dayone

I overheard a conversation between an F passenger and a FA about AS' limit on alcoholic beverages (confirmed by a second FA). It was news to me that said limit is five (5) alcoholic drinks on "long" flights and two (2) on "short" flights.

I fly midcons and LAX/SFO to PDX/SEA. I've never experienced or observed a limit, but I'm a two- or three-drink guy anymore. Four if I'm feeling really bold.

I'm curious if this really is a policy and if others have bumped up against it.

williwaw

I’m not surprised if there is from a liability perspective. I know they treat the canned cocktails as two servings (when I’ve asked for two at once…)

ezak

I've heard different numbers (3 and 4) on various flight lengths, so I tend to believe there's no official limit - more like a threshold made up by the FA when they think someone has had too much.

For the old fashioned, I do remember seeing a fine print of some limit per person due to the high ABV, but probably just specific to that drink.

Eastbay1K

I believe it was one per beverage service (i.e, no doubles).

dayone

Not my experience.

anteater

There is a policy on serving, but I don’t believe AS has published it. You will hear a varying number when asking crew about the policy though.

Crew is trained to serve at their discretion as every situation is different and AS concerned primarily for safety here. From experience, I can recall being denied three times and while I was disappointed at the time, I understood the FAs perspective on each occasion and they were completely professional about it.

One instance of discretion which I recall is that for an early AM midcon flight I was denied a third bourbon and my seatmate was denied a second glass of wine. Whereas, while I don’t drink as much on long haul flights these days I never experienced an issue with requesting beyond five beverages.

🤙🏻🥃

Eastbay1K

I believe that was the language on the beverage card re: those "strong" canned cocktails.

ezak

I think you're right. Though I've been given two without me even asking lol.

isaacchambers

For the odd times….im in premium. I have requested doubles for wines. Being 100K. Never an issue….when I only ask for one. They usually give me two and say. Just to make sure you are doing ok in between services.

in F. Never seen denied service. However. Even on long haul Hawaii flights. I never have more than 3 drinks. One awaiting meal….refill during meal. And one maybe mid flight. Always red wine or pog/orange juice mimosa.

jerry a. laska

Also see:
[Speculation] Is There a New Four-Drink Limit on AS Flights (August 2021)?

pampa

Now compare this to BA where I had to politely but firmly ask the FA to stop refilling my wine glass.

philemer

This. I want to safely drive my rental car off the lot.

flytoeat

There is theoretical serving limit for everyone. Absent some way of measuring or assessing over-serving, a count is really the only viable option.

navydevildoc

I can tell you that myself and very frequent traveling companion co-worker have never been cut off. But we are both big former Navy dudes who have great Sailor livers.

There are flights we have cleared out the beer catering in first. Since we tend to do Transcon for most flights, it's not hard for each of us to have 6 beers.

Closest I have ever come is them just making sure we weren't driving when we got to wherever we were going.

isaacchambers

exactly. . I’ve had to give my other half the glasses of red that just show up from the FAs. He was drunk. But I was sober to drive safely.