As many on here know, I object to the principle of BoB and thus never avail to its formidably tempting (sorry I don't remember the official PR/menu wording) offer. I do however drown myself in water and whilst I always carry my refilled small water bottle, if I fill that this won't be enough, I regularly ask the crew for a glass of tap water (yes, the free stuff that looks like a chalky cloud when it is just out of the tank and which the crew themselves refuse to drink) "when you'll get a chance" when they pass with their trolley in ET. I phrase it that way because I know that they are supposed to do the BoB first and then bring tap water to whoever asked after that has ended only.

So far, my success rate of being brought my glass of tap water either during the service or within 10 minutes of its ending and the crew being able to chat or read papers in the back galley (that's more or less the point when I consider that they have forgotten) is about 20% on 50+ observations. Most of that success is when crew "disobey" the formal rule and choose to pick up the glass of tap water either immediately after I ask or when they have a reason to go back to the galley shortly afterwards or on the now extremely rare occasions when the SCCM comes to say hi, ask me if my flight is comfortable (or some similar wording) and I just point out to the glass of tap water again. I exclude from the count flights so short that the crew don't have time to do anything after the BoB service and have to immediately start duty free (effectively band 1) when to be honest I don't tend to ask for it anyway except if I've taken a massive sprint through the airport for any reason (part of the connecting passenger life I guess...).

Now, to be clear, this is not a rant against cabin crew, but the point I am making is that the system/structure in place seems to make everything dependent on them "remembering" which is neither fair on crew, nor on passengers. I'm also sure many of you will point that I should just pay for bottled water (I won't, and many others won't either, and it is not me who is proposing to still give free tap water, it is BA), that those glasses of tap water are not guaranteed by BA anyway and are just if time permits (but first, nowadays, almost nothing is ever guaranteed in the air or elsewhere, not the seat, not the routing, not the meal, not the entertainment, etc and we still discuss the lack of provision when it occurs here, and second, I'm only talking of cases when there is no doubt that this was forgotten, typically because I then go to the bathroom, ask whoever is around reading or eating whether I could have a glass of tap water and invariably get the person I first talked to exclaiming: "oh, I'm really sorry, I forgot"). I would also point out that being lucky enough to select my seats, I invariably sit either at the very front of the cabin or in the exit rows which are typically quite far forward too so there is plenty of time to forget. So my thread has two points:

1) Understand if I'm alone in my lack of luck here.

- What are other people's success rates on tap water?

- Maybe people who ask differently get more success or I'm just unnoticeable for whatever reason?

- Is there any other tip for effectiveness?

2) Constructive suggestions.

- Of course, my preference would still be that BA shows formidable amounts of generosity by carrying large bottles of still and sparkling water and perhaps big pots of tea and coffee to offer for free to everyone which would make my point redundant, but I don't really want to reopen that debate and if BA won't consider that, they could still provide jugs that crew could take during their BoB round to serve tap water as they pass. I'm sure there will be objection that there is no space on the trolleys etc, but ultimately, if AY and a few others have ways of finding space for tea, coffee, blueberry juice, and mineral water, then there is a way to find room for a single jug of water for BA too.

- Provide crew with a little notebook and pen on which they can write the numbers of the seats asking for tap water?

- Crew pressing the button of the relevant seats until they've had a chance to bring the tap water to remind themselves (I like that option less as call buttons have other use but I'm trying to think broadly)

- Anything else?