Originally Posted by
corporate-wage-slave
In one respect it's just LHR T5 that has conformance. In another respect some airports won't issue boarding passes after a given time, and that given time could be very conservative (e.g. FRA springs to mind, can be 50 minutes with some airlines there). With HBO and Apps that's not a huge factor here.
MXP is one of those airports I advocate, it does have a bit more walking than others, and there is a low key security check, but when the flight is on time some MXPs have long turnaround times too. It's also a half empty airport, which always helps! Still not quite as good as AMS, BRU, CPH, BGO, SVG, GOT, DUS, OLB - no walking and no checks. HEL and HAM runners-up. Of those BRU, GOT, HEL and to a lesser extent DUS have handy lounges too.
This will seem a very obvious point to the experienced, but maybe less so to some others who may find their way to this thread ..... There are random and inexplicable differences in the pricing for different Euro starting points, so the inconvenience of some of them must be set against the cost savings which they may offer and v.v. As an example, I could several times now have saved a fair chunk with an ex DUB over an MXP, but have opted for MXP because the ex DUB sounds just too sressful, and to me the cost / benefit of an easy turnaround is an acceptable trade off.
As a slightly OT point, do ALWAYS check out the pricing on the AA website and compare with the BA fares. AA fares are often significantly cheaper, and even when similar, the AA fares for the same flights are often significantly less restrictive. Using the AA website is in itself worthy of a lengthy tutorial as it throws up vastly different fares depending how the same itinerary is entered: e.g, entering A to C but allowing for a connection (which will force a change in B), will almost certainly come up with a different fare from A-B and B-C entrered as separate legs, even using exactly the same flights.