Wild British Airways Passenger Water Bottle Rant: "Not To Be A Karen, But…"

"TikTok user who struggles with opening bottles"

What a personal mission statement lol

The new design bottles with the attached cap for recycling purposes are harder to open than the older ones. I look superficially very fit but find it hard to open them due to a neurological condition, which is a bit embarrassing when I have to ask someone for help. I’m sure there are many other groups of peoples (e.g. the elderly, people with arthritis) who feel the same.

To be fair, they are significantly harder to open than regular water bottles. My partner (a healthy woman in her early 30s) struggles to open it as well and asks me to do it.

But claiming that this caused her a headache seems a bit farfetched...

What an interesting topic to write about on this blog. I’m just so glad I spent time reading it. So informative and well written. Exactly the type of high quality content I come to this blog for.

British Airways is a lousy airline, full stop. There's nothing really premium about it.

Just stay off TikTok; most of it is just drama, and most of that is fake anyway.

A headache is a very common symptom of dehydration. Dehydration is equally common on aircraft due to the prolonged exposure to a dry atmosphere, which is why people are encouraged to drink plenty of water.
All of this said - her solution to this was, quite literally, in her own hands.
What amused me most is her question over what would have happened if she had broken her wrist. Yeah - people opening bottles are doin that all of the time when the caps are tight. Not.

Has BA never heard of arthritis?

Seriously you need to try open these bottles of water!
Seriously then do a repeat on this article.
BA should have changed suppliers long ago

I have it on good authority that TikToker Michelle Joseph once spent 3 hours staring at a can of orange juice because the label said "concentrate."

I just experienced this on BA. Go to the gym every day and even I had a little trouble!

Heathrow doesn't have a lot of anything. But a couple of drinking fountains is two more than many European airports. Now they have converted them so that they also can be used to fill bottles. So if you just want a drink, you stand in line behind a couple people with two or three bottles to fill.

I’m all for sensationalist articles. Even if just for fun, let alone to get clicks and revenue.

But this may take the medal for worst “nothing” article of all time.

“Girl can’t open water bottle and asks for help. “

Please Ben, this is bottom of the barrel stuff.

Most AirPorts have water Fountain to refill water bottles . It is rude and frown upon, when customers come with GIANT water bottles onboard and ask the crew to fill them up. Some airlines prohibir the crew from reillint any container not provided by the airline fu to sanitary reasons . This is awkward socially during the beverage service , when we provide them with two cups of water for them to fill their bottles we get a lot of attitude and hand signals that are rude. So it is the entitlement.

Recent experiences with flight and ground crews across the board highlight the potential risk involved with any interface from customers. The similarity with prison wardens increases steadily.

With new Heathrow liquid rules can you not just bring your FULL reusable water bottle?

I enjoyed it Mick. If I don’t care for an article I scroll on by. I believe that’s now a feature available for everyone.

Oh no, blog doesn’t provide exactly the article a reader wants 100% of the time. Huge blog crime occuring.

Upon reading I first thought she may have a problem with her hands such as arthritis.

However I have to say that on my three most recent flights I was struggling to open the bottle of water. One was impossible to open. The crew tried and could not. Coincidentally I purchased a bottle a couple of hours ago , and it is also impossible to open. I took it back and they replaced it.

We have found the Karen who is behind AeroB13a.

Generally, the people posting on Tik Tok are either mentally ill, unemployable or just need to get a life.

Dump the boyfriend. If he can't unscrew a water bottle, then he's not worth the effort, and if he's not on the flight with her, he's not worth the effort either.

Don't drink airplane water. Thank me later when you don't waste the first two day of your vaction sick.

And this is considered newsworthy... the bigger issue is somehow giving this insufferable attention seeker any publicity

I have pretty severe arthritis in my hands (which is always a good excuse to provide! It can happen to folks a lot younger than my 72 years) and often struggle mightily to open sealed screwtop containers. So, I carry a small tool (they're common) for removing caps. Not the big ones for taking the lids of jars, but one specifically designed for small caps like on water bottles. On the other end there's an opener for bottles like beer, my other favorite beverage.

It’s by design; it’s cheaper to use less plastic. Remember those 500ml plastic Coke bottles from a decade ago? Nice thick cap, easy to open/close again.

Today’s version is 1/2 the thickness and you can’t get a good grip on it. Combine that with a cheaper, thinner-walled bottle designed to be 100% recycled (that flexes when you twist the top) and you’re struggling….:(

This post is in the wrong blog. You are better than this

Totally agree! I also found the bottles hard to open, so it is a legit request by the woman.

I think this shows the difference between Asian airlines vs Western airlines. If you ask nicely to open the bottle for you, most Asian airlines crew would just be happy to help, no question ask. In Western airlines, you have a chance of this happened to you even if you ask nicely. Does it really matter why the customer is asking you to help her open the bottle?

To me the issue is the attitude shown by the BA flight attendant. I’m old enough to remember the days when, even in Economy, flight attendants would show pax to their seats, offer to assist in stowing hand luggage, etc. etc. Now, they can’t even graciously fulfill a request for assistance opening a water bottle? How far our civilization has fallen.

Or, fourthly, just making stuff up to boost engagement.

I've seen enough of this nonsense to feel like it's probably entirely STAGED.

It's artificially contrived to be juuuust plausible enough that you focus on the scenario described, despite the only evidence being the woman telling her story and having a bottle of water from a flight (kinda weird to keep a prop like that around for your video, huh?).

Anyways, it's relatable but layered with enough nuance to swiftly invoke a kind of visceral reaction in the audience, but also in ways that the audience itself will take differing perspectives. "Normal adult women should be able to open a bottle of water" "Airline customer service is awful these days" "Corporate products have gone downhill" "Pretty women are entitled" "But what about accommodating disabled people with arthritis?" "Hydration is important" "People should be prepared for ordinary inconveniences of modern life" "Boy I sure struggled to open a jar of pickles the other day" "Back in my day people took a moment to assist those in need" blah blah blah. All of that promotes engagement, likes and shares.

So yeah, I'm saying it's fake.

Years of jet-engine-level noise left many British Airways flight attendants with hearing worse than a karaoke machine at 2 a.m. So when a man in the next row politely asked this flight attendant to unscrew his water bottle, she misheard him and thought he was requesting sex at 30,000 feet. “Would you mind screwing it open?” he asked. Without missing a beat, she winked and shot back, “Trust me, it’s not that hard.”

EskimoBot, your mental perturbations are second only to your permanently twisted imagination. You really will have to try harder to convince the Kingsboro Psychiatric Centre medical team of your sanity, or they will never release you.

EskimoBot, your mental perturbations are second only to your permanently twisted imagination. You really will have to try harder to convince the Kingsboro Psychiatric Centre medical team of your sanity, or they will never release you.

Yep totally fair. And I get that Ben can post whatever he likes. But the comments section also allows for conversation and opinion. And jeez, “I couldn’t open my water bottle, and she wouldn’t open it and it was so humiliatiing” is pretty pretty weak

I loathe the spelling TikToker. That’s phonetically pronounced like token, a person who smokes the ganja weed. It should be TikTokker

Token -> Toker

DYAC!

Token -> Toker

DYAC!

Dear Editor: Life is short … please elevate us to your mission of quality travel hacks and ideas. This trivial and also bulletins about a plane with blown a tire not adding to quality of life in day. My two bits

Why are you promoting these absolute morons?

Idiots posting videos on tiktok have no place on flyer sites imo

I would be interested in this. My wife also cannot open bottle caps because of arthritis. She is only 53 and feels pretty low when I have to open bottles for her

I am right there with you, Rodney. Bad arthritis both hands and sometimes I do ask for help opening bottles. So far the asks have been met with kindness.

There are 'Water Bottle openers for Seniors" on Amazon for $10. Komplaining Karen should purchase one and shut up.

Yeah, as Ben said, go get a water bottle (she can chose the cap type to match her abilities). Stick a little senior-assist tool in her purse. Done.

I understand struggling to open some of the weirdly tight caps on mini bottles (I do too, sometimes), but doesn't seem like this incident would be "got a headache I was so dehydrated" territory, not related to this alone.

I mean it's a dumb ask but also...can't the flight attendant just do it? It can't be the worst thing she's had to deal with. We all get asked to do dumb stuff at work....open the girl's water for her if that's what she needs and move on.

But also if a flight attendant was rude to me about something this dumb...I would probably move on myself or complain on the survey if I was really that upset about it. Not sure why people think posting videos is the way to solve every conflict at this point....can we just talk to each other instead of trying to publicly shame everyone that slightly annoys us?

But if you hear stuff like that every week/day you work wouldn't you have a point where you tell people to take a flying leap?

The real problem is people's reality check or lack of in this instance. She is so convinced that she is in the right like so many on social media that she feels if she posts it she will get lots of likes and then is completely stunned when they get backlash. People have lost the ability to evaluate their own actions and know whether it's right or wrong. You can always ask for anything no matter how stupid. BUT people have the right to flatly refused with attitude if they do choose. You instigated be prepared for things not going your way. Ever notice how people approach you and are ALL SMILEY because they want something and when you say no they turn into the devil. That's what we're dealing with these days.

Maybe it's to demonstrate that you should not air these grievances in a public forum so the next Karen will at least pause. If you don't they're will definitely another Karen who will replicate the same thing. People have zero originality they only do what another person did previously.

But more than likely they would open the request with something like I'm so sorry, I have arthritis can you help me with this.

Karen came off sounding like, peasant, open this for me. Even if that wasn't her intention.

People and their grievances nowadays. It's a bit of a pity she did not do this on Ryanair. Micheal O'Leary would have had a few biting comments to this.

As a BA cabin crew member yes, the water bottles we provide have lids that many, mainly elderly, people struggle to open, as the lids are hard to grasp.

If anyone asks, which happens maybe once every few flights, I always gladly open it, and make a joke about how they’re difficult to open.

Technically, it is part of our job to assist customers with disabilities by opening food packaging.

I do understand some of our flights are short, like a 30 minute hop to Jersey, or up to Manchester. But there still is time to open a bottle.

I’m wondering if there was some prejudice in this situation, given that the passenger does look fully able bodied.. though we all need to remember, invisible disabilities exist.

Though to the comments also trash talking BA’s crew, imagine working for a company that cost cuts every corner, including crewing. We don’t have the resources to seat every customer at their seat.

On some aircraft, we only have one cabin crew to patrol all of economy section during boarding, as the rest have other duties.

I wish the Boarding Area affiliated blogs did not have to recycle this tabloid rage-bait nonsense, and that Ben and Matt could focus on card advice and travel reviews. (Like, leave this to VFTW… Gary’s already got it covered.) I wonder what’s going on behind the scenes. Like, is there an editor-in-chief who’s forcing this stuff out to all of them?

bro she is a karen lmao

Stop giving these fecking gobshites the time of day ffs. Honestly, how people can even come to this page at all is incredible given the BS that gets posted here.