747_not_777

Admitedly it's a few weeks since I was last in a BAEC lounge, but this morning at T5 Galleries North there is no Highland Spring bottled water in sight... It's all a new brand which I (in my ignorance) have never heard of... Speyside Glenlivet? The website looks reassuringly premium nonetheless!

However, just wondered if BA is having a supply issue, or is this the start of a new supplier relationship? And might it mean an end to those nice small bottles of HS they hand out at 36,000ft?

sigma421

Speyside Glenlivet is the 'premium' brand of the Highland Spring group so it probably won't make that much of a difference to what we see onboard (at least in Y). Personally I always liked Highland Spring because it tastes like the tap water I used to get when I lived in Scotland!

http://www.highlandspringgroup.com/p...ide-glenlivet/

se1lad

In the LGW Flounge yesterday afternoon it was 50/50split between bottles of Highland Spring and Speyside Glenlivet

corporate-wage-slave

It changed in the middle of last week. All the LHR T5 lounges now have switched over, including CCR and Flounge, so I think it's a permanent change. CCR staff are still getting the knack of pouring it (which seems to involve a very swift up-ending).

It comes from a different spring and does have a different taste to Highland Spring. The sparkling version is definitely fizzier. Highland Spring seems to go flat too quick.

Highland Spring actually comes from just north of Dublane, you can see the plant from the A9. Speyside is from the Cairngorms between Grantown-on-Spey and Huntly.

747_not_777

Ahhhhhhhh. Must admit to quite enjoying it. If the same company, am sprised the didn't kep HS for Galleries Club and take the premium stuff to the Flounges and CCR only.

Jenbel

For the sake of it, it's probably not worth the cost and the hassle?

It is just bottled water afterall

LTN Phobia

It sounds more like a brand of whisky than water
Not that I am complaining. I'm pretty sure I had it before and liked it*.

*referring to water and the older Glenlivet, I don't like the 12yo one.

Tobias-UK

It's probably replacing it!

ClubClassCowboy

Bottled water, and especially bottled uncarbonated water, should be universally banned.

What a total waste of energy and resources - there's a perfectly good tap within reach of everyone in the first world.

travelfan199

It's a good brand- I like it. I always thought Highland Spring was a bit down market.

Hildon or Harrogate Spa are my favourites, though.

Jenbel

Taps aren't always accessible.

Generally, if I'm not in my house or at my work, I don't have easy access to tap water. If I get thirsty, I have to buy something to drink, and it's healthier to be able to buy water than to have to buy sugary drinks (I hate sweetener with a passion).

House

I have some sympathy with this, but isn't the real answer to educate people who do genuinely have access to good tap water, so that they actively make that choice? It's certainly a lot easier to get tap water these days in London restaurants for example, and that's down to consumer choice.

Failing that, tax is going to work a lot better than a ban - we don't ban cars with engines over 2 litres, for example, just make them more expensive to run.

I would also add that all bottled waters are not the same. Here in Cambodia, for example, no one is going to seriously drink the tap water, though if you ask the government they will tell you it is safe to drink (another reason a ban would be counter-productive). So the choice is between local purified water and expensive imported bottles of Evian shipped in from Europe. Thankfully the price differential means that Evian is genuinely a luxury product. Worth noting that the main demand for Evian here, based on anecdotal evidence, comes from rich locals and Chinese/Korean/Japanese/Indian/Thai tourists, not from (on the whole) eco-conscious European and Americans. The latter are dwarfed, in terms of numbers, by the former.

T8191

There you go again, spoiling the debate by being completely moderate and sensible

A thread about the choice of water in the various Lounges had such potential!!

shefgab

I hope with the change they start loading a bit more of it into the planes.

AGP-LCY in Y: "Sorry sir, it all went flat on the outbound"

LCA-LHR in C: "Um, I think there's a bottle somewhere, i'll have to go and find it...they only loaded one bottle." Yes, ONE bottle loaded for the entire 767!!!!! Lucky I took a few mini-cans from the lounge

I haven't actually flown BA since that flight back in Feb so many they've started stocking more now. I know that my LHR-LCA flight with Aegean last week had NO problem keeping me well watered. (and the plane wasn't falling apart)

ClubClassCowboy

I have not visited Cambodia - but I wouldn't class it as "First World" - I could be wrong. The fact that French water is shipped all the way there is (to me) so counter intuitive - the cost and energy could be put into creating a proper water supply. Like you say people need to be educated to make it their first choice.

I drink bottled water in Africa because often it's all there is. However the cost of carting it half way across a big country with poor roads is often so much greater than it would be to dig an artesian well. It just gets me hot under the collar how stupid we are as humans.

Best not start on the unmitigated evil that is sugary sodas - all that plastic and diabetes... Think I'd best go for a run and calm down (with a refilled bottle of tap water).