Originally Posted by LondonAndy (Post 25047618)

That's a very strong assertion without any statistics :eek:

I believe that, in real terms, long haul premium air travel is cheaper now than it was previously.

There is some evidence that airfares have fallen by 50% between 1978 and 2013.

There's another article suggesting that the fare LON - NYC has fallen from $6,300 in the 1950s to $1,100 today (in today's money).

Have you any evidence to the contrary ;)

Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave (Post 25047506)

Ah the rose tinted spectacles!

Yes well the domestic T1 lounge was a great thing when I first started to use it, and the evidence of those chocolate covered flapjacks is still lies between me and the keyboard. I was a daily commuter for a few years and at the time I thought the Terrace lounges were great, and LGW had even better lounges!

But it was sometimes very hot in there, standing room only downstair, and often crowded upstairs too. Delays were endemic, making a poor quality travel experience, or so it seemed to me. Limited food, poor quality coffee, few powerpoints, very weak connectivity (reduced to using the Rabbit system installed over WH Smith for a few years).

To go from that to Flounge / CCR for the same NCL/EDI flights was a huge, overwhelming step up from my perspective. Hot food all day long, plenty of it, vast range of seats, decent coffee, lots more soft drinks, power points (I know we moan but T1 wasn't good), space, wifi and computers that vaguely work, the list goes on.

What people seem to forget is the massive influx of status passengers. In the old days I was typically the only status passenger to NCL, maybe another silver or Gold, that never happens now. EDI was always more status rich, but it's not unusual to have half the aircraft with status. The old lounges would never have coped with that.

The only big thing retrograde is the bathrooms, with the individual cabins rather than the more traditional mass use set-up in T1. I can see they wanted to improve the privacy but I don't think it worked, at least for the male gender.

Originally Posted by Zalmistinks (Post 25046483)

Nonsense, your completely wrong,

Originally Posted by HIDDY (Post 25048257)

Well you're not the first person to say that to me...no doubt you won't be the last.

I can only give an opinion on the merits of the T4 CCR over the T5 CCR on one visit to each and my impression was the T5 CCR was far and away superior to the T4 facility in terms of ambience, service and offerings.
You have to remember the dining room in the T4 CCR wasn't open to everyone and was only open at certain times of the day. Even then entry was strictly monitored and you had to have a voucher to get in.

Also worth noting....when looking through older threads on the T4 CCR you will find scathing posts about the facility back then especially regarding the quality of food and service even from the same people who complain about the T5 CCR today....seems unlike lounges some people will never change.

Originally Posted by Land-of-Miles (Post 25047647)

Late 1990's to now is the comparison point though and that would be interesting given the effective monopoly of 3 airlines groupings across the Atlantic.

The showers in all of the lounges (including the current T3 lounges) are better than those in T5. The T5 showers are cheaply designed, installed and maintained. The previous T1 and T4 arrivals lounge showers were a quantum leap better than the current offering even if sometimes you have a short wait. The MB Spa showers in T4 were also significantly better than the current offering. I think even the CCR in T4 was better than what we have right now. Certainly the furnishing was of higher quality and better maintained.

Originally Posted by henkybaby (Post 25048524)

Posted it before, but in a thread that was not that well frequented, so maybe I can please some (most likely not all).

Even though from the Daily Fail, some may find this article on how flying on BA changed since the Eighties interesting: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/tr...-Eighties.html

Originally Posted by Zalmistinks (Post 25046483)

Nonsense, your completely wrong, premium and economy air travel is now more expensive than in the past two decades. Also, I recall that BA has had flat seats since seats the 90's.

Originally Posted by BAAZ (Post 25048701)

cheap fares (remember the £199 returns to New York?)

Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave (Post 25048731)

You can still get return fares to JFK for £380, and indeed there are WT returns for £260 out there, which is massively cheaper in real terms.

Originally Posted by BAAZ (Post 25048809)

London to New York for £260 return in 2015? Wow. That is good value.

Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave (Post 25048821)

OK, it's the 3 Norwegian airports - LHR - JFK and back for that. Can also be something like SVG-LHR-JFK-YYZ-LHR-SVG. Not exactly a TP earner these days, but a lot of flying for very little money.