Bowgie

At zone 3 boarding the GA walks to a young man seated nearby and asks him if he had been drinking. When he replies, "Yes", she tell him, "Sorry, you can't board this flight, but I will re-book you." The man expresses surprise, but doesn't argue. What surprises me is that the man wasn't obviously drunk, and was doing nothing more than having a normal conversation with two other flyers.

I wouldn't in my wildest imagination pegged him as a potential in-flight problem. Probably had a beer somewhere, and was only guilty of being in his 20's and choosing a waiting seat near the gate agent.

I arrived at the gate after first class boarding only because I had to finish my alcoholic drink at the Skyclub. Was at least smart enough not to open my mouth to butt in and argue on the man's behalf.

CJKatl

On the reality show Airline, one recurring highlight was watching the WN GAs tell over-imbibed passengers they could not board. The WN passengers usually argued and ultimately security would be called.

howtofreetravel

Not cool i would be very upset if i had a few beers and denied boarding for that

tkey75

And the second you open your mouth, you're only proving their point, whether you're drunk or not. Once someone makes the decision you've had too much, there's no talking them out of it.

cfischer

was the flight oversold?

FlyDeltaJets87

Maybe I'm wrong, but I feel like there has to be more to this story. Denying boarding for "drinking"? Was the GA pulling the FC passengers of the plane too after consuming their PDBs (well, the ones that got alcoholic drinks as PDBs)?

FlytheTail

I'm also sure there's more to the story since the OP arrived after boarding had already started. There must have been some inappropriate behavior or conversation prior to the OP's arrival.

Bowgie

To clarify, the GA said "drinking", not "appear intoxicated or drunk.'

I saw those old shows about Southwest Airlines. This was similar except that man did not appear obviously drunk and the GA had less power-trippy attitude.

lsumegan

I agree. There's no way this is the full story. OP, you can't think that's all there was to it, right?

HDQDD

Kind of like when you're being arrested. You can't talk your way out of it, you can only make it worse.

Zeeb

Considering a non-trivial portion of the adult passengers at any given airport for afternoon/evening flights (and probably a few for morning flights as well) are at least buzzed I'm going to support the "something else happened before you got there" theory. If just being a little drunk was enough for an FA to stop someone from boarding, planes to vacation destinations would go out half empty every day.

Often1

OP has maybe 5% of the story and has posted only that. If it's worth posting, it's worth having all of the facts and that's not going to happen.

Something drew the GA's attention to the non-drunk. Something the guy said or did or something somebody else reported to the GA. The question may have been about drinking, but that's not the standard for denying boarding.

rwoman

But 5% of the story might provoke emotions and rants.

There's almost always more to the story...

HongKonger

My first thought as well.

Mrdonut

Would it change the scenario if we were told the passenger was a non-rev employee? They may have rules of conduct for their employees when they are flying on the company dime.
IIRC they formerly were required to wear business attire during non-rev travel. Perhaps the rules are simply "no alcohol" since individuals have differing opinions about what amount of booze is reasonable. Having a "zero tolerance" policy avoids the need to negotiate.
Since the traveler gave up so easily (according to OP), it made me think there's something non-sinister going on. Just my two cents...