British European Airways - what kind of airline was it?
From a reservations point of view BEA favoured their European pool partners who were BOAC's competitors.
They were also close to PanAm and TWA.
BOAC's partners were Qantas,SAA and the other Commonwealth companies..
There was very little contact and later two very different computer systems.
In BOAC I could use staff travel on just about any airline in the world except BEA.
They were also close to PanAm and TWA.
BOAC's partners were Qantas,SAA and the other Commonwealth companies..
There was very little contact and later two very different computer systems.
In BOAC I could use staff travel on just about any airline in the world except BEA.
I was only a passenger and an airline 'brat, all my friends fathers worked for one or the other corporation.
I dont think I was making excuses or suggesting all BEAs incidents were due to the normal longhaul v shorthaul differences but some probably were. From the outside and as passenger-a real one not just all the travelling i did on fathers standby - where I usually got on as somone had goth is date of joining wrong and he had even more seniority on paper than in the real world. I had heard the story about travelling on anyone other than the 'other side' but as BEA I travelled all over the place on standby, Caribbean , Mauritius, USA Seychelles with no problem at all, even getting a ticket swapped from BEA to BOAC after getting stuck in Cyprus where oddly both corporations flew too.
However as some comments here show that feelings run deep even close to 50 years on , I had a close friend who was FO on 707s for BOAC ( I did several staff travel trips with him and his wife both BOAC) and I never heard him make a serious negative comment about BEA altho plenty of jocular ones, mostly about his theory that if you took a Trident to Nairobi it would never leave again. My wife left BEA Engineering for BOACs Speedbird London and was not at all popular with her former bosses, or her father for that matter.
PB
I dont think I was making excuses or suggesting all BEAs incidents were due to the normal longhaul v shorthaul differences but some probably were. From the outside and as passenger-a real one not just all the travelling i did on fathers standby - where I usually got on as somone had goth is date of joining wrong and he had even more seniority on paper than in the real world. I had heard the story about travelling on anyone other than the 'other side' but as BEA I travelled all over the place on standby, Caribbean , Mauritius, USA Seychelles with no problem at all, even getting a ticket swapped from BEA to BOAC after getting stuck in Cyprus where oddly both corporations flew too.
However as some comments here show that feelings run deep even close to 50 years on , I had a close friend who was FO on 707s for BOAC ( I did several staff travel trips with him and his wife both BOAC) and I never heard him make a serious negative comment about BEA altho plenty of jocular ones, mostly about his theory that if you took a Trident to Nairobi it would never leave again. My wife left BEA Engineering for BOACs Speedbird London and was not at all popular with her former bosses, or her father for that matter.
PB
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: North East UK
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BEA Number 1 in Europe
For anyone interested, Talking Pictures TV has BEA Number 1 in Europe showing on Wednesday, 23rd June 0735-0815 BST. Made in 1971 to celebrate the first 25 years of the airline. No doubt full of PR hype but should be good for a glimpse of airline operations, yes, 50 odd years ago!
