Alcohol

Well, my way of flying is this:

1. avoid an America's airline at any cost. Their crews are 'angry birds' most times. Their meal is very expensive and inedible (sandwiches taste like cardboard) and they charge $7 a drink ($6 a can of lousy, watery beer).

2. Fly any Latin American airline, especially RTACA or COPA from Central America. They serve good rums in the Economy class and Flor de Cana 18-year old rum in Business. The other day I boarded a flight from San Salvador to San Jose, Costa Rica at 6:45 in the morning and a young and cotous stewardess offered me a cup of coffee, tea or a drink. What do you have, I asked. She answered, Grey Goose vodka, Chivas Regal 18yr old and Flor de Cana 18yr old. Tough choices I had to make in the early hours that day.

3. Drink responsibly and smile often.

Just to be clear, the possibility of getting arrested at the other end of your flight is very real. It happened to me! I was returning from 5 weeks in Afghanistan and on the 15 hour flight between Dubai and Washington DC, there was a lot of drinking going on. It wasn't being served by the attendants (as that cost money) but out of bottles that were presumably bought in the duty free in Dubai. When I got off the plane I was pulled aside and told I wasn't walking straight. I explained my day pack was very heavy and I was trying to put it on.. Long story short, I was put in a wheelchair, found just over the limit for alcohol in my system, and put in jail. I got out after about 6 hours as my husband was able to collect me, but not after a terrible freezing wait, no food, no shoes, no blanket, and a fine. I didn't have to go to court but was able later to just pay more money. In the end I learned a very important lesson.....Just get on the plane and go to sleep for the duration.

By all means, get drunk in flight. It will make it easier to push you out of the way as I scramble for the emergency exit when catastrophe strikes. (Also pinch the cash out of your wallet when you pass out).

Dear Gulliver, you are way behind the curve here. I learned this trick from my mom back in the early 90's when she used to wear a lei made of JD minis getting onto the plane. She got more than her fair share of 'savvy traveller' nods through the airport.

Seems to me that the passengers are revolting, though in the nicest possible way. The lesson though is that we get upset about restrictions which seem illogical and that we can easily find inconsisternies on the way in which the airlines and authorities treat the people who ultimatly pay their wages.

Americans are obsessed with alcohol. Everything revolves around alcohol and most stories start with: "Remember that time when we were wasting and....."

Someone should write a book titled "Alcohol nation"

"please be discrete"

I try to move only in single, discrete steps when I am trying to be discreet.

at the end of the day, this is useful not because the author is telling you to drink on the plane, serving yourself. but there have been many times i've been stuck in airports due to delayed flights, weather ailments and other issues that have come up. Being stuck in an airport terminal for hours on end and having to pay $15-$18 and up for a single drink gets to be painful. i don't mind shelling out for drinks on the plane, $5 here, $5 there, that's nothing. but the ridiculously priced terminal bars, not going to happen. my two cents...use your head. drink responsibly. and let that be that.

It's not just that the airlines don't want you to "bring your own", it's against air law. It's illegal to drink alcohol on a plane unless served to you by the crew. That has to do with safety and passenger control.

Yes, it's important to be discreet about this tip. Discreet like publishing it in the Economist. Sheesh.

Interesting that the "best travel tip ever" is about alcohol!

I just discovered that both ANA and JAL still serves FREE alcohol (Beer, Wine, Whisky, Gin, and Vodka) in Economy class for their European and American routes to and from Tokyo.
So, next time you are travelling coach to Japan, you know what airline to fly...

If I understand the legal distinctions, still seems like a good tip. Just do not make the drink in the terminal and make sure you ask the flight crew to serve you the alcohol once on the flight. I did not read any posts that precluded bringing properly contained alcohol onto an aircraft?

Seems the law is meant to give the flight crew control of the quantity of consumption which seems a reasonable restriction given the possible outcomes mentioned in other posts?

I'm surprised at all of the "but that's not legal" comments. There are plenty of flight attendants who turn blind eyes to these things. Some of us who are both frugal and frequent flyers order alcohol when in first class, take the mini bottles home with us, and then use them when flying in coach. A little discretion helps, but it is obvious that the flight attendants in first class are aware that we are taking the alcohol off the plane (which I've heard is not supposed to happen).

These days I fly much less often than I used to, so the cost of booze on flights isn't a significant item in my budget. I'd like to travel more; but, on the other hand, flying has become so tedious and unpleasant these days that it must be counted an ordeal.

I'm a flight attendant. This is ILLEGAL. Against federal law to serve yourself booze on an airplane.
You can bring a bottle on (a mini, or have a bottle delivered to you on board from a duty-free store, or buy a bottle at a wineshop inside security) and have a flight attendant serve you from it, which we are happy to do. But WE have to keep the bottle in the galley and we return it to you as you deplane.
If you're found pouring yourself drinks from minis in your zippy, or from any kind of bottle that is or which we suspect to be booze, you WILL be met by security when we land -- or we will divert (if you're a nuisance) and be faced with authorities wherever we divert. And yes, it DOES happen! YOU DON'T WANT TO DO THIS.

If you follow the rules, you will find that this advice contravenes many open container and laws as well as federal statutes on the consumption of alcohol in public places and on board aircraft. It sounds like the author, and their editor, may need to seek help from the employee assistance program.

What is next, a write-up on how to pay less for food by stuffing it in your pockets before you walk out of the market?

This post is ridiculous, I tried this ten years ago and was told by the flight attendant that they could put me in jail for pouring my own drinks on an airplane.

I can't help being disappointed by the tip... There i was, expecting you to tell me that you can actually smoke in the toilets, as long as you keep the cigarette under the closed toilet lid, blow the smoke under that same lid, and flush the toilets as often as possible (tried and tested).
Or I thought you were gonna tell me about that trick to unlock the toilets from the outside (tip: check carefully the metal sign that sticks out of the door and says "toilet").
Or again that picking up a hostess in the plane is very difficult, but that once that the plane has landed it's a completely different game.

But alcohol on a plane... Even Air France has free champagne at the bar in the back of their plane between EU and Asia.

That's innovation :)

I also like to take in an empty bottle of water that I just chugged (american use of the word not brit) and re-fil it using the fountain. Not cheap but not a big fan of $4.00-$5.00 bottle of water.

They really need to drop the no carrying water rule