jwat21

I am a DM and was recently in J on a flight from LAX to NRT. About 5 hours into the flight I walked to the front of the 777 for a drink. The FA station near the bathrooms typically has wine, champagne and water sitting out in an apparent self service fashion.

A service cart is also open which has clean glasses, soda, beer etc. I noticed a bottle of Sake and was looking at the brand when a FA rudely told me that I wasn't allowed to touch the hard alcohol. She was rather upset (even though I wasn't removing any) and said that Delta Airlines is very strict when it comes to booze.

Does anyone know Delta's policy on self serve alcohol? I’ve been on dozens of long haul Delta flights and have never been scolded in such a manner. Has anyone else?

3Cforme

emphasis mine

That's your first mistake. It wasn't self-serve. U.S. rules demand FA's serve all alcohol consumed on-board.

http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/retrieve....1.1.7.20.3.31

rylan

I've been on plenty flights where the FAs set certain things like wine, champagne, sake out and allowed us to pour.

emrdoc

Regardless of the rules, a passenger should never be scolded by an FA. That's inappropriate. It's not like he was doing shots.

And besides, the rule discusses serving not handling or looking at the bottle. Sounds like the FA needs to chill.

Another point, one could interpret "serving" as only consuming alcohol provided by the airline and not necessarily poured by the FA's.

Often1

One could interpret the rules lots of different ways, but all that matters is how FAA interprets the rules and how DL policy works. All it takes is one violation and one FA being dinged by DL and people get a whole lot more careful.

Better practice would be to ask to look at the bottle

emrdoc

Perhaps...but the OP did not know that he could not look at the bottle. There is no reason to be rude regardless.

Does anyone know what Delta's policy actually states or the FAA's interpretation? Unless we do, then none of us knows what we are talking about.

jwat21

Interesting. Thank you for the link. I must be too used to foreign carriers. Air France seat maps actually denotes "Self Service Bar".

I think that law is intended to prevent passengers from consuming alcohol they purchase duty free...regardless it would be interesting to see what Delta's policy is.

flyerCO

Regardless of if it's brought onboard by the pax, or given by the airline, the FA must "serve" the alcohol to you. Going and opening your bottle of alcohol without giving it to the FA to "serve" can get you in trouble. It's just like in a restaurant where you may bring in a bottle of wine, but the waiter must serve it to you.

Down3Green

Just to clarify, Delta's policy is that any alcohol consumed onboard must be both provided by Delta and served by Delta (i.e., you can't consume your own alcohol on-board, nor can you give your duty free to an F/A and have them serve it to you.) While you may have seen something different in your travels, the policy is as written above.

indufan

Try interpreting it that way in my home state and you might end up spending the night in jail.

lax555

I wouldn't consider sake "hard" alcohol... more comparable to a wine

MSPeconomist

Usually when I approach the wine bottles in the galley, a FA quickly approaches, asks me what I want, and offers to bring it to me in my seat. It's partly the "airline crew must serve" rule and partly common sense that it's better not to have passengers walking in the aisles with liquids in glass glasses incase of turbulence. There's also less chance of a spill (that might damage the clothing or electronics of a seatmate as well as the aircraft interior) if the passenger first sits down and then is handed the glass of wine. Nevertheless, if I'm strolling past the galley anyway, I sometimes like to inspect the labels on the wine to see exactly what I've been drinking, especially if I wasn't able to do this when the drinks cart passed through the cabin at the beginning of service.

Ledfish

FA attendent see man holding Sake bottle and says, "sir, can I help you". Man says "no I was just wanted to look at the bottle". Seems like such an easy situation for an FA to handle with just five words.

emrdoc

Yahtzee!!! We have a winner!!!

Very well stated.

doglover

Do these regulations hold any force when you're nowhere near US airspace? I'm guessing not