It seems that there's always someone on a large crew that makes a fuss about the bottled water.  Sometimes, it's an obnoxious Purser.  Other times, it is a scary 'This-is-my-GALLEY-what-can-I-get-you' commandant.  You know the type: Opening up the box and divvying out the bottles to each person like it was liquid gold.  Which, on the 777 international long-haul gasping-for-air environment, it probably is worth more than gold.

To be fair to most of the Pursers, the water's usually gone by the time they board the plane anyway; an efficient job already perfomed by someone else on the crew.

Everyone has a 'procedure' as to who what where when why the water is allocated for the flight.  And the pilots, oh yessireebob they also can have some very specific ideas about their own bottled water allocation!

It seems like the crews who get screwed the most are the ones on flights between 7-8 hours.  Here's what I mean:

According to Onboard Service, the official provision amounts for crew members are as follows:

• one liter of bottled water per flight attendant for flights under eight hours
• two liters of bottled water per flight attendant for flights over eight hours
• North American flights, including mainland flights to and from Hawaii, are not provisioned with additional bottled water for working flight attendants.

If you check out a few medical resources, they will indicate (as general rule of thumb) that the average human should consume 64 ounces each day.  Of course, there's disagreements about that, like about everything else.  Only you know for sure how much water you need.  If you're thirsty, you need water.  Period.  Check out WebMD for details>>

Thus, 64 ounces equates to almost 2 liters of water.  Ounce to Liter Converter>>

Now, working a 7 1/2 hour flight (whether International or Domestic---what the hell's the difference anyway) is tough work, and involves more than a body being physically at rest.  If anything, the water requirement would increase for airline crews.

Therefore, because there probably isn't enough crew water to satisfy everyone, I guess we would have three choices at this point:

1. Try and convince Onboard Service to provision more bottled water for the flight attendants.  Yeah, right.
    
2. Gulp down airplane spigot tap water each trip as you fly your full line each month.  Methinks not.  Read this article from the staff reporters of the Wall St. Journal.
    
3. Bring our own bottled water to make up the difference.  This is probably the best solution.  But guard it like your firstborn.  And don't leave it unopened and unattended on the galley counter!  Otherwise you'll never see it again...

Here's the full article from Onboard Updates for your consumption:

CREW BOTTLED WATER
International flights are provisioned with bottled water for flight attendant crews as follows:

• one liter of bottled water per flight attendant for flights under eight hours

• two liters of bottled water per flight attendant for flights over eight hours

North American flights, including mainland flights to and from Hawaii, are not provisioned with additional bottled water for working flight attendants. Please do not request extra bottled water from caterers for flight attendant crew use on North America mainland flights to and from Hawaii.

Well there you go.  Of course, if you run out of your bottled water, there's always the Dew!