The good old days......
 

My brother and other half arrived in Paris this evening from Edinburgh on BA.

They are due to fly out later on Air France First to Tokyo.

He's just informed me that there was a limo waiting at the aircraft to take them to the AF lounge.

It made me think what great or more flash things do you miss from BA?

Concorde. Premium quality food and drink..in premium cabins.. Experinced crew.
Catering in y that isn’t a sandwich / bob leg room / seat pitch on short haul.

The late 1970s. An airline that was the laughing stock of the world. Whose initials were said to stand for Bloody Awful, which was not far from the truth. Smoking sections. Economy tickets that cost more in real terms than business class tickets cost now. Ah yes, nostalgia ain't what it used to be.

Moira...a Glaswegian stewardess.

TBH Considering the systemic lack of professionalism that the AF447 disaster exposed, I'd rather fly BA Y.

Free suitcases, free food, free seat selection; all on a 65 GBP one way ticket LHR-ATH in 2009! Good luck with that now; even allowing for inflation!

Great service - with genuine smiles from happy staff - when you were treated as a customer - regardless of turning left or right!

The cottage pie

I miss the VC10, but then what I am really missing is the sense of adventure that flying used to offer!

Krug Clos du Mesnil

The Cheese Toastie (only the Nuclear heated version).

Globalist

When the DYKWIA thread used to be about DYKWIA, I miss that.

The Viscount £2 ten shillings round trip MAN-LHR. My late Father walking with me to the gate, no security or questions asked.

Good hostesses

Upgrades at the gate in Lusaka and Harare coz we chatted up the girls at security and the gate!

I'm sure if Flyertalk had been around back then, there would have been a small army of BA apologists defending every last bit of it.

1. Breakfast before landing at LHR and then another same breakfast on my next flight to EDI/GLA/ABZ.
2. Taking more than 100ml of liquid through security.
3. Security that were easy to clear.

What I DO not miss is transfering between T3 and T5.

It is known as Bloody awful now amongst y flyers on short haul with no status.

- 2 checked bags without having to pay extra- thus meaning that i would never take a cabin bag to put all my heavy things in it so i can be under 23kg with shopping in Long haul trips.
- Buying an economy long haul ticket and being given enough avios with it to warrant only going on BA.
- Being able to use search engines properly for flights because there was no such thing as Basic economy on long haul (and prices were cheaper then than they are now).
- Not caring about getting on the plane first because worrying about having my cabin bag with me gives me anxiety
- Food on SH proper food.
- Toothbrushes so i dont have to bring my own on long hauls
- being ignorant about the blankets and not knowing that they dont change them from person to person.

Just because something is cheap does not make it good!

Round the World Ticket for £965 in Y which included seat selection, free suitcases, ample drinks and food throughout and the following flights - Aberdeen - London Heathrow - Hong Kong - Alice Springs - Adelaide - Melbourne - rail travel between Melbourne - Sydney - Brisbane - flights from Brisbane - Auckland - drive through New Zealand - flights from Christchurch - Auckland - Fiji - Los Angeles - London Heathrow - Aberdden. All in 2001.

Slightly scary as it is to count the early 2000s as the "good old days", I'd add the arrivals lounge in LHR T4 with proper showers in nice spacious wood-veneered shower cabins (and never having to wait for a shower either). Oh, and enough meals loaded in J and F that everyone had a proper choice.

There is nothing to miss about the good old days, especially in premium cabins. I'd rather take a flat bed than better food/drinks with a cradle seat for twice the price. In general, I certainly do not miss the prices and the fact that air travel was reserved for a lucky few.

The wicker seats and hat racks on the H.P. O/400.
The joint of beef carved at your seat on the H.P. 42.
The big windows on the Vickers Viscount.
Aircraft Captains with rows of medal ribbons.
Smartly dressed passengers.

:)

Being escorted to the gate by security at LHR to take the shuttle to GLA

Had my kilt with me and naturally my skean dhu.

The bag had to go in the hold, check-in, at the time, was at the gate... so security had to accompany me to ensure I send my bag in the hold.

3 G&T's between LHR and GLA .

LGW-FRA on a BCAL BAC-1-11. Entranced by the lovely CC in their tartan skirts. Brought back to earth by a Flight Engineer drinking champaign out of a bottle:D

The BMI ffp.

BCal "girls".

Nikki especially..................

Concorde LHR-JFK for:- £604.50.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...d97bf794c.jpeg

757 shuttles MAN-LHR
British Airways Helicopters
The printed timetable

Actually yes and very suited to serving on an airplane.

What year were the first "enhancements" instituted?
2014?
Any year before that might be considered the good old days...

I used to like going into the BA Travel Shops and pick up brochures and look at the models! (I got my hands on lots of stuff when the Glasgow shop shut down) ;)

Books of 'tear off' corporate shuttle tickets, sometimes with no name!

Inflatable 747 swimming pool toy

Dd the slides detach to act as life rafts?

This word has been part of the forum’s lexicon for as long as I can remember, going back before I joined FT

and the totally normal smell of vomit from those the ride regularly made ill.

Well, a lot of airlines fit that description (well, other than the initials). Everyone had smoking sections back then and I certainly am glad they are long gone.

2007 when i was 17 and i had my very first CE flight. If i remember correct the plane had a short of proper CE seats or at least they looked quite spacious. I was sitting in the last row and they had both food choices. The 'love' did not last long as i got downgraded to Economy on my return flight. Flight overbooked. It took them 9 months to give me the compensation after repeated calls and emails.
Oh and i remember they gave me a 20£ voucher that i could only use it via the phone and when i used it i had to actually POST it back. So i had to buy a stamp envelop etc. Dreadful experience. After that i became a Gold with Star and i tried to avoid BA.

I'm glad that a lot of the stuff from "the good old days" has gone. The golden hue of distorted selective memory is an ever-present danger. BA may not be at its best right now, but it's still a hell of a lot better than it used to be, within living memory. It's a fallacy to think that the airline has completely gone to the dogs, as seems to be the prevailing groupthink here. I think we'd all agree that we'd like it to be better than it is now, but it could be much, much worse.

In fairness to BA, and it now being 2019, AA still require you to post vouchers to them. Unfortunately this is the case, and it becomes a bit of a regular activity, considering they hand them out like candy.