Maybe I just have bad flight karma.   
 
If a person can’t go seven hours without a drink to calm down, flying is *not* the problem.  If flying makes a person nervous, as a doctor to provide two (2) tranquilizers.  One for the flight out.  One for the flight back.
 
Airlines claim “there aren’t that many incidents”.  Tell me, how many incidents have there been with nail clippers?  None.  But I can’t take them on board. 
 
And what really knocks my socks off about the whole airline “safety” B.S.?:  I can’t take a lighter, knitting needles, a bottle of water, nail file or clippers, too much hair gel, moisturizer, hand sanitizer etc. through Security.  But I can buy all the makings of a molotov cocktail in duty free and get $h!t-faced on the flight.  Somebody needs to explain that to me. 

Even with that, I don’t have a problem with alcohol being served on an airplane. Maybe because I’ve been fortunate enough to not be seated to someone seriously boozing it up or had my flight diverted to deal with an unruly drunk.

Personal responsibility is key here. Mainly on the drinker because they know how they react to alcohol. But also on the FAs and the airlines. FAs should be sensitive to how much someone has had and their size. If they are going to serve alcohol, they should have enough training to be able to tell how much someone can drink. If they are too busy to do that, then they shouldn’t be serving alcohol. I also assume the airlines have a database, maybe shared – though possibly not due to liability, of those who don’t handle their alcohol well.

Alcohol makes my girlfriend go to sleep. She gets her elite benefit of 1 free drink and ZZZzzz…

Be responsible and considerate of others.

@ those who question how alcohol affects the body on a plane:
Everyone reacts differently, but the greater dehydration due to low humidity cabin air can cause the effects of alcohol consumption to be greater than usual – less water in the body causes a higher alcohol concentration. Other effects of cabin pressurization (hypoxia, altitude sickness) can cause some people to react or feel as if they have been imbibing alcohol. There hasn’t been a lot of science on it for a while, but the thought is there may be a slight additive effect. And the rest of it may be psychological, since “everyone knows it happens.”

In order for a ban on in-flight alcohol to have any effect, all the bars/restaurants in airports would also have to go dry. This is not likely to happen to any great extent.

The drunk somehow managed to get an unopened, full-sized bottle of whisky on the plane (duty free? or else a serious security lapse) and proceeded to down the entire bottle before take-off.

The bad behavior kicked in almost immediately. During take-off, she repeatedly got out of her seat and stood up, forcing the FAs to remind the entire plane of the importance of staying seated.

Once in the air, she started to act like an even worse fool. Luckily for me, I was up-front, and she was in Coach. But she made her way up to business, and at one point, the FAs had to lock her in the lav. She then moaned and cried, waking up anyone who had fallen asleep. She begged to be released, promised to behave, and the lav door was opened to let her out. Whereupon she fell down, bumped her head, and began to accuse the helpful FAs of hurting her. She struck at least one of them, and was locked again in the lav for safety.

Again, she moaned and begged for release, promising to behave. From what I heard, she finally passed out and was carried back to her seat and “taped” to it…the on-board handcuffs were not used because she was almost 70 years old. Somehow she got free of the tape and was able to perform her coup de grace – a striptease.

Yes. A drunk grandma stripping in-flight. That’s when the captain told us we were diverting to Canada.

While this is something I can now laugh at, it was not at all funny for the FAs, the passengers having to directly deal with the drunken grandma, nor for that matter anyone who was traveling on a tight schedule. I commend AA for getting us to LAX only an hour late; the entire crew did a commendable job of dealing with this crazy situation, imho. Lucky for them it was a grandma and not a weight-lifter they had to subdue and control.

The larger point, however, is that even if a ban on alcohol is implemented, people who want to booze it up will find some way to get booze wherever they are – at the beach, in school, at work, and yes, even on a plane. Certainly service and amount of booze can be limited by the FAs, but people are tenacious and creative and will find some way to get what they want…

Altho it is true, an outright ban would go a long way towards solving the problem, I remain a strong supporter of personal responsibility for one’s actions. If you drink, make sure you can handle yourself. If you fail to do so, you are then personally liable for whatever problems you cause.

Yes, drunken grandma, that means: you owe AA substantial costs for excess fuel and all sorts of other costs incurred due to your drinking. Additionally, I’m sure some our fellow passengers from Saturday’s flight can demonstrate the real, out-of-pocket costs they had to bear due to your drinking; I’m open to charging you a flat amount to each passenger for every hour you made us late, as long as the actual passengers get that money. Finally, after a single incident of this unacceptable behavior, you should be banned from flying for 3 years, if not longer.

When these types of appropriate cost-shifting and punishments were in place, folks might think a second time about the amount they are drinking.

Ever notice that the abbreviation for “passengers” is “pax”. Pax is Latin for peace. If only it were the reality, we would all be so happy and peaceful!

As for point #7, if a bar serves someone to the point of inebriation, and then that person kills someone with their car, in many states, the owner of the bar can be held liable. I fail to see how the fact that the bar has wings, somehow changes things. A two-drink limit seems like a reasonable idea to me.

And Lianne while I appreciate your points, and even somewhat agree with a few, I am surprised you’ve never experienced an obnoxious drunk on a plane. I almost always upgrade and esp. in First or Busn., the number of drunks – and obnoxious ones at that – is remarkable.

I wonder if it will take a few more horrific incidents in the air OR someone who has been overserved on a plane and drives after landing and injures or kills someone to change the way alcohol is allowed on planes.