I am going to make a case for MXP, though I accept many of the comments made above (though there maybe a bit of exaggeration in some of them!).

MXP security is fairly straightforward, and the airport is clean, tidy and spacious. The LIN lounge is a bit better, and is also near where BA ships out (by bus). MXP is invariably air bridged.

But the key to this is effective use of the Malpensa Express. In particular by changing at Bovisa, just outside Milan, you can use a rail service under the city, the Passante, which will end up (probably) fairly close to where you want to go. Dark blue line on this map.

The Malpensa Express is modern, clean and spacious. The same can't be said of the Passante, but there's plenty of services. LIN is connected by very regular bus services, but I guess it's a bit off-putting unless you are used to the system there.

Three Malpensa tips:

• As with LHR, use the lifts (elevators) when arriving in the terminal from the station to go straight to security - assuming you don't have luggage to check in. Saves hassle even though you walk past what looks like internal offices in MXP.
• There's a quite good Sheraton built into MXP like the Sofitel in London. If arriving late or after a trans Atlantic you may want to park your first night there and commute to work the next morning on the Malpensa Express.
• Best tip of all: use Malpensa but stay in Lake Como and commute in to Milan everyday! Wonderful place to stay, though your Milanese contacts will then regard you as a romantic eccentric and possibly even English.

To say a few nice things about Linate: once you are through security it's fairly compact, and if you arrive there late evening and use a taxi (which for safety reasons I try to avoid) you can be at a central Milan hotel in 20 minutes very easily. It's just that your stomach will arrive a few minutes later.

And a few words of Italian or even cod Latin (!) goes a long way. Ita vero!