Nostalgia corner – 40 years of BA First Class and Life at Heathrow in 1964

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• Save East Coast Rewards says:

  11 Nov11 November 04:02

  It’s not the first time you’ve published this filler piece but I’m glad you’ve done so, the video of early Heathrow is great so it’s nice to give it a wider audience.

  Any idea when did people stop referring to Heathrow as ‘London Airport’?

  Funny that the Daily Mail article from 2014 said BA First passengers expected WiFi when in 2014 no BA aircraft had WiFi and very few do even to this day. The picture from 1989 is amusing – looks like a funeral parlour. Perhaps that’s what they’re trying to recreate in the CCR now!

  • Paul says:

    11 Nov11 November 06:43

    Have to disagree it was never a funeral parlour it really was a stunningly comfortable and very exclusive environment and the service was exceptional. The crew were highly trained and BA industry leaders. No longer sadly

    • dicksbits says:

      11 Nov11 November 17:06

      …and the price was equivalent to abut 4-6 times more than you would pay today.

  • Peter K says:

    11 Nov11 November 12:04

    First time I’ve bothered to watch it however. Things certainly are different now!

• Paul says:

  11 Nov11 November 06:41

  I remember those 2×2 seat and the video unit with tapes. At the time it was state of the art, very comfortable and the epitome of style. The seats however were never purple they were dark blue and BA boasted that the changed the carpet every 12weeks. It was fine dining with Chateux Talbot regulars on the wine list and the crew could make cocktails.
  Today’s first may be more technologically advanced by it has little style or panache. And fine dining it is not!

  • Catalan says:

    11 Nov11 November 09:19

    I would totally agree with you Paul!

• Kerry Kenton-clarke says:

  11 Nov11 November 06:53

  Thanks for these links Rob – brought back memories! I’m of an age where I can not only remember the Heathrow of the mid-to-late sixties, but also BOAC’s first class on trans-Atlantic flights to the USA and Caribbean. Back then flying was definitely glamorous and even economy travel was tolerable!

  • Rob Brown says:

    11 Nov11 November 07:56

    Tolerable but unobtainable to most people.

• bigglesgirl says:

  11 Nov11 November 08:15

  I watched some fantastic 15min short films on the well hidden BA TV channel when I last flew a few week ago….well worth watching

• bigglesgirl says:

  11 Nov11 November 08:16

  I watched some fantastic 15min short films on the well hidden BA TV channel when I last flew a few week ago….well worth watching and so interesting too.

• Mark says:

  11 Nov11 November 08:16

  “In a few years time, it wont be able to cope with the number of flights”…..so remind me, what’s been done in the past 53 years to increase capacity…The world really hasnt moved on in the last 50 years!

  Vote Boris Island!!!

  • W says:

    11 Nov11 November 09:27

    Not many votes in that. NIMBY reality.

    • W says:

      11 Nov11 November 09:28

      And anything costed or said by Boris doesn’t really need to be taken seriously let’s face it.

• W says:

  11 Nov11 November 09:30

  More interested in the slides from the Travel Fraud conference.

• Aleksey Solzhenitsyn says:

  11 Nov11 November 10:00

  Moved on?

  Stagnated and even regressed in some ways are the terms I think you are reaching for.

  Trained nurses and full-scale nurseries to look after the children? As an added bonus, the nurses weren’t obese either. Fresh food made by people, not machines and sprayed with nitrates to make it last for months in cold storage. No necessity for invasive security measures or paramilitary police. Peaked caps and sharp cotton uniforms instead of polyester fleeces and high-vis.

  My my, “progress” in action. How things have changed.

  • Colin MacKinnon says:

    11 Nov11 November 10:09

    Not the same security, but:

    There was always a chance of a surprise visit by the PLO, or a holiday in Cuba, or even someone wanting to claim on their wife’s life insurance!

    That was the reality, but so was the lack of relatively useless knee-jerk reactions which are an inevitable part of today’s culture.

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