Mods cheerfully allowing this to morph, a bit. Deep joy, keep it going to ,maybe, the " Best Crew Party of All Time " ? Then it'll be moved to Jetblast. Meantime, I offer that Legacy carriers wrote the book. Best mate failed Hamble Selection in 1964. He pursued the matter with every improvement he made in his CV but was informed that the selection decision was final. Still pleading for another go, dear old AH Abbott finally informed him that he had failed to display "All of the qualities, in sufficient strength, that we are obliged to seek in a potential BOAC Captain". Matey wrote back saying that he was interested only in a BOAC VC10 Second Officer position so that others could fly him from one room party to another. Abbott never wrote back.