Is it possible to ask a flight attendant to give a gift?

February 14, 2013 11:11 AM

I have a friend flying in today from out of town. I was wondering whether its possible to have a flight attendant bring him a drink during the flight as a gift from me. Is there any way to do this sort of thing? How would I contact the attendant?
posted by jefficator to human relations (14 answers total)

What airline? You might see if you can ask the airline via Twitter (I learned last weekend that the JetBlue twitter account is staffed 24/7).
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 11:14 AM on February 14

You really couldn't do it unless you were physically on the flight, too, and asked the attendant personally. For security reasons, most flight personnel information (who's going where and when on what route) is kept pretty confidential.
posted by inturnaround at 11:15 AM on February 14 [2 favorites]

I think you would need to know his flight number and call the airline he is flying to see if this is possible.

Stranger things than this have happened.

I had diapers delivered by taxi!
posted by zizzle at 11:15 AM on February 14

If you know the flight info, can you get connected to the gate agents? I'd probably start with twitter though.
posted by mrs. taters at 11:55 AM on February 14

Non-free drinks on US flights are still cash only, or were last time I travelled. How are you going to pay for it? It's a sweet thought but honestly it's going to be near impossible to pull off.
posted by COD at 12:28 PM on February 14

It's a sweet thought but honestly it's going to be near impossible to pull off.

I think your only chance is to contact them and hope they like your story enough to just give your friend a free drink.
posted by mikepop at 12:32 PM on February 14

I've definitely been on planes (more than once) where a gift of some kind was brought to someone by a flight attendant, so it may be possible, but I'm not sure what it took. I actually suspect that someone may have known someone in order to get that to happen.
posted by advil at 12:52 PM on February 14

Seconding the gate agent. You can use the flight number to get the gate number (try Flightaware if you don't know the flight number), and the call the airport and ask for the specific gate. There's a phone at every gate.

You could try the gate agent at either end of the flight. Since you're physically in the arriving city, it might be more practical to meet up with *that* agent and arrange payment, and have them coordinate with the departing agent and thereby the actual crew member who'll deliver the gift.

If this works, you can probably find out what the in-flight movies are and buy him one of those the same way.

(I fly Frontier a lot, and their flights are cashless -- it's pay with plastic or nothin. So there's definitely variation on that. Whether they're able to do a card-not-present transaction, I have no idea!)
posted by Myself at 1:19 PM on February 14 [1 favorite]

The other thing you might do is buy a drink coupon and send it to his email account, you might be able to do this on Southwest.

Also, they only take plastic for drinks and snacks, no cash.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 1:27 PM on February 14 [1 favorite]

Non-free drinks on US flights are still cash only, or were last time I travelled.

This hasn't been the case for years, at least on Delta, American, JetBlue, Virgin, and Southwest. (I fly a lot.). In fact none of these airlines take cash at all anymore. It's all handheld credit card readers. I'd be surprised I there were a domestic carrier left who took cash.
posted by mr_roboto at 4:52 PM on February 14 [1 favorite]

Non-free drinks on US flights are still cash only, or were last time I travelled.

I can't think of a carrier on which this IS true - like mr_roboto, I fly a LOT and almost every flight includes an announcement that the FAs will accept "all major credit cards" for those individuals purchasing sandwiches, snacks, beer, liquor or wine.

I'd go with twitter and see if you can get anywhere with it. You absolutely need the flight number.
posted by arnicae at 5:56 PM on February 14 [1 favorite]

I've definitely been on planes (more than once) where a gift of some kind was brought to someone by a flight attendant, so it may be possible, but I'm not sure what it took. I actually suspect that someone may have known someone in order to get that to happen.

I have witnessed gifting to 1) soldiers and 2) a random woman sitting next to me. The former is fairly obviously a perk of the trade. The latter ended up being the fiancee of the captain of the plane.
posted by vegartanipla at 7:15 PM on February 14

This seems like a pain for the gate/flight staff. If you want to give a gift, it should probably be some kind of coupon that your friend can then cash in in the usual way, like a drink coupon or a Gogo internet code.
posted by ktkt at 7:19 PM on February 14

United used to be cash-only until maybe about 1-2 years ago, but they've changed over now too.
posted by stoneandstar at 10:33 AM on February 15