US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - Liquor sealed two hours prior to arrival into LGW

Just wanted to share that I flew CLT-LGW on Sept. 20 and apparently US' new policy is to seal the liquor in Envoy two hours prior to arrival, so make sure to stock up on your eye-openers before then!

BTW, the beer selection in Envoy is now the same as in domestic First Class ... no more Bass in a bottle on the LGW flights like I've enjoyed previously.

Is that because they are being cheap or problems with unruly Brits http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif. (Gazza started playing in the MLS?)

I thought that they had to dump any open liquor prior to arrival because of some stupid customs regulations.

It was rumored on another thread that they brought back Sam Adams on the Shuttle. I stopped asking for it in June.

Did they leave the open wines at the "snacking station?"

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by TPA us ff:
Did they leave the open wines at the "snacking station?"</font>

I don't think so, but didn't really look ... besides, who drinks wine at 6:30 in the morning http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

What?!?!?! No more Bloody Maries with my tiny breakfast snack?? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

Let's hope this is just an incident involving a crew that wanted to clean up the gallies so they'd have more time to read and gossip. I HOPE this is not a new cost-cutting measure practice at US !!!

Last transatlantic Envoy I found the opened wine on the snacking station cart & enjoyed a bloody before landing.

I know the wine/liquor has to be sealed before take off. Wonder then how they're allowed serve champange or mimosas before take off?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by dwsnc:
I know the wine/liquor has to be sealed before take off. Wonder then how they're allowed serve champange or mimosas before take off? </font>

I think it's been mentioned before (perhaps in another forum) that the pre-flight sparkling is duty/tax-paid.

On Thursday night PHL-LGW they also shut down the booze 2hrs before landing. They did stock people up.

It must be a Brit thing because they served it right until landing on the way back.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by mileshound:
It must be a Brit thing because they served it right until landing on the way back.</font>

BA serves until 20 minutes prior to landing according to my friend in London who flies them all the time.

There's no way they could get away with closing it two hours prior on the way back just because of the time of day and such.

Here's the deal, guys and gals...

All US flag carriers are required to comply with each foreign country's duty and excise program.

Currently, the UK, France, and a few others require that US Airways inventory and seal all alcoholic items prior to landing, and complete a time consuming report known as a "C209".

This form requires that every drop of liquor be meticulously noted. Even the large bottles of cordials must be listed with the amounts remaining. Every bottle and can must be tallied.

The "C209" is one single form, and all three classes must utilize the same form. The general procedure is to close down Economy, then Envoy, and finally First Class as the form makes its way up the aircraft. No alterations may be made on this form, no cross-outs, no recalculations.

Should the customs officials elect to audit the aircraft, and there is a problem, the crew will be called at their hotel and be required to return to the aircraft to re-inventory the galleys, and US gets a nice, hefty fine.

Needless to say, the crews really make an effort to get it right. It is a time consuming process that is destination specific.

As many of you will also note from experience, liquor is available until almost the end of the flight when returning to the US.

As for British Airways, they would certainly not have to fulfill the same customs obligations as a non-British carrier.

Hope this helps. Believe me, I like a bloody-mary in the morning as well (when not on duty, of course). Blame it on the queen.

Best, USSky

It is great to have you USSky. With all of the Envoy lovers here we could probably keep you very busy with questions.

It is nice to get explainations to our questions and observations (which doesn't mean they are complaints). We know there has to be reasonable explainations to these but we just can't figure them out. This answer and yours about the 767 domestic IFE quickly solved 2 issues we couldn't understand.

USSKy,

Thanks for providing the actual facts surrounding the procedure. Your answer makes perfect sense to me.

A larger thank you for reading these boards and providing intelligent responses to our questions about US, the airline many of us love so much.

Please keep using FT so that we can keep learning more about the 'behind-the-scenes' processes of US.

I'm not sure what routes you fly but I can say that I love US Envoy and think the FA's, for the most part, truely have a passion for their work. And it shows.

I look forward to seeing you on my next FCO flight, hopefully in Envoy.

Safe travels!

US1@ORF

------------------
US-CP; UA PE; AA Plat; Hilton Gold VIP; Six Continents Gold

Thanks.

I found this board shortly after I got a pre-dawn wake-up from my father when he learned of the FF changes that US tried to implement. He kept mentioning "FlyerTalk", and what was posted. Currently he's a US1 (and given that he hates stand-by never uses his "non-rev" status). So I've observed that there are some really long threads that can be easily answered, and have elected to, hopefully, fill in the answer.

Given that I post with my employee classification, and as I'm sure that US must follow some of these threads, I'll attempt to avoid any outright criticisim of the company or it's policies. It's a company that has treated me, for the most part, well.

I'm sure that if you ask six flight attendants the same question, you'll probably receive six different answers. So my posts are my observations, and the final answer will always be from Arlington.

Anyway, hope I can be of some help.

Best, USSky

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by USSky:
As for British Airways, they would certainly not have to fulfill the same customs obligations as a non-British carrier.</font>This used to be standard practice on all flights in LHR (I'm talking about, maybe, 20 years ago). I haven't seen it done on BA, QF or AA for a long, long time. Maybe US needs to negotiate with Customs for whatever special procedure/exemption the others have arranged?

Would it really be worth it for US to "negotiate" this for their early morning arrival into LGW? Maybe they can just ask before people go to sleep if they want Bloody Marys in the morning, or Mimosas, or whatever, and keep enough out.

Does the Arrivals Lounge at LGW have Bloody Marys? If so, that might be a solution for the desparate.