know" thing - regarding if you are well behaved. I can answer this only from my own self-experience. I am a professional in this regard - I do not trust my own perceptions. But my record is very clear. In much over a thousand flights, I would have been legally drunk on almost all of them. I have never been refused alcohol, nor suffered embarrassing moments. Despite on many occasion being extremely hammered.

On the contrary, I have been blessed with innumerable instances of the flight staff loving me - bottles of champas to bourbon being gifted to me because the staff thought I was a great and positive influence.

I think this should enlighten the real situation - it is not about alcohol per se, it is about individuals.

And I would also like to offer that this alcohol-problem thing is much enhanced in Aussie. A negative cultural thing..

I lived in Colombia for almost a decade. their alcohol rules are extremely relaxed. You can walk down the street imbibing a bottle of rum, if that is your fancy. But in TEN YEARS of living there I did not see the problems that it only takes a weekend in Aussie to see. You do not suffer loud mouths, you do not have the omni-present danger of cowardly punches outside nightclubs. I have never, EVER seen inappropriate behaviour in the lounges there.

This leads me to believe that alcohol-fueled problems are, in Aussie terms, more about society than the actual liquor.

 

[Quickstatus]

In that case the drunks I’ve met must have been Colombian

Is there a cultural aspect that (a stereotype?) that informs the possibility of a person exhibiting alcohol fuelled violence or obnoxious behaviour.

 

[andye]

I have a (admittedly pretty dodgy) theory its to do with Viking blood, at least for Europeans. Finland is the only country aside from UK where I have seen people asleep in the street obliviated from booze. Whereas the French can drink to give themselves cirrhosis but they don't seem to fight.

 

[Justinf]

I have a (admittedly pretty dodgy) theory its to do with Viking blood, at least for Europeans. Finland is the only country aside from UK where I have seen people asleep in the street obliviated from booze. Whereas the French can drink to give themselves cirrhosis but they don't seem to fight.

Japan as well. Salarymen obliviated sleeping on park benches but no violence.

 

[JohnK]

Define drunk?

When I first started commuting it was a mission to see how much alcohol I could drink. 2-3 beers in lounge before flight, 4 vodkas and orange on way out (2 in business lounge and another 2 in Qantas lounge), 2-3 beers on board and another 4 vodkas on arrival waiting for luggage.

Never felt drunk and always in control.

There is no way I could do that now. I don't drink on domestic flights. In F lounge I may have 2 x half glass of champagne + 1-2 vodka and tomato juice. I leave the serious drinking for the holiday.

 

[Virgin Bart]

This leads me to believe that alcohol-fueled problems are, in Aussie terms, more about society than the actual liquor.

Unfortunately I completely agree.