simonsmith

In the late 1990s / early 2000s SQ used to sell First for ridiculously low prices from Penang and KL to Singapore . They served Dom Perignon . There was often only the two of us First and Once a bottle was opened the crew were reluctant to pour it down the sink . I think once we had a bottle each . We often consumed more in value than the cost of the flight .

MH did something similar on the short hop from Ipoh to KUL, again in First VC I think .

JapesUK

Hopefully the lesson learned was �always carry gaviscon�

SFO777

An entire bottle of Krug in CX First sitting at the gate at JFK waiting for connecting pax. And then another 2 bottles on the way to HKG.

FlightDetective

Four on a LHR-DUB. I would usually have two, on rare occasions three, but twice I managed four. Obliging crews - "You sure you don't want just one more?". Being seated in 1A and then getting a plastic cup for landing also helps to maximise the time. I imagine it would have been impossible seated in row 6 in a Club Europe cabin for example.

Different now with the big bottles.

smokie36

On Eastern Airways almost 20 years ago 2 of us finished a magnum of champagne INV-MAN.

Don't remember much about the journey into the city!

OroroT

I seriously hope I never sit next to anyone trying to set a personal best in this category 🤢🤢

nick585

Likewise, I just don�t understand this necessity for heavy binge drinking on flights.

Good luck to you (and your liver)

bisonrav

I guess the story can now be told. In a former life I was responsible for the firmware of a device that looked after the fermentation temperature of wine. It's an interesting process because in the initial fermentation period you want to keep the mixture warm to encourage fermentation, and then afterwards it needs to be kept cool. The device was widely used, including by some of the larger champagne producers, including household names.

Incidentally, when you work on these things, you always ask for samples, and they shrug, and they say we won't have any for a few years but we'll get in touch, and of course they never do. It's worse working with distillers, who are sometimes implementing process improvements which won't yield anything for 25 years, they have the most patient CFOs anywhere.

The implementation used a switch to swap between the two phases, reconfiguring the device. Unfortunately, due to an oversight, I didn't consider what happened if there was a power fail at the point of the change, with the state of the switch being incorrectly managed. And of course what can go wrong will go wrong, and I received a frantic call one morning from our French office, for whom the producers were prestige customers and who I am certain were receiving samples, advising me that my device had come very close to turning an entire batch of extremely expensive champagne into fizzy grape juice.

The problem was resolved, and soon afterwards I moved into strategic marketing where you can make mistakes without having half of France and a large number of frequent fliers coming after you with pitchforks and waving empty flutes (which sounds a bit like a euphemism for certain GGL behaviour, but is meant quite literally here).

As a cider maker myself, I would personally view champagne as badly fermented wine, but opinions do seem to differ on that. Time for a cuppa.

bisonrav

"I drink to forget"

"Forget what?"

"I... I don't remember".

nick585

brilliant�.!

bisonrav

Douglas Adams IIRC, he of the pan galactic gargle blaster.

Midships

Sadly, no booze in any class in MH now for flights under three hours.

Cw novice

Am sure some you have read it and whilst slightly off topic I believe the all time FT record is:

8 bottles of Krug to BKK in CX F � A New Year's Eve story

CPH-Flyer

I don't sit down with a purpose to drink a lot. It just sometimes happen, just a steady flow on some flights. Then on others I struggle to get through a glass of champagne in two hours.

One time from CPT to JNB when the flight attendant poured the last bit of an excellent bottle of Chardonnay into my glass, he just remarked "By the way Sir, you are the only passenger having the chardonnay this evening"

For Paris flight with SK I was the only J passenger (when they still had that) so the FA brought me 1/4 bottle for the boarding process. Then another to pass the time while she heated the meal. One with the meal. And one for the rest of the flight and a cognac for the coffee.

On AF we were 4 in J, and the flight attendant was joking that only I ordered champagne, and we could not waste it. So he kept a sharp eye on my glass.

I am sure if I was being loud or bothering passengers they would have stopped, as it was generally not me asking, but them offering.

Grey Nomad

Depends what you mean by short haul. I think my record on a DUB was 4 of the little minis. 3 was more usual. I think a bottle and a half of white on a FRA-CDG was the best I've done recently. Of course if you coniser LCA short haul that's a different story.