Absolutely. They are a business and their costs are considerable. Fair's fair.

Shouldn't this thread be merged into the experiences of BoB thread?

Actually, OP says: "I can't comment on what type of tea bag it was, herbal or otherwise ". I for one would not touch regular tea with a barge pole, and unlike others here, I find even BA's "new" coffee poor (I'm a tiny espresso sort of guy), so I only drink herbal stuff and if I want a hot drink, I regularly bring my own (including sometimes in J and F depending on the airline I fly. I would certainly object to paying £2.30 for hot water and find that incredibly petty.

You can buy 1100 Tetley Tea Bags from Costco for £13.99, equals £0.013 per tea bag. Twinnings are perceived to be more expensive, but not far off £0.012-0.019 range per tea bag if you can find the wholesaler. And few years back, you could get 640 Twinning's tea bag for £3.75 which is less than £0.006 per bag (cir. 2009).

So I guess we can conclude that the hot water on board British Airways is expensive. Or, we can say that the cup made for BA is very expensive.

Cheap move on BA's part. Even easyjet will give free hot water if requested.

No, if you provide your own receptacle the hot water will be provided without charge. If you don't provide the receptacle then you will have to purchase the pre-portioned tea cup from the BoB trolley. If the crew give that away their stock will be down when reconciled.

What is expensive is logistics around catering in general, bob or not-bob.

Start adding up for catering facilities, purchase/inventory, handling in facility, security, handling at airport (to the planes and from the planes) etc. etc. it really adds up. It is not the tea-bags nor paper-cups that drives the cost here.

Yes we know that.

And I am not sure what you are saying NO for. What you confirmed is that the receptacle cup is the main cost factor in BA's expensive tea. Which incidentally is the second component of my conclusion. :confused:

I think you are defending BA too much here.

Catering facilities, purchase/inventory, handling in facility, security, handling in airport is included in BA's deal. It was never a big issue when catering is free/complimentary. It is not 'expensive' as you perceived. And it is certainly not as expensive as £0.50 per cup. The only added cost for selling a cup of tea is the IT investment to accept card payment.

Let us put this way, due to BA's legacy cost structure, when you pay for your ticket, all those catering facility costs you mentioned is included.

Actually, what Tobias-UK confirmed is not even that the cup is expensive (it costs BA nothing undoubtedly) but just that it is the count unit for reconciliation. So the decision to charge for the cup is unrelated to costs of any form and purely related to the bureaucratic arrangement between the supplier and the BoB company.

Surely the solution to this situation would be loading a supplementary supply of paper cups which are not subject to Tourvest’s stock control. The passenger travelling with his/her own tea or wanting hot water and lemon will be happier. The crew will be happier too.

I have a friend who either drinks hot water, or hot water with a slice of lemon, and we have never, ever been charged for the hot water in a restaurant or even a coffee shop. They even quite happily provide a cup for free as well

Where does one draw the line? Imagine 20 passengers asking for their own Pot Noodles to be hydrated with the free hot water.

Thanks! :)

Sound like a good idea to me! Bring back the old BA cups that was made from recycled materials with BA logo!

It does not happen in 99% of the BOB market BA is current serving.

I'm suprised that after many months of BOB now, people are still thinking that BA is superior to FR or U2 on short haul economy. They are not, so please no more 'even Easyjet' or 'i'd expect this from Ryan Air not British Airways'!

Basically jump on a BA flight short haul and do not expect anything in terms of service in economy, at least for free.