Could not agree more, it was great meeting Ian back in December at LGW, and I wish him the best of luck and enjoyment on his course in Toulouse!

The only 717s the UK gets are Olympics into LGW, and very rarely AeBal on Charters.

The “big window” and the car park roof are easily accessible on foot, I have got loads of photos and registratuions fom both positions and not once been to the viewing park at the end of the field.
Manchesters viewing facilities are IMHO the best in the country, the ones at BHX are fairly obscured from both positions, and anywhere else in the UK is just a joke!

Not bad, but looks a bit like the new Northwest colours to me???

The bridge connects the North Terminal to a new North Terminal Satellite. This is in an area where there were previously hard stands for aircraft, meaning passengers had to be bussed to the terminal, now however they just need to walk over the taxiway.
From what I understand the bridge is meant to be optimised for viewing the aircraft, and was part of the initial design brief.
As A330Crazy says the 744 was positioned over to LGW as it is BA’s flagship aircraft, depsite it not actualy having operated out of LGW for about 2 years. It was all designed to get maximum publicity, which I must really congratulate BA on, as they usualy let Virgin bask in all the glory on these ocassions!!!

Change for Good is a scheme run by BA onboard. They encourage you to place any loose change you have, in any currency in the back of envelopes in the seatbacks and have raised vast amounts of money for charity over the last 10 years. Last month Roger Moore and the Queen were involved in a special ceremony celebrating this fact, and this 744 and an A319 had special logos applied.
Another brownie point for BA in using this aircraft in the publicity as well 🙂

This would suit BA as a 767 replacement very very nicely…

Does anyone else think that SARAS is not a very good name considering the similar name of the superbug that infected that approximate region fairly recently?

£40 round trip minus taxes for a flight in the states is not pretty spectacular for a LoCo, when 2p round trips minus taxes is becoming more and more commonplace over in the EU.
Yes Southwest and Jetblue are pretty revolutionary in the states, but the EU LoCos have sunk their cost bases to a new lower level considerably below what you guys consider “cheap” and despite what most industry analysts and those others involved in the industry might want, the USA could just as easily get an “Ryanair vs Easyjet” fareware taking place that would seriously lower your LoCo prices.
At the moment there is little distinction between say JetBlue and AA, except JetBlue offer in flight entertainment. Hold on! Aren’t Jetblue supposed to be the LoCo here?