I’m sure the road which runs along the Southern coast of the Isle of Wight was built by POW’s during the 1st World War, so there must have been camps there.

My family orginate in Bedfordshire and I was always told that many Italian POW’s stayed after WW2 and worked in the Bedford brickfields, hence a large population of Italians / Sicilians in the Bedford / Leighton Buzzard area. My mother reckons there was also an Italian POW camp between Leighton Buzzard and Hemel Hempstead but I cannot find any record of it.

Flew in one way back in 2003, LHR-Milan Linate-LHR. Slightly tatty, slightly cramped, noisy (I was sitting towards the back) but it had a bit of character. I think the seats were a very bright green fabric and I dont think there was any IFE.

I sat next to a very stroppy senior businessman type who exploded with rage when the passenger sitting in front of him reclined their seat. He was busy tapping an ‘important’ report on his laptop, which slid off the seat table and closed, losing his work! The cabin crew managed to calm him and move him to Business Class…

The landing at Linate was interesting as it was very foggy and the runway suddenly appeared through the gloom. I think a few passengers were suprised by that. The take off was also interesting for the same reason, but the view of the peaks of the Alps through the cloud later on made it worth the drama of a foggy take off.

Alitalias ground staff were typically chaotic but quite endearing too.

Cant say I’ve ever flown in a terrible aircraft ever, but memorable flights include:-

ATL Carvair, BAF, Southend – Ostend 1973, brilliant, smoky, rattly!

Airspeed Ambassador, Dan-Air Gatwick – Ostend 1968, as above

Bac 1-11, Court Line Luton – Palma 1972, right at the back, brilliant noise on take off

Jetstream 31, Netherlines, Luton – Schipol, 1987, tripped over the mainspar on the way to my seat, idiot 🙂

Embraer 145, BA, Aberdeen – Birmingham, 2003, like a little jet fighter on take off, pefect flight over a snowy landscape

Boeing 757, Icelandair, Heathrow -Keflavik, 2003, landing on snow

Not so good:-

Airbus A340, Heathrow – Hong Kong, slow, droning, bit tatty

Boeing 737, (unknown airline) Aswan – Abu Simel 1994, no interior apart from seats, cabin crew was also 1st officer, interesting

Returned to Luton from AMS last November and the flight was ‘selected’ to try out the full body scanner, which I imagine was on trial. Really nothing much to it, cabin baggage went through the x-ray machine as normal and my laptop was removed and inspected.

The thing that took the time was having to explain to passengers how to stand in the scanner (face front, arms raised) this slowed down the process to such an extent that when I boarded the plane the crew asked were the passengers were!

I fly regularly on CX, usually LHR-HKG-TPE in economy and have used the new seats in their 747’s. I think the comfort issue depends how tall you are, I’m short and find the seats OK, but some of my colleagues are over 6′ tall and cant stand the seats! The trick (for me at least) is not to recline / slide the seats too much, approx half their travel works for me – then put the CX pillow at the base of my spine, adjust the headrest supports in and sleep! 🙂

As for overall comfort I think CX is OK, I suffered EVA once – never again is all I can say! I’m hoping to use Singapore Airlines next time as that will be an interesting comparison with CX.

And also, when I last flew from T3 back in October to YYZ on Air Canada, there was only one lot of toilets, so make sure you leave enough time as when I went there was quite a long queue…even for the Mens, which would mean the womens will probably be even longer!

And the toilets are well hidden too, right at the very far end of the Terminal!

Evening,

i am flying Virgin Atlantic to ERW in December, i was on the BAA website looking at shops and it seems T3 doesn’t have many restaurants, can anybody clarify this?

Also im flying premium economy, any hints on getting upgraded upto Upper class?

The Virgin check-in is the best of a bad bunch in T3 and has its own, dedicated area. I use Cathay alot on my travels and although their desks are OK, Virgins is palatial in comparison. The Terminal has low ceilings and is always busy and just the right side of chaos.

Security is often slow too, it took me 10 minutes to get through a few weeks back but took a colleague 1 hour on the same day. Airside theres the usual shops, a large duty free, WH Smiths, Dixons etc, plus, if you go deeper into the terminal, some higher class shops if thats your thing.

Seating wise the central area is cramped but if you go further in youll find some quieter places to chill out. There is one bar (good selection of beers etc) plus the usual food outlets. Note theres no Burger King, Maccy D’s airside.

As for upgrades I would guess you have two choices, pay or fly on Virgin alot and get on their frequent flyer programme.

Good luck and enjoy! 🙂

Its good to know my former employers are keeping up their reputation for customer service. Glad you found out the answer to your question 🙂