cmd320

This isn’t really true. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bottle of Acqua Panna at a Hudson News or similar type of establishment. It’s normally a disgusting Smart Water for like $8 or a Dasani for $5.

dmarge18

If you read the ingredients on a Dasani bottle, it's water followed by three different names for salt. OP is right, Dasani is awful, but with Coca Cola owning the drinks contract, that's all we're gonna get.

MrHockey

Wait, you take Accutane but have issues with water? You’ve seriously got your concerns mixed up.

BenA

Due to a long standing, delicate and complicated set of not-very-good reasons including boycotts and public relations missteps, most of the Middle East has been divided up in soda brands across religious boundaries, with Coca-Cola being popular in the Jewish community and Pepsi cornering the market in majority Islamic markets.

This has faded quite a bit over the years and both companies operate in both markets since 1992, but the perception still exists, and it’s entirely unsurprising it would affect ME3 carriers’ drink choices onboard.

ijgordon

Yup, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are two of Pepsi’s strongest international beverage markets in terms of market share and size, so that makes sense.

charlesdemar

Some years ago they actually called out on their bottles that it was from the city of Houston water supply. That quickly disappeared.

hhdl

In a lot of the Muslim world, Coke runs a fairly distant second to Pepsi. There was a fairly widespread popular association of Coke with Israel. I'd be a little surprised if any of the ME airlines served Coke.

Flaneurs

I think you haven’t been to very many airports that Delta serves if you think that “literally” every one has multiple newsstand operations all of which have multiple different bottled waters. GTF for example has only one stand with a few books and no newspapers and only Dasani and Smartwater for sale post security. BZN is another. BIL, MSO and HLN round out the whole state of Montana where there is never more than one newsstand-type operation post security and water options are seriously limited to the Coca-Cola produced options.

I agree that Acqua Panna is good water. Dates back to the 16th Century when the Medici family claimed it as their own. Now it belongs to San Pellegrino... Nestle. Still quality water and a HUGE step above Dasani swamp water.

HeadInTheClouds

I love Dasani. Tastes great. I love Woodford. Tastes great. I love Delta. Maybe I have bad taste. I don’t care.

DenverBrian

And whether Dasani, or Fiji, or Kirkland, or Deer Park, or Poland, or Aquafina...it's all in plastic bottles, each of which will not fully break down for 10,000 years or more.

kale73

My preference is distilled water. No minerals to contaminate my precious bodily fluids.

(And some of you are going to have to answer to the Coca-Cola® Company.)

A321neo

Are you folks aware that you can get Smartwater when youre flying in DeltaOne, right?

MrHockey

Oh-My-God,

Are you seriously telling me that there is a thread on Pretentious er Flyertalk that is five, count em, five pages long about bottled water? You know, I signed up here to get the hidden deals on flying with Delta. I did some research on this site and the majority (90%) of the negative reviews stated the "holier than God" and "white, 1st world" problems started by posters here. I ignored that and went ahead and registered. Holy Sheet, the reviews were right! A five page long diatribe on the quality of bottled water??!! Then I had the pleasure of reading a, who knows how long, thread about how someones feelings were hurt about a gate agent in SEA, saying I was to receive a D1 seat and "rub and tug" and then changing my seat and a red coat spit on me and siding with the "rub and tug agent" then the subsequent replies stating the agent should be terminated, drawn and quartered, publicly humiliated and then questioning the mental state of said gate agent and if she/he should be institutionalized. Seriously people, this is like that scene in The Hangover where Stu says "You guys are just F'n with me" Christ people, book a flight, if you make it into first great, if not sit down and just shut the FARK up already.

cmd320

Sorry, but no. I live in a world with both standards and expectations.

Dovster

There is an interesting story behind this. For years, Pepsi boycotted Israel out of fear of losing its sales in the Arab countries. Eventually, Pizza Hut opened in Israel and, at the time, it was owned by Pepsico. Pepsico did not allow Pizza Hut to sell Coke, and Pepsi was not being bottled in Israel. Hence, Israeli Pizza Huts sold only Pepsi which was bottled in Cyprus. Eventually, Pepsi dropped its boycott and started bottling in Israel. This allowed Pizza Hut to provide locally-bottled Pepsi. Since then, Pepsico sold Pizza Hut and today Israeli Pizza Hut franchises provide only Coke -- no Pepsi.