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

FA in first told me yesterday that AS has implemented a policy of a maximum of four drinks per customer per flight. I’m not opposed to this but wanted to see if anyone else has had a similar experience.

I asked the same question to AS after being cutoff twice this year after my second drinks.

I don’t believe it’s a four drink limit specifically but rather a stepped up policy of preventing overserving due to an increased number of safety and security incidents. Alcohol consumption onboard is above pre-pandemic levels and there have been multiple incidents. So, since safety on a plane is priority one AS decided to implement a stricter serving directive.

For example, you could be served a double and then a single and then a single, and that is the recommended cutoff and anything thereafter is solely at the FAs discretion (assuming sufficient flight time for service).

I have been served way more than four drinks per flight recently, but it’s solely at their (FAs) discretion.

The important thing to remember is the FAs are always right and if you feel like there’s an issue to raise the concern post-flight with Customer Care.

How long was the flight? I've never heard of a specific drink limit. I did ask for another double Woodford on the rocks a month or so ago on a flight back from Hawaii and the FA told me they weren't supposed to give out doubles. She said that I "seemed fine" and would make an exception but that I shouldn't be surprised if another FA doesn't provide me a double down the road. Imagine my surprise when the same FA gives me another double toward the end of the flight...

It's always easier for the FA to cite a fictional "x drinks max" policy as opposed to saying "I'm cutting you off because you've had enough."

I doubt that there is a hard cap on the number of drinks that can be served. But with the rising number of inflight incidents, I would not be surprised if FAs were keeping a closer eye on things.

Probably not. But it is easier to hide behind a hard limit than to allow for a FA’s discretion.

perhaps, but in this case there IS a guideline for the max number of drinks allowed per person. I say “guideline” because, although a specific number has been given, there is allowable discretion by the FA. That said, they would never be wrong to stop alcohol service using the number given per the companies guideline.

be interested to know what the response you got from AS was.

Mostly just the information from my original post: that serving is always at the flight crews discretion, that AS has adopted a more careful stance on serving so as not to over-serve individuals. The change was directly because of an increased number of onboard incidents and AS had to decide what was best moving forward and how to empower flight crews to make the safest decision. Generally, for a longer flight one could expect a double and then a couple of singles. Again, each situation is up to the FAs discretion because they are there for your safety and every situation is different. The consumption being seen now is higher than pre-pandemic with respect to: people who wouldn't normally drink inflight, people not understanding that drinking at altitude affects one differently, etc. I didn't ask if the directive had a hard limit on the number of drinks.

The two FA's who cut me off after two drinks were completely professional and polite about it and it did not impact my flight. I did give them kudos post-flight about handling the situation well, especially since there can be some difficult situations and travelers these days.

The response seemed perfectly reasonable. AS' primary job is to get everyone safely from A-B.

First off, even when wrong the crew is always right.

In my experience this year flight attendants have been rather parsimonious with drinks—-and not just on Alaska. Seriously I had to beg AA crew for water PHX-SFO.

I recently flew UA in Polaris EWR-ZRH…three drinks for the whole flight. (When I ordered a fourth drink, a Coke Zero I might add, the flight attendant made a comment about having too
much fluid before landing.)

My point: crew on all airlines are stressed which impacts service quality. Alaska delegates more authority to the front line, which usually is good in my book. In this case there might be a policy made up by an individual flight attendant…but either way as a passenger requesting alcohol it is at the discretion of crew.

I was recently joking that it was time to add a roll of duct tape to my carry-on backpack (after seeing the video from the recent Frontier flight).

Four drinks sounds like a reasonable guideline for AS route network. I personally would probably need wheelchair assistance to the car rental place after four drinks (but I realize everyone’s different)

I don't fly transcons, so a four-drink limit works for me.

I'm glad the FAs have some discretion. 4 drinks (2 doubles) on a 4+ hour flight with a meal would be barely noticeable for me.

I'm with you, and discretion is key. I'm also 6'2 and 200#, so everyone's tolerance is quite different.

This is just another one of those things where they have to manage things from the policy perspective based on a lowest common denominator, and as a person who likes their booze but is fortunate to never get in trouble over it, I can't fault them.