FAs Method of Serving Drink Cups
 

Hi, all FTs,
This may seem a bit strange, but this has always bugged me.

Has anyone ever noticed how the FAs handle a drink cup when serving it from a tray? In most cases (I don't recall ever seeing it done differently), they pick up the cup by putting their hands over the lip, instead of around the bottom of the cup. Of course, the lip of the cup is the part that you have to touch with your mouth.
I've found this to be somewhat gross. I usually wipe off the lip of the cup with a napkin.

Maybe the FAs have a good reason for doing this. I don't know.

Maybe they're trained to do it this way to have a lower risk of spilling due to the pivot point (the wrist) being above the centre of gravity?

Even if the FA grabs the cup by the bottom to serve you, I'm sure the plastic cups came packaged in a sleeve. An FA may have touched the lip of the cups when separating them in the galley.

For glassware, most glasses appear to be stacked in egg carton-like crates where the FA would have to grab the glass near the top to pull them out (unless the glasses are put in the crate upside down).

Either way, I'm not bothered by the FAs briefly touching the lip. Most are pretty obsessive with hand sanitizer.

I haven't actually seen that. It seems the cups are usually stacked upside down so they pick it up from the bottom and put it on the tray and then fill it with water. Or sometimes they point the stack at me and I pick up the cup and they fill it.

Ultimately, my assumption is there is some touching at some point in tight quarters and bouncy air space. I'm not in love with the concept but it's better than no water or the old days when I was kid of filling water from a spigot in the middle of the cabin outside of the lavatories.

This is why I make sure there is Alcohol in any cup served to me by a FA :D

If they are holding a cup across the top with a thumb or middle or index finger, the cup will pivot on those fingers should the plane be moving around and there is much less chance of it spilling.

If they are holding it around the side or at the bottom, any movement and there's a much greater chance of the contents spilling, as the cup won't stay upright.

[QUOTE=cordelli;18515036]If they are holding a cup across the top with a thumb or middle or index finger, the cup will pivot on those fingers should the plane be moving around and there is much less chance of it spilling. QUOTE]

I wish the FA would have used this technique last night; perhaps I wouldn't have gotten half of my neighbor's tomato juice in my lap.