A view of the new bar in the First Lounge in Terminal 5 at London’s Heathrow Airport. The Lounge is accessed via a dedicated wing of the terminal
You shouldn’t feel nostalgic for the gilded jet set era when air travel was supposedly more romantic, says Darius Sanai. In truth we have never had it better – and if you’re a Gold card holder of British Airways, based in London, you are in one of the most privileged positions of all
Do you feel a pang of nostalgia when you look at ads and videos from the early decades of jet travel? Superbly turned out 1950s and 60s stewardesses (always stewardesses) fussing over relaxed passengers wearing their Sunday best for the flight?
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Don’t get too nostalgic. Jet travel then was loud, less comfortable, less reliable, and less efficient. The lounges were nothing like what we have today, there was no such thing as a flat bed, and in-flight entertainment was a communal movie when it worked.
And the service? Well, that can be pretty impressive today also.
The British Airways Concorde Lounge, part of the First Wing at Heathrow’s T5
Take my recent experience on British Airways, an airline some on travel forums love to hate, from London to India recently. Before I go any further I know some readers are thinking “luxury magazine editor being positive about an airline – must be a free trip and hoping for another”. For the avoidance of doubt, this trip was fully paid for by me. I haven’t had a free trip from British Airways in my life, and I haven’t even asked the airline for an upgrade since 2011 (premium economy to business, to Montreal). My entire BA experience, as a Gold member, the highest regular tier, has been paid for over the years by me, Condé Nast and LUX, the companies I work for as an Editor-in-Chief.
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Back to the journey. People rightly wax lyrical about the convenience of airports like Zürich, Hong Kong International and Singapore Changi. And they are all excellent. But none of them offers the service of the British Airways First Wing at Heathrow. Jump on the Heathrow Express, 20 minutes later walk into the terminal and through the dedicated First entrance and security and straight into the British Airways First lounge. There could be chaos in the rest of the terminal, and sometimes there is, but you wouldn’t notice. It takes, on average, 50 minutes from my office in Mayfair to my seat in the Lounge, and it’s frictionless. Pretty good.
The British Airways First cabin, an upgrade from luxury air travel of previous eras
So far so normal for any British Airways Gold card holder.
The next part, though, is quite exceptional. As I was passing through the dedicated security, the lady from British Airways (you’ll find out her name later) wished me a happy trip to Mumbai and asked (as airline staff have to) to check my visa.
This was all in order, and I went through the barrier, but then she came back to me and asked if I had a printout because in her personal experience it can sometimes be challenging otherwise at the other end, even though a confirmation email is technically all you need.
I hadn’t thought to print it out, I said. Caroline said she strongly recommended it. Once I got to the Lounge, just a few metres away in the First Wing, and was relaxing with my preflight glass of champagne (a very nice De Castellane rosé) she popped up and guided me on my phone through the rather complicated process on the Indian visa system website, of turning the visa confirmation into a PDF that could then be printed.
The Club World cabin offers essential comfort for business travellers on long haul and overnight flights
She then emailed it to her own office and disappeared behind the scenes at the First lounge, emerging triumphantly with the printout around 10 minutes later. Like a member of a particularly indulgent royal family, I hadn’t moved at all except to visit the food area for some nori seaweed, miso soup, bulghur salad and slaw.
And on that point: British Airways first has evidently been listening to feedback because there is now a superb array of healthy, vegan, lactose free and other options rather than just the previous hot food buffet.
At this stage, after my third glass of champagne, I wasn’t feeling particularly worried about having the printout of the visa but thanked her nonetheless and wandered off to the plane.
‘A Heathrow First experience and Club World overnight leagues ahead of what our forebears would have had’
After a good night’s sleep in the new British Airways Club world configuration, we started our descent towards Mumbai. The new beds are better in every way than the previous configuration which had the irritation of forward and backward facing seats next to each other, so you would spend the first and last 15 minutes of your flight staring slightly uncomfortably into the face of your neighbour before one of you summoned up the nerve to pull the screen shut or press a button to raise it. Although the new configuration is slightly less romantic if you are in a window seat as you don’t quite have the same sense of being cut off from the rest of the plane, with two windows to yourself. Oh well.
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Anyway, after landing in Mumbai, mind focused by coffee and the tropical heat outside, I wondered if Caroline‘s efforts would be proven to be an overabundance of caution. The experience of the traveler in front of me proved otherwise. I listened carefully to the interchange with the passport control man. Where are you coming from? London. Do you have a visa? Yes, here’s the email (shows him phone). But did he have a printout? No, it didn’t ask for a printout. Oh. That’s a problem.
The poor traveller was sent back, past the back of the queue, out of sight towards the plane to deal with what sounded like a vague but slumbering Indian bureaucracy – added to which, it was a Sunday morning. I never saw that traveller again; even after a 20 minute wait for baggage. Who knows if he was even allowed in.
‘The new beds are better in every way than the previous configuration’
My own entry was extremely smooth. Passport, visa email, and, in my hand, visa printout. Thank you to Caroline for providing the same level of service as in our nostalgic collective memory from the 1960s – and British Airways for providing a Heathrow First experience and Club World overnight leagues ahead of what our forebears would have had, with their upright seats.
That may sound trivial to some, but for international business travellers it is extremely important; sleeping in an upright chair is not anything any of us would try at home, yet that is what you would have to do in the Golden Age of air travel. I don’t think they had miso soup, wakame seaweed and bulgur salad either – those roast trolleys being trundled down the first class aisles in the old pictures look fun, but think about it, do you really want to be eating roast lamb and roast potatoes on a long haul flight?
My uncle was a senior executive at BOAC, the international precursor to BA (the one with the cool bags) in the jet-set heyday of the 1960s and 70s. I can think of all kinds of ways his quality of life was better than mine in general, starting with not having to check his phone 24/7, and being safe in the knowledge that his fun times on international trips would never be recorded for social media.
When he retired, he was given free First Class travel on the nascent British Airways for life. But, when he flew to Hong Kong or Mumbai, as he frequently did, he spent his overnights in an upright chair (with a bit of recline), in his suit. And when he checked in at Heathrow (Terminal 3 for intercontinental departures back then), he’d stand in line alongside the other check in booths, and go through the main security lines like anyone else, and then work his way, airside, to a much less extensive lounge, with beef and gravy and sausages available.
The bar at the British Airways First Lounge has an excellent rosé champagne available for free pour, made by the owners of Laurent-Perrier. although LUX searched without reward for a fine white Burgundy
I have written before in GQ about the slight contradiction of British Airways economy class, and short haul business class, not delivering what the airline’s brand in the First lounge promises in terms of seats and comfort. And that, conversely, the Gold Card holder’s experience is even better in many ways than flying private. You can read that article here, but only after finishing this one.
The economy class experience is unlikely to change given the competition in those sectors. And it’s a shame that their previously superb wine selection has been cost-cut (with the exception of the champagnes), although BA is not unique in this. At Qatar Airways (cited by many as the world’s best) flagship Al Safwa First lounge in Doha, the wines are a shadow of their former selves just 10 years ago. Airlines know that business class travellers will tolerate pub-level sauvignon blanc, it appears, which is a little cynical: a decent white Burgundy adds a touch of class that no gooseberry-and-kiwi Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc could dream of.
But all in all, as a Gold member living in London, flying long haul, I can certainly testify that, in the words of another famous Brit, “You’ve never had it so good”.
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Meanwhile, a previous iteration of Caroline may well have existed in the 50s and 60s: but thank goodness she does so now.
Darius Sanai has been a Gold card holder of British Airways since 2012,. He accepted no complimentary or discounted flightsor hospitality from the airline during those years or for this article
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