First flight

[johnh]

I got bumped up to first class on a British Caledonian flight from Gatwick to Houston in Texas. You will not be surprised to know that it is 'the only way to travel' Had to fly back by economy though.

[mapperleywhite]

Fairly sure it was August 1966 when we flew from Heathrow to Zurich on a Swissair Caravelle. It arrived early in the morning and we took the train to Seefeld in Austria. Innsbruck airport, being surrounded by mountains, was deemed too dangerous for night time landings.

When living in Houston I was given a flying lesson as a birthday present. I took my kids up with me and my then wife commented afterwards that the take-off didn't look very good, to which they replied 'Yeah that's cos dad was flying the plane!' We flew at 4000 ft for about 20 minutes and took some fabulous photos of downtown. I let the instructor do the landing......

A memorable flight was again with Swissair Birmingham to Bombay (as it was in 1986) via Zurich. My company stumped up for first class and the onboard service was truly outstanding. I chatted a bit to the Swiss guy next to me in French and about an hour out of Bombay he told me 'I have a gun and I'm the aircraft security guard'.

First flight after 9/11? September 12th! East Midlands to Amsterdam; the crew make some humourous asides during the announcements trying to offset the obvious tension on board. I'm fairly sure we crossed the North Sea at about 12,000 feet, certainly below the cloud ceiling. Made me wonder what was going on above the clouds.....

I was very fortunate that, during much of my career, the companies I worked for permitted travel in business class, typically for journeys longer than four hours, and yes, as others have said, once you've tried it it's hard to make that right turn when you board.

When we moved as a family from France to the US we did the transatlantic sector in business class which the kids thoroughly enjoyed. A few years later, when living in Germany, I booked us a package holiday to Turkey and the first thing my son asked me was 'will we be flying in business dad?' What had I started

Also remember one time I was travelling back to Heathrow from Cleveland OH on Continental and, out of the blue, got bumped from business to first. I'd had to return to the UK unexpectedly as my mother had died.

[NottinghamWhite]

1st September 2001 flying from Cape Town to Heathrow flying over the Kalahari Desert there’s an announcement from the captain who I lie not was called John Smith asking for the head steward to report to him on the bridge. Sue & I looked at each other wondering what was going on. The senior steward appeared from the flight deck & called his team to him. The stewards were placed at various parts of cattle class. The captain then came back on the tannoy to announce that there had been a game of football that has just finished & the score is Germany 1 England 5, stewards empty those trollies & let’s celebrate. After 5 minutes the chant of England, England, England went up & the celebrations began at 32000 feet.

[janecky]

Helsinki-Amsterdam-Houston-Mexico City, May 1986
Flew to World Cup as a freelance writer

[Saxon]

My first flight I think I was 15 years old.I was in the Army cadets, a few of us were invited to fly with some RAF regulars, I think it was out of Topcliffe, North Yorkshire.
Planes were 2 seater Chipmonks, small observation/training aircraft. We were kitted out with parachutes, and went through all the drills if we needed to use them. The pilot who took me up kept it fairly straightforward, but some of the other boys got the full treatment of aerobatics.

[ChilwellWhite]

It’s funny how we all take flying for granted, my parents never flew anywhere in fact the only overseas holiday they had was a coach trip to the Isle of Wight. With Covid-19 it does make me wonder if people will still travel ?

[johnh]

It’s funny how we all take flying for granted, my parents never flew anywhere in fact the only overseas holiday they had was a coach trip to the Isle of Wight. With Covid-19 it does make me wonder if people will still travel ?

When my Grandad was 20 years old, there was no such thing as an aeroplane.