Without wishing to stay for too much longer on the hot towels issue, as important as it may be as an indicator as to the crazy world that BASSA dwell within...
...it isn’t always the case that you won’t get hot towels on each flight, they are loaded onboard each time and there are some CC that remember that they work for BA and will issue them regardless of BASSA’s small mind on this issue.
I know of one purser personally who says she can gauge how the service will be during the trip by the looks she gets from other crew when she reaches for the hot towels; it’s either expressions of relief or looks of horror which clearly identify which camp the particular CC member is in.