Should In-Flight Booze be Banned?

Travel Blog  •  Eva Holland  •  10.26.09 | 4:17 PM ET

Christopher Elliott thinks so. He makes his case over at MSNBC.


Eva Holland is co-editor of World Hum. She is a former associate editor at Up Here and Up Here Business magazines, and a contributor to Vela. She's based in Canada's Yukon territory.


4 Comments for Should In-Flight Booze be Banned?

Zach 10.26.09 | 5:21 PM ET

This will definitely happen—airlines are looking for a way to lose money and make flying more miserable.

Matt Gross 10.27.09 | 10:53 AM ET

I love Chris Elliott, but this idea is ridiculous. It sounds like most of these problems are caused by flight attendants over-serving passengers—so why not stop that? I could even see limiting the number of drunks to, say, half the number of hours in the flight (6-hour flight = 3 drinks). But why punish those of us who drink responsibly for the idiotic behavior of, uh, idiots?

And I have to add: The most pleasant flight I ever took—the 17-hour JFK-BKK run on Thai Airways—was made that much nicer by the tray of pre-poured glasses of cognac that went round after meal service. It felt natural, generous, almost… civilized. And when do you see that in the air these days?

Darrin 10.27.09 | 11:44 AM ET

I agree with Matt.  I realize that flight attendants have a lot to do already, and while enforcing a limit of drinks per passenger would add to their duties, it would avoid many problems with dealing with ugly drunk issues.

Grizzly Bear Mom 10.27.09 | 1:51 PM ET

Although I am a teetotaler because I believe intoxicants cause much human misery, it seems ridiculous to punish the many for the foolishness of the few.  It seems that if bartenders can be held accountable for selling to drunks, why can’t airlines?  Maybe they can put paper tags on tickets in accordance with ones weight, and after a 200 pounder has had x amount of tags pulled of hs ticket he is cut off, or they could make you buy your drinks while on the ground.

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