Alcohol ban VS43

Just a word of warning VS have stopped serving alcohol from the galley in economy on VS43 which means on nearly 11 hour flight you get 2 very small measures of spirits. They make this decision On the day based on the "profile" of the passengers. This happened yesterday 29th on VS43.

I am very unhappy with this, I understand the risks but no need to treat people like children.

When I challenged the cabin manager asking why PE and upper class passengers could drink and therefore must be assumed were incapable of getting drunk and causing trouble she couldn't answer me.

I skipped the first drink round as I thought I would go to the galley later meaning I got one beverage on a nearly 11 hour flight.

I could have gone with thomas cook for 200 quid less and at least then had the option of getting a drink albeit paid for.

Don't get me wrong I can go without but it's nice to have a drinky when your going on your hols and to be told you can't is frankly annoying.

Bad call virgin, I won't be flying this route again with you. Guess I need to pay PE premium to get a drink.....

Thomas Cook fly to Vegas?

I am very unhappy with this, I understand the risks but no need to treat people like children.

I would tend to support VS on this.

If people are getting completely smashed and becoming a danger to themselves and others (or just making others feel uncomfortable through rowdy or disorderly behaviour), then limiting consumption is surely the most sensible option. Of course it looks invidious if it is limited to Y, but if that's where VS thinks the problems are, then frankly I think they are entitled to address them...

Thomas Cook fly to Vegas?

Yeh weekly Wednesday direct from MAN

Circa £600 plus cases

It's a difficult one. Let's hope people vote with their feet and they rethink this stratedgy.

I am very unhappy with this, I understand the risks but no need to treat people like children.

I would tend to support VS on this.

If people are getting completely smashed and becoming a danger to themselves and others (or just making others feel uncomfortable through rowdy or disorderly behaviour), then limiting consumption is surely the most sensible option. Of course it looks invidious if it is limited to Y, but if that's where VS thinks the problems are, then frankly I think they are entitled to address them...

My first post here on this Forum. I am aiming to write a trip review of our recent holiday to San Francisco (VS041) and back from Las Vegas (VS044) later on. It was my first flight on VS for some 8 years and I cant say I was that impressed! The service isn't what it used to be especially as the ticket price was pretty much the same as BA.

But in the meantime in response to the post, the flight back from Vegas was quite 'dry' also. Although the flight was near 100% full, I believe there was a full cabin crew in place. There wasn't a pre-dinner drinks service, instead just a half empty glass of wine with dinner itself. Like you, I can go without and don't want to drink for the sake of it, but given how uncomfortable the old, narrow and knackered seats were(VTOP), a drink or two might have helped me to sleep a bit easier. I even went to the galley to ask, but was effectively ignored and asked to come back later as they were busy(not sure what... dinner had long since been cleared).

This was in contrast to the flight out to San Francisco. It also was 99% full, but the CC served pre-dinner drinks, drinks with dinner, mid flight snack, pre-arrival sandwich (yes the famous cheese and red-onion!). When we went to the galley for a beer, they were instant in asking how they could help and served us straight away. This despite that a number of CC were 'down-below' (Airbus 346) on their rest break.

I think this number of drinks was reasonable. I dare say I was one of a small handful that had a drink after dinner. You would need a lot more to get drunk, long before I'm sure the CC would have noticed frequent requests for drinks and thus refused. No difference from someone in Economy than UC. Probably worse in UC to be honest, given the potential lounge benefits, pre-departure drink, bar etc etc.

If there isn't operational time for a pre-dinner drink, then please VS, ditch the separate pudding service! Why they need to serve this separately I do not know. Yes in UC or PE, I completely understand the premium service there, but why in Economy?

Unfortunately the rise of disruptive passengers has been steadily increasing on this route. Virgin has made the decision to trial several alternative ways to control and distribute alcohol. Instead of serving alcohol from the galleys the crew will do 1-2 more additional bar services mid flight via carts. This way everyone has an equal opportunity to have a drink without the need to close bars early due to over consumption from others. So potentially you will have 4 bar services: 1 pre dinner, 1 with dinner and 2 mid flight. Soft drinks and water are still readily available via the galleys.
This allows the crew to do other necessary duties such as toilet & cabin checks, which is not possible if trapped in galleys serving alcoholic drinks.
Regardless if you pay for alcohol or not onboard a lot of passengers feel the need to get drunk as possible with this 'sin city' mentality added with a lot of stag parties, and with up to 455 passengers onboard and only 15 crew, it was becoming impossible to manage the cabin safely. So something had to give.
This change was necessary on these flights and the majority of well travelled and reasonable passengers understand this and still enjoy the start of their holidays onboard to Vegas.
If you feel the need for more alcohol you can still pre order a bottle of champagne to enjoy onboard. However i don't see that having up to 4 free alcoholic drinks rounds onboard is unfair or restrictive on a 10 hour flight.
Having operated several of these trial flights, I have only ever had one passenger out of hundreds who was not happy with this decision, the vast majority of passengers actually comment on how quiet, civilised and enjoyable these flights have now become as a direct result of this change.

^ +1

I too am with VS on this one.

Last time I flew to LAS in March (in UC) the crew had to deal with an "alcohol related incident" in Y.

Of course most passengers are sensible but it only takes a selfish minority to spoil the flight and potentially put the crew and other passengers in danger.

It's not like the flight will be dry. And there's always the airport bar for anyone who needs a "quick one to calm the nerves". But if this policy forces some of the more antisocial element on to another airline, so much the better.

On paper this sounds awful, and another reason not to fly with VS in economy on this route but, as long as the cabin crew definately do the additional bar services and not just conveniently forget or use excuses such as under crewed to get out of it then I can see the positives in changing vs's policy.

It's such a shame that as usual the unresponsible minority once again spoils it for the majority v(

Perfectly understandable response from VS though, can understand the decision completely

^ +1

I too am with VS on this one.

Of course most passengers are sensible but it only takes a selfish minority to spoil the flight and potentially put the crew and other passengers in danger.

It's not like the flight will be dry. And there's always the airport bar for anyone who needs a "quick one to calm the nerves". But if this policy forces some of the more antisocial element on to another airline, so much the better.

I agree.

[Darren Wheeler]

Plenty of tea, coffee and water.

If it saves a flight being diverted to another airport and the authorities waiting on the ground.

Out of interest, does anyone know if BA has similar issues with booze on their service from LHR?

[Bazz]

All airlines have a duty to always put the safety of their passengers and crew first. As has been said above, it is a pity but a small minority have made this a necessary procedure.

Not wanting to appear stereotypical ( me lol ) but in all my VS flights the 5 to LAS were the only ones where I saw groups of
Hen parties out if their tree with booze and rugger topped huraay henries the same. And the grubbiest most damaged cabins I have had to MCO usually were from planes just returning or recently from LAS. I should add though the most annoying group of loud obnoxious ****heads where at the UC bar.

[honey lamb]

I'm also with VS on this one.

Another reason why this has been introduced is that in the past it has been necessary to stop serving drinks to allow enough alcohol to be available for the return flight. Alcohol cannot be loaded in the USA because of customs and bonding issues. Therefore the amount loaded has to serve both the outbound and inbound flights. In the past there have been trip reports in which passengers have turned quite nasty when refused drinks, especially if they are under the influence already and to limit it across the cabin would seem to be a fairer way for everyone

I have a few friends who operate for BA. This is also a problem for them. I understand that many CSM's don't allow alcohol to be served from the galleys either. I've operated a full LAS with approx 15 to 20 stag/hen parties who's aim is to get as drunk as possible. Unfortunately with 15 crew and 4 different galleys it's very easy for a passenger(s) who have been refused alcohol due to over consumption by one crew member to then go to another galley and ask another crew member for a drink. On a busy weekend flight there would normally be multiple pax that shouldn't be served another drink, it's so hard to police though. This is the only procedure that seems to cut down on drunken behaviour.

Well, this thread certainly reinforces my long held view that LAS is one of the last places on earth that I'd want to go for a holiday!

Is it really THAT small a minority ruining things if action of this sort has to be taken?

Very happy to say that I've never had any crowd trouble on a BGI flight

When I challenged the cabin manager asking why PE and upper class passengers could drink and therefore must be assumed were incapable of getting drunk and causing trouble she couldn't answer me.



Bad call virgin, I won't be flying this route again with you. Guess I need to pay PE premium to get a drink.....

With only 14 passengers in J and 66 in W it's a lot easier to monitor alcohol consumption. 375 in Y and I'm sure you can understand the problem we have?

Well i will certainly be pre ordering champagne for my upcoming flight.
1 bottle each

If Virgin adopt this permantly i hope they ammend their website to say "up to 4 free drinks" rather than complemntory drinks in all classes.

I can see those that want to drink taking their own on board and risking the crew not finding out.
That would be even worse for the crew and other pax as it would not be monitored.

Personally I am not a drinker so I guess this really doesn't affect me as a passenger.

Unfortunately, I have sat next to enough passengers who have had a few. I'm not saying all passengers drink to oblivion but having 10 drinks or so and then falling asleep and drooling all over me is not my idea of a great flight ! )

I am toying with buying a bottle of DP for my flight, problem is it wont be cold.

I can see those that want to drink taking their own on board and risking the crew not finding out.

Sounds like a teenage 'the parents are away so lets get smashed' house party.

I have flow 43 and 44 6 times, 1 x Economy (one leg, due to no other seats), 3x PE and 2 x UC.

I never saw a problem until March this year; we three of us were in UC and the funniest thing occurred that I will share with you! I have not mentioned this to anyone before, but I promise you that this is 100% true (because I wouldn't believe you, if you told me!)

My wife is a nervous flyer, not too bad when in the air, but any signs of turbulence and she is panicking and pretty worried - usually very quiet (except on awful, awful flight that had people screaming, that was a VS044 in Y!), but in floods of tears.

The CC in UC came to speak to her before take-off on this VS43 UC flight, as they knew her from a previous flight. Even the captain came down to say hello and say that they were expecting very little on this flight, and it's safe etc. etc.

Off we went and all was fine. This was the 43 (way out to Vegas), so those on holiday are pretty high spirits, pretty higher than normal because after all it’s Vegas. After about 2 hours into the flight and the drinks had been flowing in Y, it started getting really noisy in UC from much further down the plane - like football style chanting, and generally unusual "bar style" noise – that which you don’t normally get on planes, more like weatherspoons.

Our CC came and explained that it was very rowdy in Y, and that they had decided to call off the drinks service. They even announced that they had "run out of alcohol". They hadn't, because we could see the downstairs PE was still getting served, at least temporarily, but the Y in the same section complained and then PE downstairs was DRY. They closed the UC curtain and we cracked on with our own party (albeit behaved and quiet).

It didn't really solve the problem, because some of the lads in the back must have already been hammered before the flight, kicking in on the flight, and topped up with a few free beers on the service.

So, what happened next was quite funny. We hit turbulence, not too bad, but an unusually strange and certainly with unfamiliar consistency. In-fact this was even stranger for us seasoned travellers, and it happened perfectly timed with the illumination of the seat belt signs. It was like “DING” Wobble, wobble, wobble.

“Ladies and gentlemen the captain has found it appropriate to switch on the seat belt sign due to turbulence”

Wobble, wobble, wobble.

Wife Panics... CC comes over to say "Don’t worry, that's the captain, because we want everyone in Y who is stood up, to sit down"...

What??? Really???

Luckily, wife accepted this and calmed down... laughing, because surely this is a breach in flight safety? (To purposely rock an aircraft by shaking the controls??)

It happened three times over the next 2-3 hours, until eventually, the light stayed on for about 4 hours (MOST of the remaining flight) - because apparently the lads in Y were stood up and congregated around the extra leg room seats, ruining other peoples flights with loud and intolerable drunken nonsense.

But, for us in UC... the party continued alongside some unexpected bouncy castle motions...



So, I see why they had to do it – to avoid having to wobble the plane and risk passengers lives

I can see those that want to drink taking their own on board and risking the crew not finding out.
That would be even worse for the crew and other pax as it would not be monitored.

Crew will be able to monitor passengers in the cabin more so than before, as they will not be stuck in the galleys serving drinks.
I would like to think that any responsible person travelling would discreetly alert the crew to anyone consuming their own alcohol, as previously said its hard to monitor 375 economy pax with 9 crew in that cabin.
Also as part of the alcohol trials on Vegas flights any passenger who buys alcohol onboard from the retail therapy service will not be given the bottle until the seatbelt sign comes on for landing (with the exception of champagne), to try to avoid the problem of drinking their own alcohol.