British Airways Apologizes for Attendant’s Teabag Policing

BA issued a mea culpa after a passenger took to FlyerTalk to complain that an LHR lounge worker overstepped authority, banning the passenger from using more than one teabag per cup.

British Airways has admitted that a London Heathrow Airport (LHR) club lounge attendant was being a bit petty when she lectured a passenger about using two teabags in his pre-flight cuppa. After the chagrined FlyerTalker took to the message boards to detail the unpleasant exchange, the airline clarified that it has a considerably less stringent beverage policy in place in all of its passenger lounges.

“As Brits we have strong feelings about how we like our tea, so we’re disappointed that someone would dare to stand in the way of our customer producing the perfect cuppa,” a British Airways spokesperson told The Telegraph. “We’d like to assure all our customers that they are, of course, free to blend their tea as they wish.”

Until recently, it seems not all staff was on board with such a generous policy. According to the lounge guest at the heart of the controversy, when the attendant spied the passenger using both an elderflower darjeeling and an elderflower apple teabag in the same cup, she was quick to lay down the law.

“Sir, just to inform you that it is only one tea bag at a time and for lounge consumption only,” the attendant said, according to the FlyerTalk post.

Reaction to the original post ranged from disbelief to other posters who shared tales of similarly miserly behavior from the hospitality staff at BA lounges. In the end, the airline was forced to issue a somewhat tongue-in-cheek apology for what initially began as something of a tempest in a teapot.

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