A worldwide problem although British charters do seem to be affected most. No question about denying boarding to any drunks, but the problem is unless you supervise the boarding yourself, more often than not you won't be told about them. This is the 'pass the buck' solution employed by a disappointing number of ground staff/CSRs. If they pull the cretins out of line then
they have to deal with the fallout. Much easier to shove them down the jetway and let somebody else worry about it.
We had some notorious North-South Friday evening roughneck flights where this would often happen. I made it a point to be in the gate during boarding, or at least send the No. 1 down there. . .What was absolutely infuriating was the lack of support from local LEOs, who wanted to be shot of the clowns too. Local pokey already full I suppose.
Of course later on I simply avoided bidding them, so I guess I'm just as guilty of ducking it <img src="frown.gif" border="0"> .
[ 16 February 2002: Message edited by: PaperTiger ]</p>