greenlander

Sitting in Comfort + on a flight last week and I thought this interaction with the flight attendant was pretty interesting and kind of funny, so I thought I'd see if anyone else had experienced this. I was sitting a few rows into comfort, so I was able to to hear the FA with the beverage cart ask every passenger if they wanted 'coffee, tea or water', no mention of anything else. Some people seemed to assume that was all that was available, some seemed confused and then a few passengers just asked for whatever alcoholic beverage they wanted, which she provided.

Has anyone else been given those options? Wondering if the FAs are incentivized somehow to not give alcohol to C+ passengers. Or maybe don't want to bother with the effort. I could possibly understand it on an early am flight but this was the evening.

xliioper

How long was flight? There are somewhat different published service standards for 250-499 miles vs. 500+ miles (former is Express Beverage Service and includes beer and wine with liquor service pending crew availability and flight time). FA's usually just seem to ask what you want to drink in C+, so I don't think this is any kind company-wide policy from what I've seen.

DLASflyer

Yep guessing this was sub 500 miles. Coffee, tea, or water in economy, add beer and wine for C+.

smartytravel

Yep. Experienced this as well. I was in C+, and was offered "tea, coffee or juice."

I just exclaimed "Bloody Mary" in response. The FA took her sweet revenge by giving me this new bottle of untasty vodka, though.

GagaPilot

Unfortunately, yes, I’ve seen it before. I just order my usual drink and take the eye roll. And even on trans-cons I’ve been seeing only one drink service in C+ which is frustrating.

MSPeconomist

What happens if you ring your call button and ask for a refill?

mridley2

I recall Delta also does this "coffee, tea, or water;' service on longer flights as well usually as the 2nd beverage service. I think MOST people assume those are the only options but I usually just ask for my usual Vodka/soda or a glass of wine.

ND76

On the 6 am hour DCA-DTW from time to time pre-pandemic, for whatever reason they wouldn't serve sodas or juice in C+. They would bring me a beer on request. One time the FA claimed that sodas weren't catered onto the flight.

greenlander

Yes, I believe it was just sub 500.

greenlander

I really feel like this has to be a top down thing from delta, otherwise why bother annoying the passengers. It's all on the cart anyway and you're not really being more efficient with coffee, tea and water/juice/whatever the 3rd one is.

smartytravel

Yep. They are bloody cheap while charging premium prices.

Barrheadlass

I’ve flown comfort plus US to Europe many times and have never ever been offered a drink other than coffee, tea, or water.

Pianoman109876

On a recent DTW-LGA trip (which the app lists at exactly 500 miles), the FA asked each person in my C+ row “what would you like to drink?”
I got club soda/cranberry, another got woodford on the rocks, a third got a diet. All served with a smile (at least the eyes were behind the mask lol) and no objections at all.

Adelphos

Frankly on most flights in economy I have just seen FAs proactively offer “beverages” or “coffee, water, tea.” In C+, passengers typically know they can order alcohol and do so accordingly. I also order in regular economy and use my virtual drink chits fairly regularly, with no pushback.

When it comes to refills, FAs are always happy to give me a refill in C+, I simply flag the first one that walks by when I want another one.

Of the airlines that introduced free alcohol in their “better” economy sections, I only got grief from American in terms of ordering alcohol in MCE

VacationMode

I definitely remember being offered the same selection in C+ recently... can't remember if it was DTW-FLL or DTW-LAX-KOA, in either case definitely over 500 miles. When I ordered my usual woodford I didn't get any eye roll or attitude, and later on the flight got another without issue. Just felt it was weird the options offered were so limited so I remembered it, but several other pax also got alcohol/juice/pop so didn’t think much more of it.