TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin AA extends main cabin Alcohol till January 2022

Well, that sucks. I had hoped they would resume alcohol sales soon. To me, it's such a sham, they will serve it for free to first class, but you can't buy it..

Another related article explaining some of the reasons.
Herald LINK

AGAIN, they will GIVE it to first class and others can't buy it. Just means they want to make more money by selling first class seats..

Less seats to contend with and control in First Class.

I stand by my statement. They just want to sell more first class seats.

There are only so many seats in FC to sell and every time I've frown FC they were always full.

Tha airlines must be losing money every day they do not selling alcohol. That has to be a money maker.

I can't see anywhere where American says what happens in "extended legroom" seating. Alcohol is part of the perks of that class of seating. Does anyone have any knowledge of what American is doing there?

Thanks for any info.

Okay, then…..I’m not much of a drinker and rarely do I even enjoy the free alcoholic beverages offered when traveling in Business/First Class seating but personally speaking, and judging because of some of the behavior I’ve personally witnessed by some who do, I have no problem with the airlines doing away with alcoholic beverages completely. For most of us it’s not a mega-hour flight and we can enjoy all the libations we want once there.

But that’s just me…….

Sorry Carol, but you're totally wrong here. As much as I hate to agree with Scuba , first class seats are limited and they sell out quickly.

" As much as I hate to agree with Scuba wink"
Well. I'm not sure if that is a compliment or not. But I'll take it. LOL

You know, I enjoy a cocktail as much as anybody; especially when I'm headed off on vacation. However, if it will make the flights safer and reduce the possibility of some numbskull causing us to have to divert our flight, I can wait.

If they weren't worried about selling first class seats, they would deny free booze to first class also.

Carol,
I totally DISagree with you re the free booze being. You will never convince me to give up a planned trip just because there’s no booze available - free or otherwise, First, Business or Coach.

And beyond that, someone once told me that typically about a quarter to a half of those coveted seats are filled with FFers cashing in some of their accumulated miles. I can’t prove that one way or the other but I do know many here on the forum often do that, myself included. If the free booze was really about selling FC seats, I think they might stop letting you use FF miles for them.

Unlikely. There are many reasons to fly in FC, and free alcohol is near the bottom of my list.

People who want to drink can front-load at an airport bar, or fill their 3-1-1 bag with mini-bottles (allowed by TSA, against FAA regs to consume on an aircraft, but some people do it anyway). They don't need to buy a FC ticket.

Pat well back in the days of USAIR ti the Island , we had a good contact and flew First Class with free Wine and Steaks plus price per ticket was only $ 150.00 per person for us . Very good old days.

Hi, Lesley,

We flew AA First to and from SXM last April in one of the old USAir planes. It was possibly the worse plane I’ve ever flown on - the seats were horribly close and the food was a Turkey and cheese sandwich on a very dry croissant with mustard. No steak, no alcohol but we got there and back and that’s all I really cared about.😊😊

First class is definitely not what it once was. We fly FC for the space and the fact that we know there will be room for our carry on bags in the overheads. As far as the alcohol being "free", with the price of FC tickets, at least from our home airports, being at least double and sometime three to four times the cost of main cabin, the alcohol is definitely not free.

Overall, only 25% of first class seats are paid with cash. 25% are miles upgrades and 50% are status upgrades.

I doubt most folks would get drunk inflight to SXM. They might get drunk in Charlotte, Atlanta and Miami awaiting a connection.

Also, just saw on national news where flight attendants are taking self defense classes.

This last trip, the first in over a year really highlighted why people who can afford it take a private jet. I never saw so many people trying to shove giant bags into nonexistent space.

A real “flying greyhound” experience.

"Overall, only 25% of first class seats are paid with cash. 25% are miles upgrades and 50% are status upgrades"
Any proof to back that up.

Wow this seems to back me up. Ive read it many times at pointsguy and other places. I’ve e flown biz/first class all over the world and never did I or the company pay for it once. Always a points/status upgrader.

https://www.quora.com/What-percenta...m-themselves-having-actually-paid-for-it

Im sure it varies by city-pair and length of flight and int’l/domestic.

We've been able to use miles for first class to SXM once in all of our years flying there, and that time, one of us bought a ticket and one used miles. When we try to book two tickets with miles, they are never available.

Straing. We have used AA miles for FC for over 10+ years with no problems. Sometimes the itinerary isn't ideal but never been without. We usually purches one way and use miles for the return or visa versa. Last year we used miles both coming and going for FC with Saturday arrival an return. We usually book 10-11 months out so that might be the key. This coming May we purchased going and are returning with miles again in FC.

I'm sure it depends on when you go and where your flight originates.

Good exchange of opinions. Hopefully no one takes this issue too seriously. When we flew direct from PHL or other East coast airports to SXM for many years, a bloody Mary (or two) on the flight was part of our tradition to start our vacation. Life, and an abundance of idiotic travelers (drunk or just crazy) have ended many traditions. Airline travel has lost the glitter and is now a necessity that tests our tolerance. If our destination and all that goes with it, provides us with the level of happiness we crave, we'll endure the pain.

Well said. Thank you.

I know I'm not the only one who remembers back in the day. When you flew, you got dressed up in your Sunday best!!! Today, you see some people, that looked like they just rolled out of bed, seriously, still in PJ's!! Some still look hung over, that's when the stewardess need to not sell alcohol to those passengers. One of the perks for booking "Comfort class" on Delta is the free Bloody Mary's and Mimosa's. We enjoyed that a few times!! Now azzhole drunks took that away from us!!