Not on any flight I’ve been on…

Airborne approximately thirty minutes on an outbound evening flight from Glasgow, the lead flight attendant for the cabin crew nervously made the following painful announcement..: "Ladies and gentlemen, I'm so very sorry but it appears that there has been a terrible mixup one minute prior to takeoff, by our airport catering service... I don't know how this has happened but we have 103 passengers on board and, unfortunately, only 40 dinner meals... I truly apologise for this mistake and inconvenience." When passengers' muttering had died down, she continued.. , "Anyone who is kind enough to give up their meal so that someone else can eat will receive free, unlimited drinks for the duration of our 5 hour flight." Her next announcement came 90 minutes later... "If anyone would like to change their minds, we still have 40 dinners available."

That brought back some memories, in 1986 there were 20 of us form the speedwy club going to nationals,
Qantas caterers were on strike, so they offered us drinks in lieu, after the initial rush, the stewardess found it easier to just bring us a carton and we shared them out and stacked it with empties.

Thanks

In another life I was commuting between the Los Angeles metro area and Northern Virginia (a.k.a. Washington DC). The best schedule was a one stop from Los Angeles International to Washington National. The single stop was in Minneapolis / Saint Paul. The aircraft were always a Boeing 727 and I would get to the airport early enough to select a seat in the next to the last row. (An exit row with extra leg room.) I would fly out on Sunday afternoon and return Thursday evening next. SWMBO and I would go out to a Sunday brunch and then I would catch the 1PM flight out.

During the stop, the crew was changed and the plane re-catered. I would have to move out of the seat during the catering process. Rather than just stand there, I would help the guys move the catering carts in / out and position them in the galley. About the third trip the guys catering the plane recognized me and started slipping me a bottle of champagne.

The flight attendants were always in the "Where did you get that?" mode. My answer was "The catering guys know me and slip me an extra bottle."

My seat mates and I would usually finish the bottle by the time we landed in Washington DC.