Responsible Service of Alcohol Laws and Qantas Lounges

[under the radar]

Would be a sad day when any clubs, bars, lounges etc starting following RSA.

and there is where the problems occur...this drinking culture attitude and that RSA is the 'party pooper' / 'unAustralian' and all that cr*p ... leaving everyone else to clean up the social mess afterwards .... RSA is in place BECAUSE of the idiotic actions of the public who cant seem to take responsibility for themselves.. and reading some posts on here only re inforces my belief.. i for one hope QANTAS enforce the RSA so i can enjoy my journey through the airports and in the air... OFF SOAPBOX NOW

 

[Mgjdubs]

FWIW, I was in the J lounge waiting for my drink and the guy beside me was told that the were not serving him any more alcohol. As he started to complain I was served my drink and I quickly disappeared so I don't know what happened after that.

I've experienced staff turning drunk people away too. I was at the bar in the MEL J Lounge waiting to get a lemon, lime and bitters and the man in front was debating with the bartender why, despite his obvious state of inebriation, he should be served more alcohol. This was rejected, and after much ado and protest from the man in front, he went away and sat down with a glass of plain soda. I got my drink, sat down and a few moments later, he approached me and asked me to get him another beer because I was sober and they wouldn't serve him because he was drunk! Couldn't get over that. I went to complain to the host, but by that stage, he'd cleared off elsewhere.

 

[blu]

it's the Zanax exacerbating the effect of two or three drinks.

 

[RWJ777]

This reminds me of this thread:

http://www.australianfrequentflyer....-reply-disrespectful-manner-qantas-46261.html

QF lounge operation again the (negative) topic, with a first-time poster.

A really good point.

This is an important thread, touching on an important issue in our society, the over-consumption of alcohol, made all the worse by the effects of altitude on alcohol absorption. It's especially salient for people flying should there be an emergency.

Well done to the OP for raising an important and highly relevant issue.

 

[Kangol]

I seem to remember (perhaps incorrectly) that ADL doesn't serve alcohol before 12 midday. Am I mistaken, or has that changed?

Not that I want a beer at 6:30am, but it struck me as odd, as I am pretty sure I grabbed a beer from the fridge in the SYD lounge (10:00AM) before boarding the connecting flight to Tokyo.

AFAIK, in domestic lounges the bar opens at midday and international lounges have the bar open and ready as soon as the lounge opens!

 

[RooFlyer]

A really good point.

This is an important thread, touching on an important issue in our society, the over-consumption of alcohol, made all the worse by the effects of altitude on alcohol absorption. It's especially salient for people flying should there be an emergency.

Well done to the OP for raising an important and highly relevant issue.

That's not exactly what I meant

 

[ashleyn]

I am really curious about how Qantas gets around the responsible service of alcohol laws, which apply to all venues serving alcohol around Australia. Although they vary slightly from state to state, every state and territory has them.

In the past two weeks I have been in the ADL, PER, MEL and DRW lounges, and have simply been stunned by the amount of alcohol consumption I have seen.

Now don't get me worng, I always enjoy a couple of drinks if I have time in the lounges before a flight, but some things I have seen:

ADL - a full on party of a group of men yelling and screaming, generally disturbing the rest of the lounge, all of them had two or three drinks each in front them... and had quite obviously had a few before that.
PER - last week there was a man with a group from a mine site that was so drunk his (almost as drunk) friends couldn't wake him for his flight.
DRW - like a free-for all at the bar, more like a pub than a business lounge.
MEL - equally had many drunk people at 4:30 pm on a weekday!

Now with my understanding of the law and CASA regulations:

It is illegal to serve an intoxicated person more alcohol and;
It is illegal to enter an aircraft whilst intoxicated.

So how does Qantas get around these laws, why don't they provide responsible service of alcohol? For the past few months I have travelled around Australia for work, and have been astounded by the lack of responsible service of alcohol being displayed at Qantas lounges.

The Virgin Lounge seems to get it, I have twice seen people denied any more drinks, as well as one bloke told he will not be able to travel that evening because he had consumed too much alcohol.

Any thoughts?

Very good post, some monitoring might prevent some of the bad behavior on flights. Although apparently it is drunk 3yo's who cause most problems

 

[ChrisFlyer]

While we're talking RSA, I'm at the opposite end - it gives me the sh*ts when I'm trying to order a double Baileys on the rocks, and I'm told by the J/F lounge bartenders that "they're not allowed to do double shots" or "we follow RSA and we're not allowed to serve a drink that strong"... One measure of Baileys is approximately HALF A STANDARD DRINK... therefore, a double Baileys (ie ~60mL) equates to ~ONE standard drink. Claiming it would be a breach of RSA to serve me ONE standard drink is just rubbish... I can understand not wanting people to order double shots of hard spirits before getting on a flight (where the effect of alcohol is multiplied), but of a weak liqueur like Baileys? Grrrr....

I now only bother ordering a single, because I'm tired of being accused of ordering a dangerously strong drink... I find that some of the older bartenders will remove the pourer from the bottle and pour until your glass doesn't look miserably empty (so really you get a 'double', but still 1 standard drink), and most of the younger ones (ie many that may be working there as their 'day job' while studying for something else, who may not be familiar with the strength of every drink available) will pour exactly 30mL into the biggest glass that they have, making it look like there used to be a drink in there, but it has been almost finished...

Surely an exception can be made that allows their bartenders to serve patrons one standard drink without calling breach of RSA? Safe to say, I'm happy when I see a slightly older person behind the lounge bar!

As a side note, a standard 150mL champagne flute is ~1.5 standard drinks (which are readily available - especially in the F lounge), so hopefully that helps some to understand my frustration!

[/RANT] lol

To not serving people when it is genuinely inappropriate, I fully support that - it works in everyone's favour when staff cut off intoxicated pax instead of over-serving them. As an aside, I was offered champagne (or sparkling wine - can't remember what the label said) when I was about 10 in J on a domestic QF flight... When I told her I was only 10, she apologised profusely, and made sure my juice glass was never more than half empty for the entire flight haha! Must have been my tie adding 8 years to my face... Lol

 

[samh004]

I am sure all the QP's and other lounges in OZ have RSA signs up.

I'm sure they do, doesn't mean they follow it.

I seem to remember (perhaps incorrectly) that ADL doesn't serve alcohol before 12 midday. Am I mistaken, or has that changed?

Not that I want a beer at 6:30am, but it struck me as odd, as I am pretty sure I grabbed a beer from the fridge in the SYD lounge (10:00AM) before boarding the connecting flight to Tokyo.

AFAIK, in domestic lounges the bar opens at midday and international lounges have the bar open and ready as soon as the lounge opens!

Exactly... and one of the reasons why the new OOL QP is actually a downgrade compared to the JQ lounge, which served international flights and had a bar open at 06:00!

and there is where the problems occur...this drinking culture attitude and that RSA is the 'party pooper' / 'unAustralian' and all that cr*p ... leaving everyone else to clean up the social mess afterwards .... RSA is in place BECAUSE of the idiotic actions of the public who cant seem to take responsibility for themselves.. and reading some posts on here only re inforces my belief.. i for one hope QANTAS enforce the RSA so i can enjoy my journey through the airports and in the air... OFF SOAPBOX NOW

You're telling me... there's a massive drinking problem in Australia! I've seen a video on over-indungance too many times to count, and I'm sure many others have who have problems, but it doesn't seem to be helping

RSA doesn't work, and if it did, it'd result in sales dropping, businesses closing and honest, law-abiding citizens and tourists going home with a disappointing buzz, instead of after a fun night out. This isn't the thread for it, but there's got to be a better system!

 

[Blinky]

AFAIK, in domestic lounges the bar opens at midday and international lounges have the bar open and ready as soon as the lounge opens!

Not that it's greatly significant, but the Virgin Lounge bar opens at 11am.

 

[Mal Ware]

QF lounge operation again the (negative) topic, with a first-time poster.

Get out your tin foil hats, its conspiracy time.

QF and all other airline lounges should be bound by the liquor licence of that particular state.

Liquor licences are available to the public on the internet

Here is QLD and NT QP. http://notes.nt.gov.au/ntt/dibrglll...56e0f0027a51c?OpenDocument&Highlight=2,qantas

https://secure.olgr.qld.gov.au/form....pdf?sid=d0403e5d-5d4a-4c30-947a-6005aa238517

 

[Mal]

I am really curious about how Qantas gets around the responsible service of alcohol laws, which apply to all venues serving alcohol around Australia. Although they vary slightly from state to state, every state and territory has them.

They aren't exempt at domestic lounges, International may have different rules.

I've been cut off (inappropriately btw) at MEL because one staffer actually was counting how many drinks they served me, told me how many they had served and said no more. Way under my tolerance, but I understand their concern.

I haven't been in a QF domestic lounge for a while, but can't ever recall seeing a situation where there were people flying *way* over their tolerance, or being too boisterous. And yes, I've been to most lounges in the network.

 

[markis10]

Get out your tin foil hats, its conspiracy time.

QF and all other airline lounges should be bound by the liquor licence of that particular state.

Liquor licences are available to the public on the internet

Here is QLD and NT QP. http://notes.nt.gov.au/ntt/dibrglll...56e0f0027a51c?OpenDocument&Highlight=2,qantas

https://secure.olgr.qld.gov.au/form....pdf?sid=d0403e5d-5d4a-4c30-947a-6005aa238517

Not necessarily true, it depends on the airport and whether if falls under Federal control, which is the case for Sydney for instance, note also that this federal law overrides some state provisions:

http://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/F2005C00305

 

[munitalP]

Perception is a funny thing.

If someone is having a few drinks in a lounge, unless it impacts directly on you why lose sleep? Why is one persons opinionated point of view right in this case? Why are people in hi viz miners? They could be anything, I have recently seen a hi viz entering a CL photo someone took and I'm betting he does not swing a pick axe.

I think there are far to many high horses and a few need to get off them. RSA in lounges, I can think of many times applied to AFF groups in FLounge visits, light beer only in regional lounges such as KTA, refusal to provide more than 1 drink at a time on board, refusal of service a common place at PER, the lst goes on...

Perception is a funny thing

 

[Berlin]

As others have said, there are examples of this in pretty much every night life area in Australia (I live right on Oxford Street in Surry Hills so I know what I'm saying- that's the case even on weeknights :-|). Funny thing is, and my apologies in advance if I am treading on the toes of any proud Aussies, those in my eyes idiotic licensing laws seem not to work AT ALL:

I have to think of my trip to Europe last year- France, Germany, Spain, Holland, Japan on my stopover even. Everyone happily outside on the streets (in Summer, that is) having their drinks, laughing, enjoying themselves. Booze available at 7Eleven, the corner shop, at vending machines. No curfew, no "bottle shops", nothing like that. Final days of my trip in the UK. Nasty curfew. Licensed venues. All that kinda cough. And guess what- the first glassing I've witnessed in five weeks, the first group of drunk dickheads yelling on the streets. Yep, of course- I can't help to see some kind of connection there and it's pretty much the opposite of "More laws=less drunks".

 

[jono88888]

While we're talking RSA, I'm at the opposite end - it gives me the sh*ts when I'm trying to order a double Baileys on the rocks, and I'm told by the J/F lounge bartenders that "they're not allowed to do double shots"

I'm not knowledgeable on the RSA laws, but how does this fit in with serve yourself wine where you can pour as much as you want - up to the size of the glass available.

 

[MrJetset]

They aren't exempt at domestic lounges, International may have different rules.

I've been cut off (inappropriately btw) at MEL because one staffer actually was counting how many drinks they served me, told me how many they had served and said no more. Way under my tolerance, but I understand their concern.

I haven't been in a QF domestic lounge for a while, but can't ever recall seeing a situation where there were people flying *way* over their tolerance, or being too boisterous. And yes, I've been to most lounges in the network.

In the Domestic J Lounges I have never seen it, but walking out of the J Lounge in MEL into the QP to the exit on a Friday afternoon it's pretty much guaranteed. Also, who hasn't sit in front of work colleagues travelling back together who boarded drunk, and continue to drink as much as they can on the MEL-SYD sector?

 

[awilcockson]

I'm not knowledgeable on the RSA laws, but how does this fit in with serve yourself wine where you can pour as much as you want - up to the size of the glass available.

I prefer the "help yourself to unlimited quality spirits" international lounges

 

[GoldCanyon340]

In the Domestic J Lounges I have never seen it, but walking out of the J Lounge in MEL into the QP to the exit on a Friday afternoon it's pretty much guaranteed. Also, who hasn't sit in front of work colleagues travelling back together who boarded drunk, and continue to drink as much as they can on the MEL-SYD sector?

Have seen that a few times after leaving MEL J, even though I only do MEL-ADL

 

[Fantic125]

<snip> I have to think of my trip to Europe last year- France, Germany, Spain, Holland, Japan on my stopover even. Everyone happily outside on the streets (in Summer, that is) having their drinks, laughing, enjoying themselves. Booze available at 7Eleven, the corner shop, at vending machines. No curfew, no "bottle shops", nothing like that. <snip>

Although in the Baden-Wurttemburg region I found you can't buy alcohol from petrol stations after 10:00pm......