bensyd

I find it hard to believe QF would risk a major health issue by not ensuring the tanks are kept sanitised.

Blackcloud

This was reported by a leaked internal document in December. QF stated that the jugs were to be silver, as referenced in the article that leaked this.
Qantas takes bottled water out of biz class | Plane Talking
If what you have observed is highly polished stainless steel that serves the same purpose, then so be it.

perthite

Indeed - it has been that standard way of delivering drinking water in Economy for sometime, and it has been used in Business for six months or so. There doesn't seem to have been too many issues.

cova

Well if passengers get wind of this, they will start buying their own water to bring on board - hence more weight. Sounds like crew is bringing their own on board already.

eoinnz

Tens of millions of passengers have been drinking potable water for over a decade on QF aircraft.

Crew are entitled to one bottler of water and this is what the OP would have seen in the galley. I don't know of any crew who bring on their own water.

cova

Is this a contract item with the crew?

Why would it be necessary to provide bottled water to the crew but not passengers?

eoinnz

It is written that crew are to be supplied with a bottle of water but all passengers are still provided an initial bottle of water.

So everyone including crew are getting one bottle of water.

It's more of a practical thing for crew. It can be easily taken around the aircraft and it's handy to take into the bunks.

Individual passenger water bottles in Business are now replenished with potable water (as has always been the case in economy). Crew would also have to fill theirs up using potable once consumed.

First Class still continues to receive bottle water.

og

Have you never been through secondary security immediately before boarding - where the poor sods that go through carry ons are specifically looking for water bottles?

oldfolky

Unfortunately stainless steel does not have anti-microbial properties. It is used in commercial kitchens as it does not corrode in the presence of water, food acids etc. and is easy to clean.

Platy

But there have been issues with other airlines. For example:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/ne...hygiene-tests/


Ensuring safe water is a non trivial exercise and there are many ways in which things can go wrong, not to mention that it is impractical to test for each loading of water: see the summary training document for the US system;

https://www.epa.gov/sites/production...uction_pdf.pdf

There may be safety and security protocols in place to ensure crew are not all affected if the water supply is compromised for whatever reason (i.e. not all drinking from the same source).

The question for travellers is are you better off drinking the aircraft potable water or bottled water?

Personally, I'd take the bottled water, given the choice, for the simple reason that the applicable testing regime is more likely to catch a problem based on my (admittedly limited) initial readings on the subject and (admittedly rusty) postgraduate level experience in water quality and microbiology.

Incidentally, in the US, the tap water comes under the EPA and bottled water under FDA (bottled water is classified as a "food").


PS. I also tend to favour bottled water when travelling having been unwittingly "exposed" to the Cryptosporidia and Giardia contamination in Sydney in 1998 and subsequent scares and to this day boil tap water at home.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_Sydney_water_crisis

and 2010:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-06-0...ne-away/854462

shuuy

Love the spirited debate - if it's a 'weight' thing, then why don't the crew / pilots drink water from the hold?

Globaliser

Do none of the pilots or cabin crew drink tea or coffee?

eoinnz

It was never claimed to be a weight thing. It was to reduce landfill.

You are still loading water. Makes no difference what is comes in - it is still weight.

Pilots and crew do drink from the hold as well. They, like the passengers, also get a bottle too as it's slightly more practical. There is no tap in the flight deck and you can't be running up a cup of water every 5 seconds.

Dave Noble

Weight wise it would make a difference I suspect. There is probably a lot of wasteage of water carried where bottle is opened but doesn't get fully drunk

If N Kg of water bottles loaded with Y Kg of water in part drunk bottles, the amount carried could be reduced by Ykg

I personally do not see fixation some have of bottled water ; I buy a bottle occasionally if I need to, but then tend to reuse it by filling from a tap

VH-RMD

How on earth did any of us survive before bottled water came along? Just imagine what those old 707 water tanks may have been like...