Dave Noble

Do you spill all your other drinks too? Surely BA doesn't need to provide beakers?

LTN Phobia

I tend to stick to water on a flight, and I certainly don't tend to keep any other drinks within easy reach when I go to sleep (when the risk of catching the drink by accident e.g. with the duvet or blanket, is higher).

KeaneJohn

corporate-wage-slave

The difference is that while one may have a glass of wine with the meal, as an integral part of that process, water may well be left by one's seat for the whole flight, including when in sleeping mode. Hence the risk of spillage is greater with the water from a lack of concentration. The other problem with your glass idea - which isn't a bad one I should say - is that glasses take up a lot of space and weight, so they are often kept at 200 ml, though the new CW clunky glasses are 350ml The bottles are 500ml and often not deemed enough for some passengers.

In reality, at least in CW and First, it actually often is a mix, so the clunky glass are used during the meals (which take longer than they used to do), and a bottle, refilled as required, outside of meal times. Then every so often during the flight someone comes around with a tray of water and fruit drinks. For those who drink an average amount of water that seems to work fine.

This isn't a new development incidentally, the practice of refilling water from large bottles on BA (and indeed many other airlines) has been around for as long as I can remember. On some flights crew will give out small bottles if they have spares, and on more than one occasion I've been given a bottle just after landing "for your trip to the hotel, Mr CWS".

trueblu

In W, which is the cabin I usually fly, we get the smaller highland spring bottle...which I ask to be refilled a couple of times on longer flights. Not saying it's never happened to anyone, but every time, the "filling up" has been performed without "lips touching"...and I was paying attention.

Completely OT, but I was surprised that on my last flight LHR-PEK, I asked for a mid-flight snack (shared with Y), and they said they didn't have any, but had lots of the mini-magnums, which they had forgotten to distribute, so they were almost melted -- I took one and ate it before it disintigrated, but I presume they just trashed the other couple of hundred...totally wasteful! And why are the snacks only available on an inconsistent basis??

tb

Mama

In more than one occasion at airlines lounges, I saw people fill up their bottles with juice/water from the jars. The contact on jars and bottle necks are inevitable and very disgusting.

LTN Phobia

Of course, I should not forget the turbulence-related spillage prevention benefit of having a bottle with a cap

No mess. No risk to my electronic gadgets.

Dave Noble

I don't drink when I am asleep and , in business or 1st class, have not tended to have an issue getting someone to bring me a drink when I want it ; given service levels, I can see more of a reason to distribute a bottle of water in economy

PETER01

This post had just made me buy one and why I never got one years ago goodness knows why!

Re the germs debate - I remember when I was young and coming from an initial humble background, when playing the past time of playing football in the street/park etc and on hearing the ice cream van chimes, me and my friends would sometimes share a can or a bottle of juice which included wiping the bottle/can with your sleeve and then taking a swig , sometimes sharing an ice cream and a pick n mix.

Usually, Sherbet Dabs (and sharing the lollipop!! ), a few Flying Saucers and fizzy Cola Bottles etc. I was never up nor down and of course you got 5p back from the empty bottle which you then bought more pick n mix from the ice cream van. Daintees (toffee), Fruit Salad chews or BlackJacks .

Pete

chris1979

that's the point and I have been thinking the same - and yes, this practise has been going for years and yes, all supportive in theory of re-filling.

I think my thinking partially influenced (probably / hopefully wrongly) by those stilly stickers many corporate water coolers have on them - telling people not to refill bottles for H&S (germ spreading reasons). That does rile me - as it theoretically forces people to use plastic cups for water and in a organisation of 100k employees, that's a couple hundred thousand a day.

back on topic, I have been given a large bottle to myself actually when asked for it (usually earlier in the flight explaining that water (with the odd coke zero) is all i'd be having on the flight) - appreciate they won't have enough for everyone but I like to hydrate well at all times.

rossmacd

Sigg is a very well known Swiss brand producing quality water bottles that are durable and lightweight. I cannot recommend one highly enough:

https://sigg.com/uk/

There are multiple designs and colours available, but I have something simple that is housed permanently in my backpack, something like this:

https://sigg.com/uk/water-bottle-traveller-red/

It does get a little bit bashed and scratched over the years, but it all adds to the character

PETER01

Thank you rossmacd ^

I bought the 0.5 lit one, Blue and I am sure it will be very handy/useful for future trips!

Prospero

@rossmacd, everything you said plus it looks cool

ttama

On a yvr-lhr CW flight my 500ml water bottle was refilled from a tap marked as non-drinkable water. When I objected I was told the crew drink from it all the time. A refill from a larger bottle would have been much more acceptable to me.

mtikky

Looks good and also easy to refill airside these days. Wonder if I can do a day trip to Geneva again to buy one