Originally Posted by
Chessboxin
Well that escalated quickly.
It sure did.
The bottom line: Any attempt to portray this as anything but cost-cutting 'sustainability theatre' is disingenuous to the real issues of sustainability and climate change. If Air NZ were ultra-concerned about the plastic, the bottles would be replaced with an alternative, and one that may actually cost more to implement, e.g. fully degradable bottles etc. But I think we all know that there is no way that is going to happen. At the same time, it is a business that is trying to stay profitable in a tricky environment (no pun), so two sides to everything.
All said and done, water is a basic need, and if I struggle in the future to have easy (instant) access to hydration when flying, due to some bizarrro attempt to cost save, that is a bad look for an airline whose premium cabins are not cheap to fly in. However you slice it, taking in-seat water sources away will blatantly deliver you less hydrated passengers on average.