Just came upon this thread by chance and what a very pleasant 20 minutes I've had reading it and reminiscing!
Re 'Beatours' (Britsh Airtours) I had the misfortune to join the other 'Airtours' (from oop North) when they formed in 1991 and was sent (with others) to Long Beach to do our MD83 (what a dreadful a/c) conversion course, and, being the cheapskates they were (and I guess still are as MyTravel) sent us on a BA flight (economy class) to LAX.
Being an experienced staff traveller, I tried all the [then] usual tricks to get us (12 of us) an upgrade and had in the end to resort to the backstop (the purser) who upgraded us all to J class but only because he couldn't understand why his parent company (as he thought) had put aircrew of a sister company (British Airours) into cattle class. Most enjoyable - so whoever you were - thank you!
I Remember "norjet" and "albion" fondly - but who remembers "Northair" (that rogue Crabtree's MAN-Dounreay operation)? Ah - "I learnt about flying from that!"