Englishmum

I don't know if this advert is being shown throughout the US or just in the regions where BA flies to (New York JFK and Newark, NJ in my neck of the woods).

I love this advert "To Serve. To Fly" which is quite long at 1.30 mins and I imagine it cost a fortune to produce. It is wonderful to see Concorde and the advert makes me feel quite patriotic Does anyone else like it?

Sally Redux

I remember having a model 'BOAC' plane.

robin1234

I remember having a jigsaw - a proper wooden one - of a De Havilland Comet, in BOAC livery, flying over Victoria Falls. Those were the days, although in hindsight I wouldn't fly in a Comet.

Jerseygirl

I remember carrying my school books around in a BOAC flight bag.

Still got some of the momentoes hubby got when flying on Concorde.

Englishmum

Blimey.....I remember going on a package holiday to Ibiza approx 1979 with a bunch of friends. We were flying from Gatwick airport and had to get a bus from the departure terminal to the plane. We had a shock when the bus maneouvered around some shiny new planes and spotted an ancient looking DAN-AIR Comet and realised it was the plane we would be flying on! There was a tattered curtain between the passengers and the pilots!

I think at that time there were only 2 Comets still flying in the UK and even those were taken out of service shortly after....and DAN-AIR also went out of business too..

rpjs

I had a model Concorde in black, white and gold BOAC livery, which they never actually flew in. Looked a lot more classy than any BA livery IMO.

I also had a BOAC t-shirt from Red Molotov which sadly did not get on with American dryers.

I do like the BA advert though. OH is not so impressed, she calls it the "red squirrel" commercial as she developed a theory when living in the UK that red vs grey squirrels are a metaphor for British xenophobia.

dbj1000

My one and only DAN-AIR flight was in a Fokker Friendship.

We were taxiing away from the gate when the pilot came on the tannoy:

"Good afternoon, this is your captain. We have a lightly loaded flight today, so if I could just ask those of you seated in rows behind the wings to move forward and pick any seat forward of the wings, it would be most appreciated."

I nearly got off and walked.

GeoffM

That's not unusual on small aircraft even these days. I had it most recently on a very lightly loaded New Orleans to Orlando flight.

Sarah

I wish they hadn't done away with Concorde, when came in to land it used to make all the glassware in my kitchen vibrate on the shelves. *memories*

scoobysnacx

I miss the noise at takeoff at Heathrow and the sonic booms back in Devon.

robin1234

Yes, for all our regional flights they weigh each passenger as part of the check in process and assign seats accordingly.

SultanOfSwing

I see that ad on TV here, too. Absolutely love it. BA, the DC3, VC10, Concorde and a 747 all in one 90 second video - it could only be better if they threw in a BAC-111 and a Trident as well ...

Brilliant stuff, but a sorry reminder that our children and grandchildren just won't believe us when we look back wistfully and say 'you used to be able to get from London to New York in 3 hours ...'

*sigh*

HarryTheSpider

When I lived in Bideford, N Devon, back in the good ol' days - you could near enough set your watch by those sonic booms. sigh.....

materialcontroller

As others have said already, this is still a common occurence. Although it only seems to be an issue for take off and landing. I fly fairly regularly on Bombardier Dash-8s operated by Flybe and they always announce before departure that the allocated seats must be occupied as "the aircraft is trim sensitive". The cabin crew seem quite relaxed about passengers taking other seats once the aircraft is cruising, but they insist on the allocated seats being re-occupied for landing.

As for the BA advert, I'm not that impressed. It seems a bit too pompous and overblown for my liking. And seeing as how my one and only BA flight (from Gatwick to Naples) was on a very tired and ragged looking 737, I don't think the advertised hype lives up to the reality.

SultanOfSwing

I've only ever been on full Dash-8s but I can see that happening, right enough.

I love those planes though, they really accentuate a windy landing, I remember coming into Belfast on one over the lough and it looked as if the wing was going to hit the water. Everyone must have been bricking it, but I was looking out the window loving every second of it

Seems I got lucky then, as when I flew BA on the LHR-ORD run the flight was just about perfect, apart from the bloke that fell asleep next to me and insisted on farting consistently from about Iceland onwards. Not fun.