Have just returned from a flight in J where the new inflight Samsung ordering system was being used. I overheard crew speaking to one another about how much x passenger had to drink.

As someone who likes to make the most of J (And by that I mean sample a few things), provided I don't have work right after, I'd not want tabs kept like that. The crew are for the most part very obliging with food and drinks, I'd even say encouraging on some routes by the time you move on to port etc! That said, I wonder if this new system is also keeping tabs on passengers and if that information is 'stored' outside of the flight...

Note: The IATA does not actually have official guidelines apart from not serving those visibly inebriated, which would not be me. The issue is more with the storing of what I'd say is personal data.

I would bet the crew is responsible under some "Responsible serving of alcohol" guidelines for loosely monitoring to avoid truly excessive drinking.....

Ever since I started to read about folks SUING alcohol providers for the results of THEIR OWN consumption choices I have become rather sympathetic to such concerns....

The fact that for YOU they remain so obliging is I think sufficient to show YOU are not the type they are concerned about...

Well, aside from there being a whole thread on the Samsung tabs: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/emira...-orders-3.html

1. Some would argue that "making the most" of J doesn't mean drinking yourself into oblivion but rather being sober enough to enjoy the amenities and environment.
2. When one is concerned about others counting how much one drinks this usually is indicative of a much more serious issue.
3. It makes absolute sense for EK to record and store this info and mine it, it's basic Business Intelligence to know these things. And crew have kept tabs mentally and gossiped about how much people have had to drink since long before electronic ordering tabs were around.

I used to like to indulge quite a bit when I fly, but in the last year have been more restrained and it makes a hell of a difference being able to walk through DXB without a headache and enough alcohol on my breath to knock out a small rhino.

Well I may just be old fashioned, but I think that discretion is important. Nothing to hide here, and not so classless that I would even consider drink myself to oblivion thank you!

Obviously crew should never be overhead by pax discussing what another pax has consumed, but your first post focused primarily on the fact this data is collected at all.

Have edited the first post!

The actual relevant guidelines here would be the CARs (Civil Aviation Regulation) of the country in which the aircraft is registered, in this case the UAE, and governed by the GCAA.

Most CARs around the world are very similarly worded and make reference to "intoxicated" or "consumption of intoxication or mind-altering" substances. They're kind of vague on what specifically is the limit, except for flight crew obviously (in South Africa, interestingly, it's 8hours prior to flight that one may not drink, also referred to as "bottle to throttle").

There is another side to this... staff who constantly top you up without asking. Not that I'm complaining

On my last trip from DXB-AMS, the plane went tech after pushback. I then had 2 hours wait before pushing back again.

In that 2 hours on the ground - I got through a bottle of the P2. I'd just about had enough, and went to the loo. When I came back my glass was full again.

The serious drinking started after take off

This is nothing new at all - every single crew member in a cabin knows if there is a pax who is drinking a lot or may be at risk of being boorishly intoxicated, and crew will talk to each other about it.

The only difference now is that they can write notes on their smartphone.

I doubt there is a running "Pax Notes" section on the tablets beyond the flight itself... otherwise, I'd be greeted with "Oh, you're that amazing passenger I read about, so nice to have you on board" more often.

I hate to say this but the tablets open up many more revenue opportunities for EK, like charging for the 5th glass of champagne and beyond in J, 500 miles a glass, instantly debited from your account. I wouldn't be surprised to see some form of development of this kind once the tablets are universally rolled out and established.

On my last DXB-JFK flight, I spent a good amount of time at the bar chatting to people and the crew as a group. There were definitely a couple of people in the group getting into the "danger zone" so the topic of being cut off came up and the crew were frankly very open and said they are monitoring for people who may have had too much and use the traffic light system to judge one's level of inebriation and as code among themselves. Don't remember if they said it's EK SOP but the bartender and another FA were asked by the drunkest man there what level he was and they both told him that he was still "amber" not far from "red" but I think that maybe they were trying to sugar coat it.

I am not sure what law governs EK, but in certain countries, the bartender is responsible for ensuring that the customer does not consume too much alcohol. I have heard of manslaughter cases being brought against bartenders where they did not cut someone off and they died as a result.

Nothing wrong with having a drink on a plane, as long as it doesn't go too far.

But the difference between gossiping in the galley and writing it down on an electronic note is all the difference in the world.

It's not just gossip - part of crew duties is to monitor pax for how inebriated (outwardly) they are, and sometimes that is recorded on the Purser tablet.

Maybe this will be more systematic though.