Old LHR T2
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Old LHR T2
*New* LHR T2 wins awards. *Old* T2 departures check-in desks and customs used to resemble a multi-storey car park in which a line of desks and an office or two had been hastily assembled. But they were the friendliest terminal.
I used to wear my little gold-plated Swissair lapel badge, and it would be Hello Mr justapax, Zurich as usual? and she'd be typing in my details even before I put my passport, airline ticket (remember those?) and MCOs on the counter. And where are we through to today? Teheran again?
They of course knew my first name and I knew theirs, but with Swissair it was always surnames. So no other pax were thinking I was getting special treatment.
(Same on the flight, although if there was an upgrade I got it, and they knew that I took the Economist and the Corriere del Ticino. All Swissair CC were fluent in German, French and English, so I made them speak Italian, Switzerland's third language.)
On the flight back in, at Customs I'd have my Carnet ready, and it was never a question of opening every flight case and showing the part number and serial number of every item. Again, surnames, for the same reason as on departure. But they'd ask me to open one flight case and read off the serial number (they never checked themselves) and sign off the rest. I'd be through in minutes. At Bombay it once took me ten hours.
New LHR T2 may be a lot cleaner, the architecture less brutalist, and the ceiling less prone to leaking when it rains. But it's just not as friendly.
I used to wear my little gold-plated Swissair lapel badge, and it would be Hello Mr justapax, Zurich as usual? and she'd be typing in my details even before I put my passport, airline ticket (remember those?) and MCOs on the counter. And where are we through to today? Teheran again?
They of course knew my first name and I knew theirs, but with Swissair it was always surnames. So no other pax were thinking I was getting special treatment.
(Same on the flight, although if there was an upgrade I got it, and they knew that I took the Economist and the Corriere del Ticino. All Swissair CC were fluent in German, French and English, so I made them speak Italian, Switzerland's third language.)
On the flight back in, at Customs I'd have my Carnet ready, and it was never a question of opening every flight case and showing the part number and serial number of every item. Again, surnames, for the same reason as on departure. But they'd ask me to open one flight case and read off the serial number (they never checked themselves) and sign off the rest. I'd be through in minutes. At Bombay it once took me ten hours.
New LHR T2 may be a lot cleaner, the architecture less brutalist, and the ceiling less prone to leaking when it rains. But it's just not as friendly.
Joined: Jan 2008
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From: Australia
*New* LHR T2 wins awards. *Old* T2 departures check-in desks and customs used to resemble a multi-storey car park in which a line of desks and an office or two had been hastily assembled. But they were the friendliest terminal.
I used to wear my little gold-plated Swissair lapel badge, and it would be Hello Mr justapax, Zurich as usual? and she'd be typing in my details even before I put my passport, airline ticket (remember those?) and MCOs on the counter. And where are we through to today? Teheran again?
They of course knew my first name and I knew theirs, but with Swissair it was always surnames. So no other pax were thinking I was getting special treatment.
(Same on the flight, although if there was an upgrade I got it, and they knew that I took the Economist and the Corriere del Ticino. All Swissair CC were fluent in German, French and English, so I made them speak Italian, Switzerland's third language.)
On the flight back in, at Customs I'd have my Carnet ready, and it was never a question of opening every flight case and showing the part number and serial number of every item. Again, surnames, for the same reason as on departure. But they'd ask me to open one flight case and read off the serial number (they never checked themselves) and sign off the rest. I'd be through in minutes. At Bombay it once took me ten hours.
New LHR T2 may be a lot cleaner, the architecture less brutalist, and the ceiling less prone to leaking when it rains. But it's just not as friendly.
I used to wear my little gold-plated Swissair lapel badge, and it would be Hello Mr justapax, Zurich as usual? and she'd be typing in my details even before I put my passport, airline ticket (remember those?) and MCOs on the counter. And where are we through to today? Teheran again?
They of course knew my first name and I knew theirs, but with Swissair it was always surnames. So no other pax were thinking I was getting special treatment.
(Same on the flight, although if there was an upgrade I got it, and they knew that I took the Economist and the Corriere del Ticino. All Swissair CC were fluent in German, French and English, so I made them speak Italian, Switzerland's third language.)
On the flight back in, at Customs I'd have my Carnet ready, and it was never a question of opening every flight case and showing the part number and serial number of every item. Again, surnames, for the same reason as on departure. But they'd ask me to open one flight case and read off the serial number (they never checked themselves) and sign off the rest. I'd be through in minutes. At Bombay it once took me ten hours.
New LHR T2 may be a lot cleaner, the architecture less brutalist, and the ceiling less prone to leaking when it rains. But it's just not as friendly.
Gnome de PPRuNe
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From: Too close to Croydon for comfort
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I'm thinking more of the 1980s, when there wasn't GSM text messaging, you had to find a phone and put your tenpence in to make a call to Pink Elephant. You got a receipt so the beancounters could tell that you were being frugal with your employer's money.
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From: Darkest Lincs
I used to use Pink Elephant. They don't do pick-up/drop-off any more, there's a shuttle bus. So no extra miles on the odometer. Anyway, I use public transport these days.
I'm thinking more of the 1980s, when there wasn't GSM text messaging, you had to find a phone and put your tenpence in to make a call to Pink Elephant. You got a receipt so the beancounters could tell that you were being frugal with your employer's money.
I'm thinking more of the 1980s, when there wasn't GSM text messaging, you had to find a phone and put your tenpence in to make a call to Pink Elephant. You got a receipt so the beancounters could tell that you were being frugal with your employer's money.
Not quite related to T2, but anyone else have fond (!) memories waiting in the underpass at T1 for their shuttle bus to arrive ?
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From: UK and Italy
Not guilty, m'lud. In the sixties I was looking at the planes from the inside, not the outside, of those shiny aluminium tubes. My sisters (who are much older than I am) used to be seen off at Hamburg or Sheremetyevo; on those occasions I would be on the outside looking in, as I was still at schools locally, and not yet sent off to the freezing hell that was the British Preparatory School until the very late 60s. That's when I discovered the true glory of being herded around as an Unaccompanied Minor by harassed young ladies, who occasionally sent kids off to the wrong destinations, to the distress of their parents. 'The history of Unaccompanied Minors' could form the topic of an entirely new thread.
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From: Beyond the Blue Horizon
Justapax 1
You start it and I am sure it may provoke some reminisces from some of us with harassed Aunties who also did time in a Stalag ,sorry English Public school in 60/70,s if not before 😉
I recently went to another to see a good friends daughter and they have significantly improved and I must say and it bore no resemblance to my experience. Dress code more relaxed at weekends, and they had push bikes as well!!!
Cheers
Mr Mac
You start it and I am sure it may provoke some reminisces from some of us with harassed Aunties who also did time in a Stalag ,sorry English Public school in 60/70,s if not before 😉
I recently went to another to see a good friends daughter and they have significantly improved and I must say and it bore no resemblance to my experience. Dress code more relaxed at weekends, and they had push bikes as well!!!
Cheers
Mr Mac
Joined: Oct 2002
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From: London UK
Joined: Nov 2009
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From: UK
Just a minor story but when the original QE2 building was built and it was just the second terminal, my father was in charge of the Customs & Excise teams in the terminal (mid 60's at a guess).
In the days of exchange controls, he had the pleasure of arresting Lord Snowden for smuggling Hasselblad cameras into the UK - basically the guy went out with a crate of old wrecked ones for a photoshoot and then tried coming back in, with a crate full of nice shiny new ones, pretending they were the same ones he took out.
Snowden was doubly unlucky as my father happened to be one of the inspectors who were there for both incoming and outgoing activities, so he knew the difference.
Upon being arrested, Lord Snowden tried the 'Do you know who I am ?' game to which my father said he replied 'Of course, but for the next hour you will be in the police lockup with all the other criminals'.
Two hours later he was told to release the guy but not his cameras.
In the days of exchange controls, he had the pleasure of arresting Lord Snowden for smuggling Hasselblad cameras into the UK - basically the guy went out with a crate of old wrecked ones for a photoshoot and then tried coming back in, with a crate full of nice shiny new ones, pretending they were the same ones he took out.
Snowden was doubly unlucky as my father happened to be one of the inspectors who were there for both incoming and outgoing activities, so he knew the difference.
Upon being arrested, Lord Snowden tried the 'Do you know who I am ?' game to which my father said he replied 'Of course, but for the next hour you will be in the police lockup with all the other criminals'.
Two hours later he was told to release the guy but not his cameras.
