Two weeks after many airlines decided to stop serving alcoholic beverages, Delta Air Lines reversed its decision – for some flights.
Delta will resume serving beer and wine to its first-class and Comfort+ passengers starting Thursday, July 2.
Several global carriers had stopped the practice due to the coronavirus pandemic, in part to limit contact between crew and passengers and also in part to limit expenses. Oh, and, well, no use in avoiding it – in part to cut down on beverage consumption in general and limit trips to the restroom.
Delta said passengers will be able to choose from single-serve bottles of red and white wine, while the beer selection includes Heineken, Miller Lite, SweetWater 420, and SweetWater IPA. What’s available will vary daily depending on stock.
In order to keep person-to-person contact to a minimum, cabin crew will serve cans and bottles on a disinfected serving tray. But don’t ask for a Screwdriver or a 7-and-7 or even a tequila over ice – mixed drinks and hard liquor will not be available, again to limit the amount of contact and handling that crew members would need to make such drinks.
Also, if you’re making a short hop from Atlanta to Orlando or New York to Pittsburgh, you’re out of luck. Not only will beer and wine only be served to first-class and Comfort+ passengers, but it will also only be served of flights of 500 miles or longer.
“In keeping with the Delta CareStandard, our goal is to serve all of our food and beverage offerings in the safest way possible – both for our customers and employees,” Allison Ausband, Delta’s Senior Vice President of In-Flight Service, said in a statement. “We take pride in always listening to our customers, and we know beer and wine are the adult beverages our customers want most. These selections are the first step towards a normalized beverage offering while we continue to keep customer and crew safety at the center of everything we do.”
