Pre-departure drinks?
 

Let me concede right away that I'm feeling ranty, so don't jump down my throat.

It's just that I had a flight tonight that had an inordinate amount of time at the gate, even after the door closed, with FAs congregated in the forward galley chatting, with no pre-departure drink service in F. Because of an email glitch, I didn't learn until after the flight that we had actually endured a 20 minute delay. (Never announced...we just sat there for a long time.)

Anyway - I tried searching, but to no avail - what kind of policy is or isn't there about pre-departure drinks?

I can certainly understand when there's a big rush that they skip it. I don't have a particular beef about every little detail. In this particular case, though, I was parched and I just wanted something to drink. It seemed pretty clear from their behavior (nobody was strapped in) that they knew we weren't departing for a while. So what's the deal? Is it just a courtesy, or are they 'supposed' to be serving them?

I flew ORD to ATL last week in F and was wondering the same thing. There was plenty of time to serve a pre departure drink but no effort. Has this service stopped or is it at the discretion of the FA. I must admit the FA did a good job keeping me topped up once the flight was underway.

Not sure why Search didn't work; a zillion threads about this. Basically, the FAs seem to have determined that the service is optional.

OOPs, I forgot, perhaps there should be test to make a post on flyertalk. You need to be fluent in all of the abbreviations and lingo, you need to do a search before you ever post anything and your post needs to be vetted by those that have made over 4000 posts to make sure it has not been covered in the last two weeks.

A search revealed nothing obvious about what the OP was asking about

Just got off a red-eye flight PDX-DFW. FA on this flight offered pre-departure drinks. Not sure if the fact that there were four uniformed AA employees sitting in F had anything to do with it.

Union, old, tired, lazy, beat up, or I hate AA for my 30% paycut. Pick one that about sums the FA's up. They know they can get away with not doing it so they don't.

If they don't offer a pre-departure drink, then JUST ASK. If they say no and give some cockamame excuse (other than "no time" when there really is no time), you can "remind" them that you usually get pre-departure drinks in F and ask if there has been some change in policy that AA hasn't communicated to its frequent flyers or something. At the very least, you'll remind the FA that s/he isn't doing their job properly.
I haven't actually done this, but probably will next time!

This actually has been debated previously, and iirc it is optional in some circumstances (e.g. narrowbodies loading, a/c awaiting clearance to taxi but no actual delay period given the PIC, etc.) Another point was made that FAs do not start getting paid until the aircraft pushes back, so I think there's a lot of AAttitude affecting this issue.

Meantime, the only thing consistent about pre-departure drinks will be their inconsistency.

First, it wasn't your post, so get over it. Second, using search shows a consideration for other members of the community. So, yes- you should do a search before posting, it's common courtesy. As for the lingo- of course one should read a bit and learn the lingo before jumping in lest one look like an idiot.

Cheers.

Then learn to use search properly.

Cheers.

Last week, 2 flights. One had no predepartures. On the other, the FA brought a tray of OJ or water. That was the first time in 3 months where I've had any pre-departure offered.

I've been much more fortunate that that. In international F and J, I think we've generally had some form of predeparture sevrice, even if it was water and OJ (which is fine with me, especially mornings local time.) Domestically, probably 50 / 50, but that included mid-cons and less. On more than one, people took their time boarding and settling, so no predeparture beverage service was practical, nor was picking up and securinbg F passengers' coats etc.

Last month I did a little mini-survey. Out of 6 domestic flights, 4 had no predepartures (one flight was however extremely full of spring breakers, and it took forever to get them loaded and out of the aisles, so I will give the FA's a pass on that one. They were practically begging people to get in their seats.) One had tray with H2O and OJ. And one, you could order whatever you wanted.

My SFO-DFW and DFW-PHL both had predeparture drinks offered this morning, so at least some F/A's are still offering them.

Tom in the AC at PHL (another 4 EXP upgrades cleared for today..96 out of 100 requested now)