British Airways has cut back on water for passengers on its long haul flights, in a test that runs through Sunday. They’ve eliminated individual water bottles from the economy and premium economy cabins, leaving customers reliant on flight crew to provide them with water in paper cups poured from larger plastic bottles.
- 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 claims that replacing individual plastic bottles with large plastic bottles is being done for the environment. They could have moved to individual cardboard packaging, or redoubled recycling efforts. This is 100% about cost.
As one ‘Gold Guest List’ BA top frequent flyer explained,
Travelled last night from Miami to [London Heathrow] on a packed A380. I was in World Traveller…All I asked for was a bottle of water and the response astounded me. …I was told that there were no bottles of water they could give me as BA is trialling not offering any bottles of water for two weeks now.
The test will determine how much customer pushback there is against the move, and whether the environmental veneer will dampen it. There was too much push back in the fall when they tried serving cheaper breakfast instead of lunch in business class in the early afternoon.
Customers haven’t been told in advance that BA’s onboard water service has changed, and aren’t being warned to bring their own water on board. They aren’t encouraging environmental practices such as having passengers bring their own reusable bottles and filling them up at airport filling stations before the flight.
This is reminiscent of the 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.
Don’t like it? Flight attendants are now instructed not to apologize.
(HT: Wing Tips)
As a passenger with disabilities, having to get up and go to the galley for a cup of water over and over on a long haul flight is just not feasible or acceptable.
Passengers will also get disturbed when other passengers are constantly moving around the cabin to get to the galley.
Im also sure crew wont like the constant disturbance of passengers asking for water/drinks.
This is just another cost cutting exercise by BA that hopefully will fall quickly.
On my last BA flight to LHR, the F/A informed me there was “no ice” in economy (even upon request). Because everyone likes room temperature tomato juice at 35,000 feet…
Of course this is more about saving money and not the environment; otherwise BA could easily hand out 250mL cartons of “boxed water” upon request during the boarding process. Heck, even offer it for sale.
Call it what it is, cost savings. People will buy the water in the airport generating the same waste. I am getting really tired of corporate spin, just say it costs too much.
Can hardly wait for the coin operated lav.
And the coin operated air vents.
Want to see out…..?
Sad to see the continued decline of BA. It’s just not possible to experiment with this type of cost cutting, especially involving water, considering the onerous liquid restrictions that are still in place in most of the world (did I mention that the UK was the most anal about these rules until recently).
As for the airline, British Airways is clearly not British these days. The airline I flew on in the 80s, 90s, and 2000s has gone down the drain. I still remember the late 2010s flying in BA World Traveler, when former CEO Alex Cruz implemented draconian cost cutting that made BA feel like a budget carrier. Utterly unbecoming of an airline that one would think should represent the best of Britain on the world stage.
This sounds like hell. I really have a low opinion of BA. I prefer AA to BA long haul for so many reasons. I find BA to just be quite shyt honestly. I travel with my own water every time I am on a plane. You can never rely on flight crew. Flight crew hate you on a deep level for being there. They would be happy to make you suffer so you stay away.
Gary,
Your article is on $26 water is on the las vegas review journal online front page. Maybe they got inspiration from your article
An airline fit for a King… Charles must be so proud. You know, I bet Elizabeth would never have allowed this…
Reminds me of Icelandair: You get one tiny bottle of water for 5-6 hour flight, otherwise you need to pay for anything and everything.
Geneva Convention be damned… why not charge for using the lav, and make it variable rates for #1 vs #2.
In March I flew ba from LAX to lhr. The bottled water they gave us then was awful. Worse than tap water. Honestly, I won’t miss those little bottles. However, the lack of service throughout the cabin was surprisingly disappointing, that will be my one and only ba flight.
Most airlines I fly do not supply water in bottles. Supplying water in cups is more work for the cabin crew but since the crew is being paid anyway, the airline saves money. Some airlines will refill your personal bottle which leads to fewer water refills. I try to refill my personal water bottle at the airport before boarding so I can always have a few sips available when needed. I will probably buy a collapsible water bottle in the future instead of reusing a single use water bottle. It will be both larger and easier to store.
@jns — To clarify, for Icelandair, they don’t provide any other water, cup or bottle. So, like, the type of container isn’t the issue. They literally dehydrate their passengers unless they pay up. If Iceland had an 8th Amendment, I’d says it’s ‘cruel and unusual.’
Flew BA Club World ( Business Class) LHR to ORD 0n 30 May 2025. Only one drink service for the entire nine hour flight. Rang my twice call button to get some water but no one answered for 20 minute each time. Gave up and walked up to the disinterested cabin crew in first to get my water bottled filled. I was unable to close the sliding door to my plastic dog box as it was jammed. To top it off BA had seated a family with a screaming infant in the bulkhead row in front of me. Luckily the baby cried itself to sleep after four or five hours. The tone of his screams however pierced my noise canceling head phones. The food was horrid and not worthy of business class. It was clear from the multiple interactions we had with BA staff that they don’t just care. Time to put the aging BA beast out of their misery and bring freedom and choice to transatlantic routes. This was our last BA flight.
In other news BA has discontinued all toilet usage onboard in the name of going green for the environment
Passengers are urged to wear diapers or bring a thermos to eliminate in the rest room
Thank You for your understanding
Cheers BA
@ 1990 –
I’m a ‘savy shopper/pax” and wait until BA offers their famous #2 for #! lav special…. A very good deal !!
@bossa — This guy gets it. I’m in!
Next they’ll cut the employee dental program.
“You can make a pizza so cheap, nobody will eat it. You can make an airline so cheap, nobody will fly it.” Gordon Bethune
I’m flying BA next month, because it had flights when I wanted and was cheaper than AA.
I’ll remember to get a bottle of water before boarding starts.
Just drink more vodka
“Instructed not to apologize” reminds me of the false premise that as long as you don’t admit wrongdoing you can’t be sued or face consequences (you still can.)
Whatever you think of it, environmental benefits and cost savings are basically the same thing.
Reducing consumption and reducing fuel burn. Trying to say it’s one or the other is a false dichotomy.
Not saying it’s great since taken to the extreme it’s just ground the whole airline and society all together.
@Sully — Alrighty then… anyway, thanks for landing that plane safely into the Hudson, at least… duck, duck, goose!!
I’m expecting to see a big hike in DVT, and British Air will deny all responsibility
The mindset of the British Empire has not faded from BOAC (aka BA).
Either you are treated like royalty, or treated like a coal digger.
Some things never change!!
Good lord. I just flew JFK – Auckland and the FA’s were fantastic about being in the aisle with a big bottle of water and extra cups.
>_<
Then again, 17 hours in a 787 isn't really pleasurablef or anyone.
While I thought they were bored, the purser/lead was barking this regularly in the galley (same on Hawaiian – err Alaska NRT-SEA) to be in the aisles with water.
Its a shame that "Come Fly with Me" will go from "fiction" to "non-fiction" soon!
@haolenate — Did you take QF or NZ?
I really do question the sanity of these executives for pulling cost saving stunts like this when revenue business and first class passengers are expected to shell out $5,000 to $10,000 or more for a round-trip transatlantic ticket. It’s pennywise and pound foolish at its absolute worst.
If they want to help the environment they should have bottle fillers available for people to refill their own.
UA doing the same no water bottle game. Last week I flew Polaris Business Class SFO-IAD on an $1800 one-way ticket. I asked for a bottle of water, which has always been placed at your seat during boarding in Polaris Cabin.. The flight attendant responded with, “we don’t do water bottles any longer on SFO to Dulles, flights, only SFO to Newark flights”. I asked her to repeat the response, as I must have misheard her. Nope, no water bottles, no pillows, no blankets on the jet. Unless you’re going to Newark…
@jns and @1990 – When I fly Iceland Air (which I love BTW) I am always in Saga Premium and never had a problem getting as much of whatever drink I wanted (their gin tasting menu is amazing). Saga Premium (basically domestic first class with a lot better service) is cheap so no reason to ever sit in coach.
BTW Iceland Air coach is an ULLC model with everything being for sale. If you didn’t already know that before booking on them then shame on you.
BTW Gary – no problem at all with Aria or any other LV resort charging whatever the market will bear. No one is putting a gun to your head and making you buy the bottled water. As for refrigerators, it is common practice at most LV strip hotels to charge $50-$75 if someone wants a refrigerator in their room and you do get charged if you try to use the mini-bar refrigerator. I usually get comped a suite that has one but never use it since all my food and drinks are usually comped as well. It is well known that LV wants to make you go buy food and drink in the casino instead of supplying things in your room. For many years there was no coffee maker in the rooms although that is changing.
How exactly is a “2 week trial” supposed to work? They know without a trial how much they’ll save. It’s not long enough to look for a statistically-significant drop in ticket sales. Do FAs report the number of complaints? Wait to see if there are any passenger revolts?
Something changed at British Airways, something changed.
In the 80’s- 2000’s we flew BA at least once a year transatlantic.
It used to be a good airline, but then they got cheap oh maybe around 2010.
The food was horrible, they changed the seats in Premium plus to cram in more seats and the Food was HORRIBLE! Just disgustingly horrible.
Premium plus was so not worth the extra charge so we flew then economy.
I had over 300,000 points on British Airways and they never ever ever would open up Premium Economy to buy with miles. Every year we would buy a new set of tickets and say, “Well maybe next year we can get a Premium Economy seat for miles.” We even had their BA branded credit card, for well over a decade, probably like 20 years. Finally I called it quits. We drove to a family members house and flew from a far away airport business calss and jsut basically blew off the miles on car rentals and hotels, jsut to use the damn miles I had accumulated and could never use. I went to Chase Sapphire Preferred for 2 years, and now jsut this month moved up to Chase Sapphire Reserve. I will not look ever again to fly British Airways if I can help it. They rip you off by never opening up seats to purchase using miles. So then what good are the miles. I am happy with the Chase accounts, my points keep accumulating and I don’t lose them at the end of the year.
For this year and last year our Chase Points bought us one ticket so we only then needed to purchase an additional one. I want to be able to spend my points, not always be told, “Sorry no seats available to buy with points.” With Chase I can use my points on multiple airlines, I am not tied to just one. and I can actually spend my points.
British Airways stop getting cheaper and cheaper with your customers, instead get better and better. I mean I was a decades long loyal customer. THEY BLEW IT. I have to be able to eat the food, you cannot serve me inedible food not on 9 hour flights.
Executives of all large companies are only interested in their bonuses. Yes they know that eventually the company will fail, but they hope to be out the door before that happens. Individually, they couldn’t care less about the customer experience. Enlightened leadership is non-existent.
This will be good. 10yrs ago I was diagnosed with, fought & beat Stage 4 tongue & throat cancer. The aggressive treatment destroyed a lot of my taste & saliva glands so I need fairly regular drinks, mainly water. Let’s hear you decline someone with a medical condition BA ??
Heah JR. It’s called a freaking call light!! You push it and the steward or stewardess will come to YOU! Now ain’t dat sumptin! You don’t have to crawl to the galley! They will come to you and hand YOU the water! Ugh
On long haul flights it is important to keep hydrated.
Eliminating water in bottles makes it harder to do this.