Over the summer British Airways tested removing water from meal trays in coach on long haul flights. Instead of water bottles, passengers had to request water in small plastic cups.
- Paper cups hold a lot less water than individual bottles. Flight attendants don’t pass through the cabin doing drinks often during the flight. Some passengers will go to the galley for an additional cup of water, but many won’t.
- British Airways claimed that replacing individual plastic bottles with large plastic bottles was being done for the environment. They could have moved to individual cardboard packaging, or redoubled recycling efforts. It was 100% about cost.
Customers have tired about being lied to, with fake moral justifications being used to cram down product enshittification, expecting them to just accept the change because otherwise you don’t care about the environment. British Airways is an airline and plastic is the smallest element of their environmental footprint. They weren’t concerned about the plastic cups that the bottles were effectively replaced by.
The move was reminiscent of BA’s 2017 move under CEO Alex Cruz to only offer cold airplane tank water for free on intra-Europe flights – even hot water for customers to make their own tea was charged. In 2018 they began testing offering water as a free perk to elite frequent flyers. And flight attendants are instructed not to apologize.
The customer reaction against water being cut was so strong that the airline has decided to scrap the project.
BA soft product (other than Do & Co catering) is crap. Hard product (other than Club Suites) is crap. The only constant in my opinion, is the humor and generally good service provided by the FA’s. I know. It counts as soft product. Or lumpy in some cases.
For me it’s Air France all the way on TATL flights from YYZ.
Clueless people in the executive suite who are isolated from the real world of everyday people traveling were looking for any cost cutting thing they could think of and the whole idea blew up in their face.
It’s just a basic human expectation, good for health, hydration. Next thing they’ll try charging US for bringing aboard our own snacks and water!. Agree with the conclusion it’s about money not environment….although it might add weight, why not get some water filtering pitchers filled on the ground to take up, along with a few bottled waters for emergencies as in medical. When is enough enough? Let’s cut the meal service, and get rid of the heavy carts that burden the amount of fuel used? Stop painting the pains for the weight the paint adds. Wasn’t it Bob Crandall who did away with olives on salads and salt/pepper shakers?
I always thought that the letters BA stood for Best Avoided. Was I wrong?
IAG has worked so hard to make BA an afterthought which is such a shame for a company with such a storied history.
As a nurse who flier a minimum of 150K miles per year, the most frequent in flight medical issue I’ve help treat are 1. Dehydration
2. Low blood sugar
The thought process of eliminating water or food on long haul flights is ignorant to the potential medical and legal consequences.