Delta alcohol policy?? Strange incident yesterday
 

Yesterday I started in St. Louis and flew to Altanta. Great flight, thanked me for being platinum all the normal stuff.

2nd flight was atl to Rio de Janeiro GIG in delta one.

I had a three hour layover and I went in the smoking lounge and bar near gate E6. Made a friend, talked church politics and cars.....normal stuff. Two hours and 3 beers.

Got on the plane got my seat and waited for the plane to fill.

lady next to me turned out to be delta pilots wife (not this flight but he was on and next to her for observing the landing and takeoffs for some training apparently) and we were talking and laughing.



after the plane filled and I was waiting on my drink and she had hers already, a red vest guy, ( gate agent she told me, but it was kiosk face recognition so I had no interaction with him)...asked to speak with me privately.

when I got the gallery, all the pilots, FAs and this guy were there.

only the gate agent spoke and he said....”I was in the smoking lounge with you and I heard your conversation and watched you drink 2 beers which is one over the limit I was allowed to drink before getting on the plane. He said I could either leave the plane or agree not to drink on this flight.

I didn’t fight, I had to fly.

I did try and order and was always told they were out blah blah.

pilots wife said she had never seen or heard of this.
one very apologetic and friendly FA grabbed me right before I exited and told me “sorry man but you should know we were aware an hour before boarding that this was happening”

I was still in the smoking lounge at that point.

does any of this make any sense at all?

i have my suspicions but will reserve and not publicly speculate.

That is very bizarre. I have gotten on planes after several hard drinks in the lounges and have never had any issue. If you weren't being belligerent then they shouldn't have bothered you. If one drink was the maximum before getting on the plane then Delta should have notices posted throughout the airport. I hope you got the name of the agent. Report him.

I was a little in shock and taken aback, I actually wish I had a video of it.

im not belligerent, it’s always yes please and thank you. I don’t raise my voice nor do I cuss (in public).

Please report him by name. He needs to be terminated.

There are at least two sides to every story.

I am inclined to believe the OP. If someone is being disruptive they aren't given a second chance or options. He would have been removed. But he was given some lame ultimatum to not have any drinks on the flight. The crew obviously didn't consider him a threat or he couldn't have stayed onboard.

My comment was based on an accurate account assumption by the OP. Why someone would make up such a detailed description seems silly.

Seems to have followed standard US air carrier policy. This was not a decision of one employee, but rather the Captain who was advised by others. Don't focus on how many drinks you had over the course of the journey, but how your conduct might appear to others.

However framed to OP, the FAA rules (which apply here because DL is a US carrier) are that the passenger is not to be served if "he appears intoxicated." 14 CFR 3-3546.

The FAA rules require that the PIC and the relevant staff complete a written report, so there will already be one on file, whether OP complains or not.

More than likely, DL will commend the Captain and others involved for their actions.

For what it is worth, don't focus on the exact language used. Staff are trained not to directly confront passengers when avoidable. E.g., "I think you're drunk" becomes "you appear to be over the limit" (even though there is no established limit by number of drinks). This also has nothing to do with a "threat." If a threat, OP would have been denied boarding. This had to do with serving booze.

Or just another way for revenue management to squeeze the customer. Not enough alcohol for the flight? Don't call catering. Just say that x number of passengers are already intoxicated and don't serve them. Problem solved.

One time on WN I watched a drunk passenger shouting for his sports team grab the flight attendant's butt as she walked by. She told him "no sir!" and had a WN security person come on board and ask "if he was going to have any more trouble out of him" and cut him off. That was that, he still flew. Maybe it's difficult to actually enforce since it's not tied to a BAC?

Yes if Delta wants to play these games then they need to invest in breathalyzers. Simply claiming that someone is intoxicated shouldn't cut it.

I'd tend to side with the OP, and believe the red coat/GA was a bit hard on the OP. I don't get the half policy of "you can board but you won't get any more drinks" which is suggested by the red coat, and then there's the point that this was communicated to the crew 1 hour before boarding to the crew, based on the observation of the OP drinking 3 beers? And what do the red coat's observations at the smoking lounge have to do with denying the OP anyways.
All seems a bit like an overzealous GA ready to police the plane.

That said, very little complaint can be made that would be able to rule back in favor of the OP after the facts since DL won't go against its staff on this (as mentioned above).

Curious though; what are your options in such a case? Assuming you are under the alcohol limit (3 beers over 2 hours...) can you ask to get on the next flight? Feels like getting into a discussion will likely just lead to a stand off?
If the above is really delta's rule I should have been spoken to on 50% of my red eye flights, and I still like another glass of red wine on board so I would be upset and feel singled out if that would happen to me.

Grabbing an FA's butt is too far. Shocking that the FA let him fly. That's considered assault in this day and age.

I'm quite curious as to what these suspicions are.

Just as it seems odd for OP to have completely made up this story, it seems equally odd for an FA and crew to have gone out of their way to do this unless something else happened which is not made apparent in OP's narrative.

My own theory, perhaps this is a first try/evidence at the facial recognition system being used to prevent incidents? The technology is advancing and perhaps it is looking to be used to identify passengers who may be intoxicated, flag them and give them options to let them on their way. With all the security in the airports it wouldn’t be difficult to start moving to a more heavily integrated system like some other countries and could have helped locate you in the bar for what the red coat said. Most likely not but anything seems possible.

I’ll say I’ve had some long layovers in the SC and never had issues getting on or receiving drinks, of course you have to manage yourself to do so and no implication the OP didn’t. I’ve also had flights where the FA’s are looking for a party on board I swear and others where they are stingy, perhaps from bad past experiences (especially long international night flights). At least they let you on your way, as we know it could have easily been instructed to leave the plane and fly tomorrow if the crew or agents felt stronger.