Watergate: British Airways Trials Cutting Water Bottles In Economy

I’ve gotta say, this strikes me as being particularly cheap (thanks to WingTips for flagging this and Gastrocnemius for the title inspiration)…

British Airways tries to cut corners on hydration

On long haul flights, it’s pretty standard for airlines to offer passengers individual bottles of water, so that they can stay at least a little hydrated. British Airways is always looking for new industry leading ways to cut costs, and this is the latest example of that.

According to a FlyerTalk thread, for a period of at least two weeks (ending on June 22, 2025), British Airways is trialing cutting individual water bottles in economy on select long haul flights. Specifically, this is being trialed on Airbus A380 routes to Boston (BOS), Los Angeles (LAX), and Miami (MIA).

The airline is loading more extra large water bottles along with new paper cups, and if a customer requests water, that’s how it will be served.

British Airways is of course running this trial to asses passenger feedback, and presumably analyze how consumption changes. Some people don’t realize this, but those post-flight surveys matter a lot to airlines. So if you’re on a flight impacted by this change, be sure to fill out that survey and share your negative perception of the change, or else this might become permanent.

This kind of service cut doesn’t seem practical

I can totally appreciate that bottled water isn’t very environmentally friendly. Then again, having big bottles and cups isn’t ideal either (neither is flying on a plane, I suppose). Still, I think this is a service cut that will really be noticed over time.

Not having bottled water will increase the workload for the crew, it’ll make it tough for passengers to stay hydrated, and it’s just going to lead to unhappiness. There are going to be so many more spilled drinks when everyone has two cups on their tray (water and something else), rather than getting the bottle on the tray, and being able to fill it up later.

Also, can I just point out the humor in British Airways leading the way here? Look, I don’t think anyone actually thinks that British Airways is premium, but let’s remember that in 2022, CEO Sean Doyle touted how British Airways was going to become increasingly premium:

“There is room for optimism that we are on the way out. Putting the premium proposition into the heart of what we do is going to be key. We want people to come off a British Airways flight and talk about it as if it’s something different. Any airline can go out and buy products off the shelf and put them on a plane. It’s actually the confidence and the style and the intimacy that we deliver in service that is going to be a differentiator.”

Bottom line

British Airways is running a trial on select long haul routes, whereby the airline is no longer providing water bottles in economy. Instead, water is just poured into paper cups. I don’t think any of us are actually surprised that British Airways is trying to get away with this. I’m curious if post-flight surveys are taking a hit on these flights.