What a temptation is this thread title? And I’ve fallen for it – so here goes.
I preface the following by saying that I’m not “points scoring” here, just telling it how it was. And as I’m quite old and started this travelling thing early in life there’s a lot from which I can choose!
The best experience was London to Singapore – in 1951; departure late July by BOAC Constellation. The journey was via Rome –everyone out and into a bus with picnic and a tour of St Peter’s Square, then onto Cairo, for a nightstop in the Heliopolis Palace Hotel. Next morning another bus and en route to the airport a tour of the Sphinx and pyramids before the sector to Bahrain – the most unpleasant stop as it was for refuel and the only available accommodation for two hours was a tin Nissen hut. Then on to Karachi for the night in the Speedbird hotel, BOAC’s own guesthouse and the last two legs via a refuel in Calcutta to Singapore. You really knew you had travelled, and a lot quicker than six weeks on a liner!
The return on an Argonaut was less comfortable; a Canadian version of the DC6 with Merlins instead of “round” engines it was probably the noisiest airliner of the age!
Other “best experiences”? Two free flights to US on Concorde - courtesy of our travel agent who was BA’s “ticket consolidator”, and with whom I spent a lot of money.
But latterly, Air New Zealand gets the vote. Used them to NZ perhaps twenty times since 1983 and eight times in the last six years. Always on time, good, happy service and very good value.
I wonder who will win my award in 2022!