BOB £2.30 for some hot water !!
 

I was on board the Malaga - Gatwick flight yesterday (Y) and sat beside an elderly gentleman who requested a cup of hot water for his tea bag, which he was clearly holding when I took my seat. I can't comment on what type of tea bag it was, herbal or otherwise but when asked if he wanted anything from the trolley he requested a cup of hot water. He was duly provided with this and asked to pay £2.30, this being the exact price for a cup of tea from the BOB menu, including earl grey etc. Just wondering if this was a "one off" or is this the norm when cc are requested to provide hot water to passengers. I have to say I was surprised as he was. Hopefully CIHY and other members of the cabin crew fraternity can enlighten us

If everyone came with their sachets of instant coffee/hot chocolate or teabags and expected free hot water BA wouldn't sell anything.

I can understand £2.30 seems a little expensive for hot water, but I understand why they charge for it.

Maybe £2.00 would have been fairer, given he did not use the tea bag, but I doubt the FAs are permitted to stray from the standard menu price codes, so he had to be charged as if for a complete cuppa.

From the BOB thread:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...l#post27740616

There are a number of posts commenting on the charge for hot water in the reactions thread:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...y-service.html

One person did receive hot water and lemon for free.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/27784419-post669.html

Probably an old blogger doing some research for an article.

Quite difficult for the cabin crew in these situations- they are the ones that have to deal with such miserly orders from the top.
Travel with an infant. I'd be very surprised if they wouldn't provide free hot water to add to infant formula. If they refused that, one could write to the daily mail or something and I'm sure it will get published.

This is pretty pathetic, I'd expect this from Ryan Air. Not "British Airways". Oh how the mighty have fallen.

I do thank British Airways for their avios program. CX 7500 redemption :cool:

​​​​​​Ah, but the stated aim of Bob was not to drive revenue, it was to increase choice. Cruz even, with a straight face, said that ba would not charge inflated prices like LCCs do. Your comment makes perfect sense for an airline like Ryanair who are at least honest about why they charge for everything on board but it is very hard to reconcile paying £2.30 for hot water with the guff that accompanied the introduction of bob for ba

With the issue of stock checks hovering in the background and no customer recovery from the BoB trolley - that's fine. But here does the hot water tally? Churlish FA behavior IMHO.

Perhaps if the person asking for the hot water had their own cup but once a cup is given out the stock count will be out compared to sales and the CC gets into trouble.

It's sad to have BA employing someone to count the cup supply's before and after every flight in order to compare the numbers to BOB sales.

If I walk into a restaurant with a teabag and ask for a cup of hot water....will they charge me money? Of course.

You don't expect them to provide it for free.

by which you mean "of course not", or else I strongly recommend that you change your choice of restaurants. We are not talking about you having paid to be there, purchased a ticket etc so this is really a restaurant where you have already bought a full meal and are asking for a cup of hot water, or rather a hotel where you have already paid for the room and are asking a cup of hot water.

Normal business practice to do stock takes in the food and beverage industry. Seems a perfectly reasonable way to do things to me.

So this person brought a tea bag on board and drinks black tea? This is the conclusion we have to draw. I'm surprised that he didn't bring his own milk and sugar.

Did he protest or object to paying £2.30 or whatever for hot water. I'd be surprised if he didn't if his level of parsimony extends that far.

Unless any of us chose to do the same, who cares?

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.

^^^

What I'd be interested to know is if cabin crew are making notes (or being asked to take notes) of how many cups of water they are giving out?

On my last flight to VIE one of the crew was holding a tray that contained at least 8 cups of water that she handed to passengers from row 12 down to the CE cabin. I didn't see how many she'd already handed out behind me. It seems to me that the water requests are getting more frequent.

Regarding the charge for hot water, well if they'd used one of the cups from the BoB stock then I can see why they charged...not to say that I agree with it.

The lengths some will go to defend BA on this is laughable. Yes, if a large percentage of customers start doing this, then BA has the right to protect their revenue (as any LCC does), but there's little reason they can't accommodate an individual case on an individual flight. I don't blame the cabin crew - they are following orders.

Like others, I've never had any problem getting free hot water in a restaurant when I am already a paying customer.

I wonder what the response would be if the passenger had a Lemsip sachet in hand and asked for hot water to help them through their stinking cold.

I've decided to let my silver membership run out. I will now be flying other carriers as BA is no longer a premium airline in my books. Sad to see it happen as I'm from a BA family and the airline is a long way from the world's favourite that I remember from the 80's & 90's!

Forgetting for the moment that the general view of BOB is poor, and devaluing the BA experience...
And that we all agree tea, coffee and hot water should ALL definitely be complimentary...


if someone is charging £2.30 for a cup of tea, then quite reasonable to charge for just hot water. The incremental cost reduction of not supplying the tea bag, is tiny and less than a penny. The costs of getting that cup of hot water to you are basically the same as if it were a cup of tea.

Useful story about a cafe owner's response to a similar complaint on Trip Advisor..
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/12099760/TripAdvisor-York-Bennetts-cafe-owner-leaves-brilliant-response-to-one-star-review.html

Actually, I'd still disagree with that statement. As a very regular user of FR I would still take BA Y over FR - what I get with BA that I don't with FR: Lounge access before the flight, free seat selection,no financial penalty for forgetting to check in on line before I arrive at the airport, no financial penalty for forgetting to print my BP, a more relaxed atmosphere on board, no regular loud announcements to buy food, drinks, scratchcards, perfumes ... and most recently cameras. Then of course I get Avios too ^

.... and if I don't want to sit in an economy cabin I can book Club.

Oh, and no bloody fanfare when we land! :D

So basically, for an entire aircraft, one or two water kettles and the heat-up time. Indeed, where does one draw the line? At that rate, slap a meter on the WC sinks to limit the water for handwashing for each loo visit.

Sometimes the comments here astonish me.
The only way to price something is the worst case scenario. That's everyone taking the **** and asking for hot water.
People pay for a flight, nothing more. They know that it doesn't include any food or drink.
I think that the crew have a difficult enough time getting from one end of the cabin to the other in time without passengers asking for something odd.
The free food / drink options on a domestic flight may have been there but totally unnecessary. If I got on a bus for an hour I wouldn't be in need of any sustenance.
A friend's biggest concern when the BOB was introduced was that he wouldn't get his free bottle of wine! I felt like suggesting that he got a life!

Yes but remember about 90% of fliers do not have status = ).
For a GGL like yourselves, yes I get you would rather fly BA!

90%? That's an interesting statistic. Doesn't seem to bear out my experience when boarding. Where did you get that stat from?