Originally Posted by
Filthy Monkey
240 points. Back then a longhaul in CW to New York only earned 120!
People may think of 'the glory days', but as suggested above, Airmiles, BA Miles or Avios, whatever you wish to call them, were much harder to come by and tier points? Only for full fare economy passengers or those travelling in business class. Ah, business class... Yes, the product has been thoroughly 'enhanced', but go back not so long ago and you'll find that there was no such thing as a 'reduced' business class fare. I remember the standard cost of a business class ticket to New York was £3,500, with very few discounts available, and the cheapest London-Nice fare in J was around £500. Taking inflation into account, what would be a minimum £1,000+ ticket these days can now be had for a little over £200!
So, the glory days? I'll take the modern day BAEC, thank you very much ^
+1
I started flying BA a few times a year in 1997 and didn't join / couldn't join because Y fares back then didn't earn anything.
Finally joined in 2002 and TP earning rates were lower / the same as now, i.e. we enjoyed a few years of doubled earning on Y fares and now earn higher J / F TPs than before (they were also increased a few years back but didn't go down recently).
As Filthy says, back then, premium travel was much more 'restricted' for a number of reasons - lack of online / internet, no ex EU (and/or no way of booking it), etc etc. So the ability for a greater number of FTers (I am not suggesting the general public does many ex EUs) to fly premium wasnt there.
so yes, the last few years were bettter than "post 28th April" but it overall beats what there was 15 years ago.