Delta Air Lines is currently the only US airliner to offer complimentary spirits on domestic flights. Alcohol is free in first and in economy comfort on all flights. In recent years, Delta was one of the first to reintroduce complimentary beer and wine between the US and international markets. As long as the flight was longer than 4 hours. Then Delta expanded their offering by allowing customers in economy comfort to drink free of charge. Other airlines quickly followed.
Following Delta lead, American and United now offers free beer or wine long haul international flights to customers in economy. However, no other US airline has extended free spirits to customers in their economy comfort section. United Economy Plus and American’s main Cabin extra does not include free hard alcohol.
Now, Delta is again upping the ante! Delta Airlines provides free beer and wine to all patrons, and now provides free spirits to all customers on most international flights! Flights which will have free spirits include all flights from the USA to Asia, Europe, intra-Asia, and most South America flights. Flights to/from Canada, the Caribbean, and Central America and select destinations in South America are excluded from this upgraded offering. To know if your flight is one of the many with free drinks, check with Delta and verify there is DeltaOne service instead of standard First Class. If there is DeltaOne service, then you will be drinking for free at 30,000 feet!
I am happy to say, that the “D” in Delta now stands for Drinks, so DRINK UP! Will other major carriers follow? I sure hope so, because other than ultra conservative Saudia, US based airlines are some of the world’s only major airlines (not including low cost carriers) who do not provide free booze in the economy section of the plane . And we all know economy is where it’s needed most to cope with ever shrinking seats!
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Scott Mackenzie created Travel Codex to share his tricks for better travel.
