I honestly thought we’d seen it all, but this latest BA stunt takes the cake. According to a FlyerTalker, for the past two weeks, BA has been trialling stripping out individual water bottles entirely and instead offering tiny cups poured from shared jugs except in First Class. They couldn’t even give the passenger a full bottle when asked for it.
Let’s unpack the madness:
- Hydration, not half-measures. Tiny cups mean passengers get maybe 100 ml max. On long-haul flights, that’s woefully inadequate. Hydration isn’t a luxury. It’s a necessity.
- Crew under strain. Flight attendants now have to pour cups ad infinitum instead of just handing out bottles. That’s inefficient and frankly demeaning for cabin service standards. Can we talk about longer queues, more spillage, and crew burnout?
- Environmental virtue signalling or penny-pinching in disguise? BA claims sustainability but with no warning, no communication, and no real alternatives. Many flyers don’t carry reusable bottles: older travellers, business class passengers, folks boarding late. That’s just poor service.
- Where’s the transparency? No upfront notification to flyers, no signage in booking emails or at airports. Passengers only find out mid-flight when cups are handed out. Surprise parched passengers = poor experience. Operational failure.
- Risky PR move. BA prides itself as a premium airline, yet this trial feels more like budget-carry-on fare. It paints BA as penny-pinching disguised as “green.” If sustainability is the goal, why not encourage passengers to bring reusable bottles by email reminders and clearly signposted airport refill stations? That’s proactive, not reactive.
As one FlyerTalk commenter put it:
“Moving from plastic bottles to plastic cups is surely only an attempt to further cost cut rather than have a marked environmental impact.”
Another hits the nail on the head:
“Customers became so used to these behaviours that it has become normalised … BA truly is a miserable and joyless airline!”
That sums it up: a trial disguised as progressive but actually skipping service to boost margins. And for what? A two-week blip on a couple of routes, likely Miami and others, without any real plan.
Bottom line rant:
BA, if you want to go green, tell your customers before they even get on board. Encourage them to bring reusable bottles. Install refill stations at boarding gates. Better yet, deliver reusables in lounges or sell branded bottles onboard. Don’t just take away what we’ve always had and hope no one notices.
Water is a basic passenger right, not a skimpy trial gimmick. Cut the corporate spin, and give us a service airline again, real service.
