As you will undoubtedly be aware, because the message has been drummed into us ad nauseum, alcohol and flight are not happy bed fellows- and if you routinely ignore that advice you will be doing so knowing full well that the gallons of water you consume with the booze do not mitigate the ill effects. And anyway how on earth are we expected to relax prior to sleep not to mention overcome our fear of flying?
Well as nice as it feels after the first two glasses when fear gives way to thoughts of “well whatever happens will happen, nothing can be done about it”, the chances of achieving peaceful rest for longer than a few minutes seem, in my experience, to diminish in proportion to the number of glasses imbibed…except….
Except you say- excepting what? Is there any chance that drinking alcohol can actually be a good thing? Well the truthful answer is not really. On the other hand, as I found to my delight on an Emirates first class flight to Dubai (the only time I have been upgraded), a bottle of Bollinger goes a long way towards countermanding that rule. In fact I would even go as far as claiming that for those very few people with super delicate constitutions like myself, champagne has quasi-medical properties! Joking of course!!!
Seriously though, champagne of any vintage followed by copious amounts of water just before getting off the flight has served me well on many occasions. On the other hand red wine, beer, brandy, whiskey, gin etc are definitely not good news and I have learnt the hard way to avoid such harmful indulgences. It is worth bearing in mind, however, that water, whilst undoubtedly a nice healthy choice, does have the problem of refusing to stay in the body very long and if your flight ends up taking hours to reach its gate and the arrivals area is miles away, you might take the precaution of hanging onto the plastic container for emergencies…