onaswan

Yes, I remember checking in for flights at 'Euston Air Terminal'... we then got on a bus to LTN!

On a separate (tangential) line:

I remember being very excited (sad now looking back) on a particular journey when, for the first time, I made the entire trip without walking on the tarmac: it was HAJ - LHR (BEA Trident) and we boarded and disembarked along the 'new-fangled' jet-ways.

SpeedBird2001

I loved this service when the HEX opened and it was my main reason for using it as it justified the expense. Was very sorry to see it go.

Swiss Tony

Except back then the HEX was't expensive. Less than a tenner in the early days IIRC....

Phil the Flyer

I can't resist threads such as these!

First flight ex-LHR: 10 July 1966 British Eagle Bristol Britannia G-AOVA LHR-RMI.

First 'BA' flight ex-LHR: 15 September 1969 BOAC VC10 G-ASGN LHR-JFK-NAS.

As an airplane-spotting 12/13 year old I used to take the tube to Hounslow West and a bus to LHR; where I spent my days at the Queen's Building. Back then 09L/27R and 09R/27L were 10L/28R and 10R/28L.

Happy days.

WHBM

For those who want a bit more detail about the double-decker "BEA" buses and their little luggage trailers from WLAT to T1 in 1966-79 :

http://www.countrybus.org/RMA/RMA.html

I like how they were specially geared for 70 mph on the M4 section of the journey - with a two-wheeled trailer

The buses were bought by the airline but maintained and operated for them by London Buses. It was considered a plum job to drive one compared to the normal bus work, and done on seniority; most drivers were lifelong west London bus drivers who had waited for years for the chance, and then drove them until retirement.

I'm guessing this is going back to charter airline days at Luton. Each airline did their own thing with buses from London, most of them left from around Euston or Finchley Road. If anyone remembers the old colourful Court Line operation, they had a fleet of coaches painted in the same colours. The "best" was the Channel Airways 'Kings Cross Air Terminal' - this was a bus stop pole in a rough back street behind Pentonville Road !

onaswan

Yes, in those days I flew quite a bit with Monarch, Invicta and Britania out of LTN, always amused me, the wild coulour scheme on the Court Line a/cs.

Roger

Me too.

In my early travelling days, I used WLAT. Based in deepest Essex at the time, I sometimes stayed overnight at the Forum Hotel almost opposite when taking the early flights to Paris or Amsterdam. The Forum was InterContinental's second brand. To my young-ish eyes, it was my introduction to the high life. The Forum is now the Holiday Inn Kensington Forum and no longer feels like the high life.

Before the Piccadilly Line was extended (and how proud LT was at the time ), getting to Heathrow meant taking the Picc'y to Hounslow West, then the A1 bus nonstop to the airport. What a palaver.

On one occasion, I needed a flight to DUS. BEA and LH were full so I booked Pan Am, who were at Sedley Place. I booked at PA in Cheapside. That was the beginning of my miles collecting, using a friend's New Jersey address. (Pan Am Worldpass was only available in North America at the time.)

LHR-DUS was an extension to a TATL flight. I think it was a 707. As a full fare passenger, they put me in Clipper class where I was the only passenger. They insisted on performing the safety briefing despite my suggesting it was unnecessary. 'Federal regulations require ...'

I subsequently flew many PA sectors in Europe, particularly to TXL, often changing in FRA. They were usually on Airbus 310s. BA to TXL at the time was an aged BAC 1-11 which stopped on the way in HAJ IIRC.

PA and AA combined their FF programmes. When PA went belly up, I already had my AAdvantage account with a reasonable balance thanks to the PA flights and, er, yes, some BA flights too IIRC. The beginning of a certain lifestyle.

It was several years before BA's Air Miles FF programme started.

WHBM

Semley Place, actually, alongside Victoria Coach Station, and facing the BOAC terminal across the road. Pan Am just contracted regular coaches of the era, like TWA they used Halls of Hounslow, with a rather minimalist airline livery and decals over basic white.

http://www.sct61.org.uk/zzdgc102h

Interesting the bus photo was taken at the 1972 Derby at Epsom. Maybe some inbound US passengers tipped the driver to divert so they could have a quick flutter on the horses !

Here's a film about road travel between Heathrow and London in 1955. We've done this one before, a few years ago, but probably worth doing again. I suppose we won't escape the usual jibes about which current board members feature at which point

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/lo...loo+helicopter

Oh, foul words, sir, on a thread about BA history and fond memories. The great and good BAC One-Eleven (always words, not digits) which was a longstanding feature of the BA (and originally BEA) schedules, as well as British Caley's mainstream European type, and for so many independent airlines as well. My recollection of the BA One-Elevens was that they were maintained in immaculate condition right up to their last days, in sad contrast to what happens nowadays.

Roger

Thanks.Well, we may have a different POV here. The BAC One-Eleven was one reason I avoided BEA at the time given a choice, alongside the dreaded Trident, Trident Two and Trident Three. I suspect part of this was scheduling and the on-board experience.

In those days, I travelled a lot in what was then known as Eastern Europe. BEA generally had only 2 or 3 flights a week to most EE capitals and some were shared - e.g. PRG and BUD IIRC. This did of course allow sectors such as PRG-BUD to be booked as part of a longer BEA itinerary.

Most EE-based airlines were to be avoided where posssible with their ageing Tupolevs. Apart from PA, I often chose OS connecting in VIE with its DC-9 derivatives for a more regular service.

ISTR early DA charters on BAC One-Elevens where one's outbound meal was stored behind a flap in the back of the forward seat's headrest and the inbound in a lower flap. I don't think anybody was tempted to take both.

BEA/BA have of course improved immeasurably since those dark days, while OS has experienced a different fate as part of another organisation.

I never flew on a Comet. I came quite close once after booking a Ving package to the Algarve. The flights were scheduled to be on a DA Comet which was retired between booking and flying in favour of a 727.

Did I mention the Rombac 1-11? (No, I didn't think so. )

T8191

I just have this weird sensation that Phil The Flyer and I were plane-spotting on the roof of Queen's Building at the same time. Eeeeeek.

WHBM

Ah. This is "Seatback catering".

It was a Court Line concept. To make a range of theoretical cost savings they came up with the idea that the catering for both sectors out and home from Luton would be placed in two compartments, one above the other, in the seatback in front of you. The upper one could be opened whenever, the lower one was locked. On turnaround at the Mediterranean airport the lower one was unlocked with a special key. Both "meals" were cold, the lower one was loaded on a slug of Dry Ice to keep it (and maybe the head of the pax seated in front) refrigerated. There were no galleys on the aircraft, so a couple of extra seat rows were fitted in.

Of course, there are 1,001 things that could, and did, go wrong with this. One was that the "special key" could be substituted with a bit of fiddling with a coin, in which case the outward pax (teenaged boys apparently the worst) could eat both. Goodness, were people so starving in those days ? Spare meals were loaded for eventualities, but sometimes there were not enough.

Court Line went spectacularly bankrupt in August 1974 leaving huge numbers of holidaymakers stranded up and down the Med, but the almost-new One-Eleven aircraft were sold on quite quickly, Dan-Air picked up several, and kept Seatback Catering going on holiday charters for several years afterwards. I was surprised to still find they retained it into the 1980s.

9 November 1980 was the last Dan-Air Comet (and indeed for any carrier) commercial flight. G-BDIW for T8191 and Phil if they still have their spotting books

missdimeaner

My first flight was a British Eagle Britannia in 1965 ! I recall my mother has a photograph of us going down the stairs at Valencia, we were surprised at the photographer.....we then had a torturous journey round the mountains to Benidorm - before it got all commercial, it was still a fishing village with a couple of hotels and it had a nice little zoo as well .

Was it still London Airport then ? I loved to go to the roof of the Queens Building to watch the planes, the smell of aviation fuel - it gave me a love of flying that still remains today (MrD insists that I like the travel more than the holiday - I say it's a draw ! )

SpurMan

My very first flight was on a DA One-Eleven. To Ibiza I think. And I distinctly remember the lunch we were given was ham salad, with a penguin biscuit for dessert, which as a seven year old suited me down to the ground. Certain that was seatback catering. I thought the airline was mine too, had my name on the side after all!

BingBongBoy

Reading this. I feel so young. That is all.

Can I help you

Dan Air had seat back catering and if the lock didn't work you could get into the return meals as well.