British Airways have introduced a controversial change to in-flight drinks as part of a sustainability trial.
Economy passengers travelling from London‘s Heathrow Airport to three major US cities, Miami, Boston and Los Angeles, will no longer be provided with water bottles while onboard.
Instead, those travelling on the select routes will be served paper cups of water in a bid to ‘reduce plastic waste’.
The change does not affect BA’s Club World and first class passengers.
On a FlyerTalk forum, a passenger travelling from Miami to London’s Heathrow was highly critical of the new trial, describing it as a ‘cost-saving exercise under the guise of saving the polar bears’.
Stating that they were ‘not a happy camper’, they added: ‘All I asked for was a bottle of water and the response astounded me. I thought I had heard it all. Clearly not.
‘I was told there were no bottles of water they could give me as BA is trialling not offering any bottles of water. Unbelievable’.
British Airways confirmed that they are running the one-week trial reducing single-use plastic onboard from June 16 to June 22.
A spokesperson for the airline said: ‘This is a one-week trial on three routes as part of efforts to reduce plastic waste. The views of our customers are very important to us, and we’ll be listening very carefully to their feedback.’
It comes after British Airways controversially chose to stop serving three-course meals in its business cabin for late takeoffs in October last year, sparking significant backlash from seasoned flyers.
Starters were completely stripped from the menu, while the choice of main courses and deserts was also significantly scaled back.
A source close to British Airways says it cut three course meals on its Club World departures after 9pm to help passengers sleep on late-night flights.
In a similar move to other airlines, they said most passengers had already eaten in the Club Lounge – and found that at that time of night most customers wanted to sleep rather than eat.
However, several BA passengers were upset by the move – and expressed their disapproval at the decision.
One said: ‘I would love to see the amount saved per passenger from these cost cutting measures. It surely cannot be worth the damage?!’
Another hit out about the ‘cost cutting exercise by BA’.
He added: ‘Just because I am flying after 9pm from Miami doesn’t mean that I want to sleep.
‘If I want to drink I will – problem is now there is very little food to go with it.
‘I guess they don’t want the crew to work too hard.’
A spokesperson for British Airways said: ‘We’re incredibly proud of our premium dining experience, which includes a wide range of meal options to suit the preferences of our customers depending on the time of day they’re travelling.
‘We trialled our new brunch offering with thousands of customers across numerous routes and received extremely positive feedback on both the quality and variety of options offered.’
