The crew who stopped drinking: why it happened, what changed on the layover and in the body, and the no alcohol rule half the senior crew have adopted
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#1 Qantas, and the no alcohol on layovers rule appears in Paul's thread, Jim's, Sunny's, mine and Ruby's, always as a sentence. This is the thread for it, because it is the single most common change the senior crew on this forum describe and nobody has written why or how.
Why it happened, for me
Year five, a Dallas layover, a hangover on the 17 hour return, a medical in row 30 that I handled and should have handled better, and the sense that the glass of wine at the hotel bar had cost a passenger something. Not a dramatic story. A quiet one. I stopped on the layovers that week and I have not had a drink before a long haul since.
Why it happened, for the others
From the replies on this forum and the crew I know: the sleep, which the alcohol wrecks on a body already in no time zone; the weight, which the layover drinking adds and the stopping removes; the random testing, which the crew who drank near the window feared; the money, which the layover bar spends; the morning after on a 4am sign on; and the specific moment, which every crew who stopped has, when the drink cost them something they noticed.
What changed on the layover
The evening is shorter and the morning is real. The crew dinner is the same without the second bottle and the crew who drink do not mind the one who does not, which surprises the new crew who think the layover is the bar. The gym at 7am on the layover exists for the sober crew and it is where the route regulars are. The layover city is seen in daylight. The sleep on the second night is the sleep the body needed.
What changed in the body
Paul's thread: the weight, the skin, the gut, the sleep, all of them. Mine: the ultra long haul recovery days became recovery days instead of hangover days. The jet lag did not improve; the alcohol had been making it worse than it needed to be and the stopping removed the extra. The blood tests at the annual medical changed in a way the doctor noticed.
The rule, as the senior crew apply it
Not teetotal at home, for most. No alcohol on the layover before a long haul, for all. No alcohol within the airline's window, obviously, and most set their own longer window. A glass with the crew dinner on a 48 hour layover when the flight is two days away, for some. The rule is about the flight, not the morality.
For new crew
The layover bar is the social life for the first two years and that is fine and nobody is telling you to stop. But watch the senior crew who do not drink on the layover and notice that they are the ones still flying at 20 years with the clear skin and the clean record. The rule comes for most of us around year five. The ones it comes for earlier have the longer careers.
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#2 Virgin, 14 years, stopped at 39 and said in my thread it should have been 25. James has written the why and the how. The quiet moment is the thing: everyone who stopped has one and nobody tells it at the bar.
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#3 Newark, stopped on the Europe layovers at year three after the one hangover on the Frankfurt return that I still think about. The sleep was the reason. The sleep improved and nothing else did and that was enough.
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#4 Perth, and I wrote in the Bali thread that the no alcohol rule separates the five year crew from the two year crew and it is not a moral point, it is a sleep point. James has made it a thread and it is the right thread.
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#5 Jetstar, and the Bali layover is the layover bar for the whole airline and I stopped at year two and the Bali got better: daylight, the surf lesson, the warung. The bar crew did not mind. The rule is about the flight.
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#6 Qatar, and the Doha layover drinking is already limited by the city and the Gulf crew who stop on the layovers abroad are the ones the pursers notice at the briefing. Clear eyes at 5am in Doha is the tell.
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#7 Emirates, and the gym at 7am on the layover being where the route regulars are is the thing I discovered at year two when I stopped. The sober crew have a club and it meets at the hotel gym and it is the senior crew.
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#8 Purser, nine years, and I stopped at year four and I can tell at the briefing which crew drank on the layover and which did not, and so can every purser. The rule comes for most around year five, as James says. It came for me at a Johannesburg sign on.