enviroian

Okay here it is. When I fly AA over the pond (usual choice -- Y ticket upgraded with system wide cert) I enjoy when I order my go-to drink. I ask for a double Tito's and club soda with lemon. The flight attendant brings me two little Tito bottles, a 12 ounce can of Schweppes club soda, and a glass 3/4 filled with nice big ice cubes.

Last week when I flew CW I asked for the same and the flight attendant appeared bewildered that anyone would ask for a double. Anyway, what I got was a very weak (maybe less than 1 shot) in a glass with 2 ice cubes and room temp soda water. Do BA flight attendants not have the little bottles and what I get is up to the flight attendant to pour? The drink was awful. I don't recall what brand of vodka it was but based on the taste it didn't seem very high standard.

chriswiles

I have the opposite (but similar) issue. When I ask for a G&T in J, I find 50% of the time the crew don't know how to make it, so use a very heavy shot of gin. Once I was served a G&T with 50% gin. After two of those I felt quite rough!

On the A350, when the WTP trolley goes through the J cabin, I often stop it and pull off the Tanqueray & tonics and simply use the small bottles and mix my own! So far, the person pushing the trolley has never complained I'm doing this.

Confus

BA long-haul switched to full size spirit bottles a while back for environmental reasons (removing huge plastic waste from the mini bottles). IIRC it’s Ciroc for the vodka, but it would have said on the menu you were given. The standard measure is a UK double. And on that, you won’t get served anything in ounces on a British or European airline, but yes sadly the cans are the tiny versions. They’re typically happily to bring two though if you ask, not sure why they didn’t for you.

enviroian

the plastic mini bottles can be easily recycled. It’s all about cost not the “environment”.

Ciroc is bottom shelf. Yikes!

What exactly is the standard UK double? 2 ounces?

For what it’s worth I asked the flight attendant to please make me a stronger one and she brought me half a glass of straight vodka over ice. Lol. Apparently she had enough of me.

kdhurst380

We use the metric system for weights and measures, much like continental Europe and most of the world.

UK measures are 25ml single, 50ml double.

1Aturnleft

BA serves miniatures of Ciroc on shorthaul. And FWIW they too are in glass bottles, not plastic. I wouldn't call it bottom shelf..... but it's certainly not my favourite. Tito's definitely packs a punch and is distilled from corn. Ciroc is lighter on the palate and distilled from grapes.... they're just different vodkas.

​​​​​​Ever since BA went to hand served drinks in Club World with the introduction of the new service style, away went the miniatures of alcohol. Mixers were always in 150ml mini cans (not full size 330ml cans) since forever.
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As for the lack of ice, just write this off to cultural differences. Most British passengers would prefer less ice as it dilutes the drink. Ask for more ice if what you're provided isn't enough and you shall receive.

If you don't buy into the environmental argument, think about it another way: Glass weighs more than plastic, which in turn requires more fuel to be carried, fuel costs money ... and produces more Co2. So its not necessarily about recycling, it definitely will help towards reducing BA's carbon footprint.
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Virgin did a case study a few years ago whereby they calculated a significant fuel (cash) saving by just offloading the empty pre departure champagne bottles before they close the doors. Sure, for one flight it's an insignificant saving but over the course of every departure in a calendar year, I can see why they choose to do that.

50ml is the meaure of a miniature of spirit and equivalent to a double measure that you might find in a British bar.
This is approx 1.7oz in imperial measurements.

Yes quite possibly.
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enviroian

So a standard UK “double” is less than one single Tito’s mini? Guess that explains it!!

chrisny2

A Tito's mini is 50 ml, so UK double is equal to one mini bottle.

kdhurst380

I recall the first time I ordered a double spirit in Ireland I was asked if I wanted a pint glass. Couldn't for the life of me work out why, until I realised that a standard European single measure is 35ml, making a double 70ml.

I like a strong drink, but 100ml of spirit in a glass served on an aircraft, even with mixer would produce some interesting facial reflexes, and on a longer flight see me get under the weather rather quickly.

I can see why eyebrows might be raised.

Tobias-UK

50ml is the exact same amount served by AA from those miniature bottles. Ciroc is the Vodka served in economy and club, in the UK it retails at about US$10 per bottle more than Tito’s, not sure if that makes it any more or less ‘premium’.

surryson

“Ciroc is bottom shelf”

100ml Ciroc, soda, ice and a slice of lemon. Magnificent.

1Aturnleft

Isn't Smirnoff Red still stocked down the back?

Tobias-UK

I wouldn’t have a clue - I meant to type Club World and Club Europe. Not a vodka drinker myself, but my son had one up to MAN yesterday.

HCCCrew

It is indeed 😊

chrisny2

For what it's worth, plastic mini bottles aren't easily recycled from aircraft: they are small enough that single-stream recycling plants can't easily sort them, so they often end up landfilled, and more relevant, waste from international inbound aircraft is often incinerated for agricultural protection reasons.